Beethoven piano sonatas - what is your origin story?

[Karafan]

In the last few years I have turned to the Beethoven piano sonatas increasingly, and my love for them has grown.

I'd be fascinated to hear how your association with them began, whether it has waxed and waned over the years, what recordings have grown on you and which have been treasurable from your early days?

I started off with the Kempff stereo box, heard talk of his mono outing and so got those, too, and down the rabbit-hole I duly plunged.  (However, I have yet to hear, or ever see for sale, the Lucchesini cycle!).

Many boxsets and individual discs later, the depth of my passion for these has grown (Buchbinder III and Giltburg being the most recent acquisitions), but I'd really like to hear how it began for you...

[George]

I started with a love of the Moonlight sonata, which led me to the DG Originals Kempff CD of the name sonatas, then the DG Originals 2CD of him playing the late sonatas.

Ill share more later when I am at a keyboard

Nice idea for a thread!

[Cato]

In the last few years I have turned to the Beethoven piano sonatas increasingly, and my love for them has grown.

I'd be fascinated to hear how your association with them began, whether it has waxed and waned over the years, what recordings have grown on you and which have been treasurable from your early days?

I started off with the Kempff stereo box, heard talk of his mono outing and so got those, too, and down the rabbit-hole I duly plunged.  (However, I have yet to hear, or ever see for sale, the Lucchesini cycle!).

Many boxsets and individual discs later, the depth of my passion for these has grown (Buchbinder III and Giltburg being the most recent acquisitions), but I'd really like to hear how it began for you...

Greetings!

When I was in grade school in the 1950's and teaching myself music, I listened to a few of the middle sonatas with the scores (e.g. Waldstein, Appassionata).

Later in college, I read Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, wherein a marvelously spiritual description of the Opus 111 is given.

So, I went to the library and selected a LONDON recording of Wilhelm Backhaus performing the last two sonatas.

The Opus 111 entranced me, as if Thomas Mann somehow knew of my reaction and described it in his novel, and so I began going through all of the sonatas.

However, over 3 decades went past until I returned to them again, again with Backhaus in charge of the keyboard.

[San Antone]

I first came into contact with the Beethoven piano sonatas as a teenage student of piano.  I had been told by my teacher that we would first study Bach, Inventions, the the Well-Tempered Clavier, and graduating finally to Beethoven piano sonatas.  I still have the thick paperback scores.

However, I never made it to Beethoven.  The knowledge was placed in my head, something I think my teacher had said, "Bach is the Old Testament and Beethoven the New."

I am still a great fan of both.

[Leo K.]

My very first cycle was the Yves Nat cycle (on EMI) in 1989. I bought it on a whim in a mall. I bought the scores not long after that so I can follow along. Over the years I continued to listen and be amazed by this unique catalogue of pianoforte literature. I used to listen to various albums rather than cycles. It is only the last few years I have started collecting cycles. These works are only growing on me as I age. My favorite cycle right now is the Schiff cycle on ECM.

[Karafan]

I first came into contact with the Beethoven piano sonatas as a teenage student of piano.  I had been told by my teacher that we would first study Bach, Inventions, the the Well-Tempered Clavier, and graduating finally to Beethoven piano sonatas.  I still have the thick paperback scores.

However, I never made it to Beethoven.  The knowledge was placed in my head, something I think my teacher had said, "Bach is the Old Testament and Beethoven the New."

I am still a great fan of both.

your teacher was quoting Hans von Bülow, if I remember correctly. Thanks for your comments.

[Mandryka]

When I was at school I discovered Op 111 through Schnabel's EMI recording. I could tell it was special music, but never really listened to his other piano sonatas. A few years later I heard a friend playing Gilels' recording of the Pastoral sonata, and I remember thinking it was fun, and I remember my mother enjoying Schnabel's Waldstein (I never got on with her so that was enough to put me off that recording - but I was forced to hear it more often than I wanted.)

After that, it was op 2/1 by Richter, with bad sound, which caught my attention.

Over the years I've heard them all I suppose, either in concert or on record or both. The first complete set I bought was Annie Fischer's - I was disappointed by quite a lot of it - too forceful for me at the time.

[Jo498]

A prerecorded cassette tape on a cheapo label when I was about 15. It was Pathetique, Moonlight, Appassionata played by Bulgarian/French? pianist Yuri Boukoff, or at least I think it was all by him, could have been different pianists but probably a tape based on that LP, the MC looked a bit different, though, I think.



Among the first 3 CDs I bought a year or so later were Kempff's recording of op. 106 and 31/2 as well as op.111 as filler for the 5th concerto. I also taped a few more sonatas from the radio or a bit later from friend's CDs.
But I was not that fond of or interested in solo piano music in my first few years of listening to classical music, preferring orchestral and chamber music. Nevertheless I bought sonatas 16-32 in a clothbound Peters pocket score in East Berlin 1989 (a few months before the Wall fell, one had to exchange a certain amount of money and music scores and maths textbooks were basically the only thing worth purchasing in East Germany...)

So it was about 8 years later, by then ca. 1996 that I got single discs of more Beethoven sonatas, I am not even sure about all the details, one was op.10 with Goode, also the DG originals reissue of Pollini's recording of the Late sonatas.

When, probably in 1997 the almost complete Gilels DG recordings were issued in that blue box inexpensively (for that time and highly regarded recordings) I bought this. But Gilels often rather slow and always weighty interpretations was not the best choice for getting to know the (mostly early) sonatas I had not heard yet. Another 2 years later, I think, in 1998 or 99 the Gulda (Amadeo, with discs in single jewelcases, basically no notes, and each sonata as one track) was on sale even more cheaply than the Gilels had been, I snapped it up and this was revelatory in those earlyish sonatas I had found a bit boring with Gilels.
Sure, with more familiarity I could later also appreciate the more weighty Gilels interpretations.

[Todd]

Back when I got into classical music, I started in on an expanded list of the great composers, and Beethoven's music as a whole immediately clicked.  When it came to piano sonatas, I picked up a variety of single disc recordings of mixed and matched sonatas by big name pianists on major labels and liked what I heard.  My first complete cycle was John O'Conor's, and I liked that, too.  I can't remember which purchased cycle it was exactly, though it was one of the first four or five I ended up with, but I picked up and was gifted Annie Fischer's cycle in nine volumes.  It set the pace starting then. 

For a while I was content with seven or eight cycles and continued to gobble up recordings of other repertoire.  I also started frequenting online classical music fora, and I was struck by the number of different opinions as to what constituted the best cycle and best interpretations.  Obviously, there is no objective best interpretation or interpreter and cannot be, but so many posters who posted with so much (faux) authority on the matter claimed special knowledge because they had heard this or that rare cycle, while others dismissed the need to hear this or that rare cycle because they has already heard <insert ultimate interpreter name here>.  How could it be otherwise, because what is the internet if not a collection of self-appointed authorities on every subject imaginable?

I figured that since I liked the music enough that I might as well make an effort to hear, to the extent practically possible, all available cycles so that I could assess them for myself.  Then I could determine the best cycle – to my tastes.  (Recent posts on this forum demonstrate conclusively that a good number of people are literally incapable of understanding that.)  I started that lifetime project in around 2005.  I have now amassed and listened to 129 complete or meant to be complete cycles.  There's more to hear even now.  There is so much pure bullshit online about what constitutes the best cycle even now, using some non-existent, pseudo-Platonic or some other pseudo-intellectual conception of the ideal, that the only way to actually know what could be among the best is to actually listen.  Most people don't do that, of course, nor do they have to.  The interpretive possibilities are vast, and the listening rewards are, too.  I have arrived at the following irrefutable truth: it is a fact that there are innumerable valid ways* to perform the New Testament; it is an opinion that there is or can be an objectively best way.

I still happily listen to new one-off discs and individual sonatas contained in mix rep releases, but my main focus is complete cycles. 



* Strictly speaking, there are 139 valid ways as of today, August 27, 2024.  Riccardo Schwartz's approach is invalid. 

[(poco) Sforzando]

Our family's first Beethoven sonata LP was Rubinstein doing the Pathetique and Appassionata. About a year after I started piano lessons at age 11 I bought volume 1 of the Bulow-Lebert Schirmer edition, and I was stumbling ineptly through the Pathetique, finding the slow introduction in particular great fun to bang all those big heavy chords out. Since then I have bungled my way through all 32 in various degrees of incompetence. But I was a lousy piano student (or so my teacher thought) since I never wanted to practice any one piece to master it, but I wanted instead to sight-read the entire repertoire so long as I could sort of play it. I am one with EM Forster (from On Not Listening Music):

And now to end with an important point: my own performances upon the piano. These grow worse yearly, but never will I give them up. For one thing, they compel me to attend no wool-gathering or thinking myself clever here – and they drain off all non-musical matter. For another thing, they teach me a little about construction. I see what becomes of a phrase, how it is transformed or returned, sometimes bottom upward, and get some notion of the relation of keys. Playing Beethoven, as I generally do, I grow familiar with his tricks, his impatience, his sudden softnesses, his dropping of a tragic theme one semitone, his love, when tragic, for the key of C minor, and his aversion to the key of B major. This gives me a physical approach of Beethoven which cannot be gained through the slough of "appreciation." Even when people play as badly as I do, they should continue: it will help them to listen.

[DavidW]

I'd be fascinated to hear how your association with them began, whether it has waxed and waned over the years, what recordings have grown on you and which have been treasurable from your early days?

I was introduced to the piano sonatas through the Beethoven class I took in college. My introduction was through Brendel. At the time, I found them strange and off-putting. I strongly preferred Mozart and Chopin.

I didn't warm up to Beethoven's solo piano music until I revisited them in grad school with Kempff (both sets), Annie Fischer and Kovacevich.  I grew to love the music.

But, these days, I just occasionally listen to the works. If I'm in the mood for classical-era piano music, I usually reach for Haydn instead.

[George]

I didn't warm up to Beethoven's solo piano music until I revisited them in grad school with Kempff (both sets), Annie Fischer and Kovacevich.  I grew to love the music.

That's a nice mix.

Kempff - beauty/smaller scale
Annie Fischer - heart/power
Kovacevich - muscle

[George]

I started with a love of the Moonlight sonata, which led me to the DG Originals Kempff CD of the name sonatas, then the DG Originals 2CD of him playing the late sonatas.

Ill share more later when I am at a keyboard

The late sonatas took a very long time to click, but once they did, I wanted to get a complete set so I tried my local used store. They had Barenboim (DG) and Arrau (Philips.) I wasn't yet the huge Arrau fan then that I am now, and back then I went for DDD recordings so I picked up the Barenboim. I enjoyed it, but thought his playing was mannered at times. Around that time, I joined GMG and noticed the recommendations for the Gulda Amadeo set by Todd. I found the Brilliant Classics release of this set at Virgin Megastore in NYC. I loved it immediately and after one listen, I was hooked on this music. I loved how Gulda conveyed the excitement of the music in a direct, fleet style and in good sound. Since then, I have picked up many other sets, but Gulda's Amadeo set will always be among my very favorites.

[Luke]

My introduction to the 32 was a total immersion, aged about 11, in a c.700 page single volume of the whole lot which came my way. I simply played the entire series through in the evenings after school over about a week, from op 2 to op 111 in order. It must have sounded horrific to anyone who heard - an 11 year old sight-reading the Hammerklavier!  - but within my own mind it was an exhausting experience of a musical intensity I had never experienced before and was a pivotal moment in my musical development. I sat there in a darkened room, a light falling on the page so that Beethoven's notes - his thoughts, his genius - and my fumbling childish fingers on the keys trying to make sense of the incomprehensibly great was all there was in the world. It was literally awesome.

[Holden]

At the earlier stages of learning the piano, somehow I heard a recording of the moonlight, realised that I could easily play the opening movement and with work, begin to master the other two. I asked my piano teacher if I could learn it but she said no, that I should tackle other easier works first. Undaunted I began to teach myself how to play it and my parents decided to get me a recording of the piece.

Somehow they chose well and I ended up with an LP of 8/14/23 in mono by none other than Wilhelm Kempff. This also introduced me to two new sonatas and I was immediately drawn towards the Pathetique. It also got me interested in recordings and my first LP purchase was from World Record Club - Hans Richter-Haaser playing Op2/1 and 2/2 along with the Op 77 Fantasia. My collecting and playing just naturally moved on from there and I can't think of a time when I didn't have a Beethoven sonata on the go (learning new or anew).

I like this comment from (poco) Sforzando

Since then I have bungled my way through all 32 in various degrees of incompetence

as I think also describes my playing very well.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Riccardo Schwartz's approach is invalid.

For those who want to enjoy for themselves:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmNkpLsRRejxoN8y45jBuFg

I started with the exposition to 2/1, played legato and andante; got through a bit of op. 22 in six different tempos, sometimes all at once; then I listened to him struggle through the finale of 10/2 'cause it's too hard for him; and now it's taking him forever to negotiate the opening of 101 at a graceless crawl. Oh thank god it's over. Jeez, I thought my playing was bad.

[Holden]

For those who want to enjoy for themselves:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmNkpLsRRejxoN8y45jBuFg

I started with the exposition to 2/1, played legato and andante; got through a bit of op. 22 in six different tempos, sometimes all at once; then I listened to him struggle through the finale of 10/2 'cause it's too hard for him; and now it's taking him forever to negotiate the opening of 101 at a graceless crawl. Oh thank god it's over. Jeez, I thought my playing was bad.

Got to agree with you. I gave up after 5 separate movements.

[Mandryka]

Any thoughts about why he put op 109 before op 106? He uses a nice Fazzioli.

[Florestan]

Any thoughts about why he put op 109 before op 106? He uses a nice Fazzioli.

Judging by how he plays, nobody can know why he does this or that. 

[AnotherSpin]

I can't say when I first heard Beethoven's sonatas. In the USSR, decent performances of such sonatas as the Moonlight, Pathetique, and Appassionata by musicians like Richter or Gilels were played on the radio and TV almost every day. Every home had a relay radio which was on from 6 in the morning till midnight. At some point in my childhood, I began to recognize individual pieces and memorize what was playing. Or I knew in advance what would be played after the announcer's introduction. We had a relay radio in the kitchen, like many other people, and while I heated up and ate the lunch my mother had left for me, the music played from relay radio box.

After my father bought a serious radio receiver with long, medium, and shortwave bands, I started listening to serious music broadcast from other countries. In Odessa, we could receive broadcasts from Bucharest, Romania, quite well. It was there that I first heard Mahler, Richard Strauss, and other music unfamiliar in the USSR. I remember that it was also there that I first heard Beethoven's sonatas performed by Brendel. I also started listening to VOA programs with popular music then.

EPs and LPs could be bought very cheaply, though the variety was minimal. I bought my first records when I was about 12 years old, I guess, and among them was certainly Beethoven. Among the earliest strong impressions that I still remember was the Moonlight performed by Gieseking.