Giovanni Bellucci Plays Beethoven

[Todd]

[Due to the dreaded '403 Forbidden' error, this blob o' scribblin' has to be broken into multiple chunks.]





Another long gestating cycle finally wrapped up.  The first volume of Giovanni Bellucci's cycle appeared many moons ago, and then, well, then nothing.  Eventually the second volume appeared, and then nothing.  Again.  But now it's done, now it's ready to face rigorous scientific scrutiny to determine where it stands among the various options available to listeners.  Not having time for a deep dive bio, that standard bearer of wisdom and facts Wikipedia, trusted by intellectuals the world over, was consulted.  Evidently, Mr Bellucci "inadvertently discovered the piano when he was already fourteen".  (?)  A late start is no barrier to great pianism as Arcadi Volodos amply demonstrates.  He studied at Santa Cecilia Conservatory, did the competition thing, hobnobbed with various more famous pianists in some capacity, and has recorded and performed in various locales.  So far, so bland.  How's the cycle, though, as that is the only thing that matters?  Well, time for some clinical listening.

One can hear Bellucci's interventionist stylings in the opening seconds of the Allegro, as he rushes forward, only to pull back on the tempo.  Rinse and repeat.  He also throws in several blunt stops.  The tempo tweaking makes the music sound unstable.  His piano tone is thin and plinky, without satisfying heft, at least until the last chord.  The Adagio displays the same traits, just in slow motion, and it works rather better here, as Bellucci caresses out some phrases.  The Menuetto starts so slowly and haltingly that it sounds like a caricature.  The trio, too.  The Prestissimo sounds much more conventional, with ample speed and drive and crashing forte playing.  But the damage was done in this inauspicious opener.  Perhaps the goal was to create a strong impression with the opener here, because the opening Allegro vivace tempers the extreme tempo deviations a bit, though they can still be heard, as can the elongations of silences.  Largos should be slow, but Bellucci pushes to the edge of soporific Grave playing.  The Scherzo bizarrely combines accelerations in tempo and decreases in tempo to create a zippily clunky sound.  The Rondo has seemingly random tempo deviations, though some of the playing sounds nice.  For 2/3, Bellucci adopts a marginally slower than average tempo, though it falls within the first standard deviation.  For over one whole minute, quirks remain in check, then the pianist does his thing.  A couple times, the pauses make the listener wonder if they are unedited takes that demonstrate that he needs a sec to reposition his hands.  As the movement continues, it turns into a slog to listen to.  The Largoesque Adagio plods along, though at least some of the playing sounds tonally appealing, and the tolling left hand notes have nice heft.  The Scherzo here does the inverse of the prior sonata.  The Allegro assai again sounds more or less within statistically acceptable bounds much of the time, with some pronounced idiosyncrasies sprinkled throughout.  Not a strong opening trio.

[Todd]

Aside from a slightly relaxed tempo, the Allegro molto e con brio from Op 7 falls in line with various other recordings for about fifty seconds or so, and then the jiggery pokery starts.  It's not as awful as some of what came before, but it's a slog.  The Largo similarly cruises along for about the first two minutes sounding just fine, and then moves into exaggerated or sloppy everything.  Around four and a half minutes in, Bellucci does play each single note with equal emphasis and long pauses and that sounds modestly interesting.  The Allegro actually comes off well, with even the exaggerated middle section working.  The closing Rondo also comes off well, and here Bellucci creates an undulating sensation with dynamic contrasts, but it sounds artificial, like the mixing desk may have aided in the endeavor, but who knows.  The Op 49 sonatas follow.  The first is presented in a conventional manner and works nicely, and the second is much the same, though the second movement sounds a bit less lyrical than preferred versions.  The Op 14 sonatas follow.  14/1 starts with a too slow, too heavy Allegro, which also finds Bellucci accenting notes too much and distorting glissandi.  He turns the music ugly.  The Allegretto fortunately offers a respite from horrid overinterpretation, instead opting for reasonable playing mixed with unfortunate overinterpretation.  Fortunately, the Rondo keeps the worst excesses under wraps and ends the piece acceptably.  14/2 lightens things up a bit, though Bellucci can't help but inject some excess idiosyncrasy into even the opening Allegro.  It remains lyrical enough to not engender a begrudging feeling.  The Andante improves things slightly, reaching the fully acceptable level.  The closing Scherzo is pretty close to standard conceptions and works best of all. 

The Op 10 trio sonatas follow, and in the first sonata, Bellucci starts off with swift ascending arpeggios in the Allegro molto e con brio.  Then comes an overemphasized sforzando thwack and then some exaggerated slow playing before slowly transitioning to a more standard tempo.  He repeats the whole process, and then moves to an Adagio molto that is quite slow, with distended arpeggios thrown in, and some slowish trills, too.  It's not bad, but it sounds contrived.  The Prestissimo zips out of the gate with great speed and dexterity, which is nice, and then Bellucci throws in some more exaggerated playing.  It's not a problem by itself, but the extreme contrast doesn't jell.  It sounds stylistically jumbled, like faux improvisatory playing.  The Allegro for 10/2 starts with alternating too heavy and then too light playing, and while the mien is light, the delivery clunks a bit too much.  The Menuetto has a dark hue thanks to faux dramatic note emphasis and rubato, while the Presto conclusion again finds the pianist ending with a more or less straight forward approach, which works decently enough, but makes the sonata as a whole sound disjointed.  10/3 starts with a quick Presto, but one where rubato just kind of appears, but the forward drive is maintained.  The embellishments blot the music quite a bit, though, and add a dash of instability.  Given Bellucci's penchant for tomfoolery and slow tempi, and this movement's ability to absorb idiosyncratic interpretation, I held out hope for something unsucky.  It mostly comes to pass.  It's slow and overtly overdramatic in places it ought not to be, and it's infused with dynamic and tempo changes, though it ends up building up to a flaccid climax.  The Menuetto falls back into the same old Bellucci style, but sounds unterrible, though it also sounds ungreat.  The Rondo again comes off as the one closest to normal, or within one standard deviation of normal, and the sonata and the trio of sonatas within the group fall flat. 

[Todd]

A biggish opening chord, which then wobbles down in volume, opens the Grave of Op 13, and the entire opening section sounds suitably solemn.  The bass heavy Allegro then cruises along with reasonable energy and near steadiness.  The development kind of wobbles along, distracting from the music.  The return of the Grave is seriously undernourished, sounding musically vegan.  The Adagio is slow, but cantabile, not so much.  It kind of sluggishly skips.  The Rondo clunks around, with some abrupt stops, and some almost random accelerandos.  It sounds very seriously interpreted, though not so serious.  The recorded sound for Op 22 sounds jarringly different, being much more distantly recorded.  (It's almost as stark as the recorded sound change in Younwha Lee's cycle.)  Bellucci does a good job of playing with pep and drive and keeps his normal mannerisms mostly in check in the Allegro con brio.  The good luck runs out in the Adagio, where the left hand playing sounds like a caricature.  (Visions of Tom playing – as in Tom and Jerry – leapt to mind.)  When the melody arrives, it sounds too prominent and not lyrical enough.  Things settle into more satisfying playing after about three minutes, but that only lasts for a couple minutes.  The Menuetto is fairly standard, with some unique touches, but nothing too obtrusive.  The Rondo starts fairly normal, and while Bellucci plays around with tempo quite a bit, it works relatively better than normal, though he pushes things a bit too much in the third theme.  Pushing hard isn't a problem in itself, it just requires better execution.  Arty clunkiness also returns near the end.  So, yeah.  Presented in recorded sound more in line with pre-Op 22 sonatas, the opening theme and variations for Op 26 often at least gets nicely distinct variations from idiosyncratic pianists, and here Bellucci delivers.  The theme is fairly standard, and the first variation combines his variable tempo with variable legato, and the second mixes tiered accenting and variable staccato.  He even adds some truly beautiful playing to the mix.  How about that?  The Scherzo comes off surprisingly well, with swift outer sections, and a rich middle section.  The funeral march starts slow and somber, with a funereal pace and (mostly) steady rhythm.  He slows down in the middle and builds up to some satisfying forte playing, then returns to slow and somber effectively.  The Allegro has a bit too much of his tempo tomfoolery to be ideal, but overall it works.  The first true success among big sonatas.  Yay!

The first sonata quasi una fantasia starts off more or less conventionally, though the clipped chords are not super common.  Tempo and dynamics are well within normal bounds throughout the entire opening Andante section.  The Allegro sounds a bit quicker than normal, with some keyboard scampering, so everything is well.  In the Allegro molto e vivace some rushed playing, unsteady playing, and dulled left hand playing makes the music sound chaotic.  The Adagio sounds fine to start, but then Bellucci slows things down to a crawl just over a minute in, and then introduces some clunky and/or ugly chords before returning to some decent enough playing.  The Allegro vivace then switches up to super quick playing mixed with some of that controlled-ish chaos style of playing.  Not so hot.  27/2 starts with a decently moody but somewhat quick sounding Adagio sostenuto, moves to a slow, clunky Allegretto, and ends with a quick, jittery Presto agitato that stands out mostly for some bizarre rubato and unique accenting.  There are hundreds of recordings of this sonata, and this one certainly is not in the top fifty percent.  The cycle skips forward to the Op 31 trio, which not only withstand idiosyncratic interpretations, but can thrive in such circumstances.  In Op 31/1, Bellucci starts the Allegro vivace quickly, zipping through the notes, playing some as a gallop.  For just over a minute, all is well.  And then it's not.  Bellucci starts pushing and pulling – mostly pulling – the tempo around, for no discernible reason.  It interrupts the forward flow and coherence.  But then he gets back to better playing.  The damage is minimal, but it's noticeable.  At twelve and a half minutes, Bellucci distends the Adagio grazioso, which is just dandy.  The frequent volume differential between melody and accompaniment, favoring melody, sounds both nice and off, though, in a way impossible to adequately describe.  The middle section has more melody centric playing that ends up sounding quite nice.  The next section of trills sound blurred (fine), slightly unsteady (not so nice), while the left hand playing is relatively subdued.  Bellucci then speeds up, again, for no discernible reason.  As the movement progresses, the enjoyment decreases (bad).  The Rondo starts with unstable rhythm and hazy legato, and quickly switches over to rushed playing, and as the movement progresses there remains a nearly constant unstable feel to the playing.  So, there's stuff to enjoy, but it often seems off.  Der Sturm starts off with such a flubbed opening arpeggio that I had to restart to make sure that streaming didn't drop something. Nope.  Bellucci flubs the second big arpeggio, too.  I mean, it's just junk, and clearly done on purpose.  The entire movement is ruined, but what is left includes lots of fast, energetic playing and some fierce forte playing that survives the thrusting action.  He exaggerates some of the tempo changes and delivers some hushed pianissimo playing, but some of his shenanigans create a real WTF? movement.  Tzimon Barto would listen with no little perplexity to this hot garbage.  The Adagio comes off much better – it would be close to impossible for it not to – and Bellucci deploys many of his standard tricks with no real damage.  The Allegretto starts quietly, perhaps trying to evoke a sense of mystery, though it quickly ramps up to include some loud but congested playing and some unstable playing.  Everything sounds overwrought, which is compounded by the less than stellar execution.  A bottom twenty recording.  31/3 starts off much better, with Bellucci sounding downright normal for the first twenty seconds, and then when he introduces his tempo and dynamic distortions, they all fall within the second standard deviation.  There's energy and brightness and mostly uninterrupted forward motion.  It's good for Bellucci.  In the Scherzo, Bellucci offers something similar, with most of the playing sounding normal or close to it, with the distortions more or less acceptable.  The Menuetto is even closer to average, and fares slightly better.  The Presto con fuoco is quick and energetic, but sometimes unsteady.  It's not a (totally) terrible take; it may even crack the top ninety.

[Todd]

The cycle jumbles sonata order a bit again, with Op 54 coming next.  The first theme of the opening movement sounds quite conventional and tuneful, and the second theme is swift and punchy, bordering on, but not becoming clangy.  It also works!  The second movement is very fast, calling to mind Kun Woo Paik, but the style is very different, with Bellucci rushing forward, often constricting dynamics and alternating between a clunky style and a smoothed over one.  Overall, an unbad recording, probably third tier quality.  Op 28 follows, and like Op 54, it sounds pretty conventional in the Allegro.  Tempi are fine, dynamic contrasts are fine, tone is good, clarity is good.  Well, until about one hundred and fifty or so seconds in, when Bellucci slows way down and plays with hints o' clunk.  Slowness and clunkiness become more pronounced just before five minutes in.  Then the return to the opening music returns to more normal playing.  The Andante is well paced and nicely pointed to open, and the second section sounds playful.  Not bad.  The Scherzo is back to the tempo tinkering, though here it is less extreme.  And then comes the trio, and it's just awful, slow, exaggerated, and blechy.  The Rondo starts nearly conventionally, but soon unusual/individual accenting and tempo changes appear, though the climax is fully satisfying.  So, there was one step forward with Op 54 followed by a step back.  Next up is Op 53, and if the opening of the Allegro con brio is pianissimo, I'll eat my hat.  It is very swift, and that's OK, and but for an errant note or accent here or there, Bellucci delivers something pretty much straight ahead.  Miracle of miracles, the Introduzione is also pretty straightforward.  Not great or especially good, mind, but not goofy.  Too, the Rondo more or less sounds normal, with only run of the mill interpretive touches.  Another third tier reading.  In Op 57, Bellucci once again opts for a more or less conventional open to the Allegro assai.  Decently speedy, with nice dynamics, and only minor tempo tweaks, when combined with nice and jittery repeated notes, makes the first ninety seconds enjoyable.  Then Bellucci does his thing, though to a less obtrusive degree than in earlier sonatas.  The Andante con moto is even more conventional, and Bellucci does a pretty good job differentiating the variations.  The final movement sees some more tempo tweaks, and some attempts at dramatic micro-pauses, and has decent energy and drive for the most part.  It does not rate among the most intense versions out there, and some of the playing sounds borderline wobbly, but it's decidedly OK.  That means it's above the cycle average.

Moving on to Op 78 finds Bellucci again playing more or less conventionally, playing with a nice cantabile touch, and not really distorting tempi too terribly much.  Or at least not detrimentally, at least for a little over four whole minutes.  The unnecessary slowdown at that point is not too harmful.  The second movement unfortunately finds Bellucci playing with his unsteady style again, kind of ruining the whole thing.  Op 79 starts with a Presto alla tedesca that benefits from Bellucci's somewhat thin upper registers, and the first thirty or so seconds sound good, but then the tempo tweaking starts in, and it sounds less good.  It' s a matter of degree.  The cuckoo motif comes off quite nicely, but between the cuckoos, musical sludge does start to appear.  The acciaccatura is nearly decent, but also kind of sludgy.  The Andante does not flow, instead sounding somewhat like a tipsy attempt at a dance piece.  The middle though, introduced by strumming arpeggios, sound quite lovely.  The sluggish Vivace literally induced a cringe when it opened, and things barely get any better, especially when the playing speeds up.  Ugh.  81/a starts most inauspiciously since the track order is jumbled, and the second movement is presented first in the complete streaming cycle (hopefully not on disc).  After selecting the proper opening movement, things couldn't help but be better, and the playing is comparatively better than in 79.  In essence, it's another case where Bellucci more or less adheres to more standard playing, for the most part, and he also vocalizes more prominently.  He does indeed intersperse some of his normal devices, but none really derail the proceedings.  The second movement, when heard in its proper place, comes off fairly well, evoking a sense of longing, and possessing some flashes of lovely playing.  The final movement once again sounds conventional with ample energy and a celebratory feel.  Another unbad recording.  The opening of Op 90 may lack the last word in liveliness, but it is hard hitting and filled with some expression.  Bellucci persists with some of his normal devices, but they are less distracting here.  The second movement has good clarity of voices, but it sounds chunky, and certainly not especially lyrical or fluid.  It could be worse, but it could also be much better.  Unbad, but not good.

[Todd]

To say I had some trepidation coming to the late sonatas proper is something of an understatement.  While relative suckiness declines after Op 31, it's still there, and one wonders ahead of time whether Bellucci goes full Bellucci.  The opening movement of Op 101 sounds a bit slow and a bit drab, but it's not terrible.  It does slow down more as the piece progresses, which helps with nothing, and some forte playing sounds kind of hard, but it could be worse.  Like the march.  Rhythmically unsteady, though not as bad as in earlier sonatas, it kind of lurches, albeit quickly, and it sounds too clanky, at least for this listener.  Around three and a half minutes in, Bellucci speeds up and plays in very pointed style, like it's aggressively ugly baroque music.  The Adagio starts off comparatively quick, then slows down, though it just sounds slow, with no late LvB goodness really audible.  The concluding Allegro starts with an unbalanced trill, then quickly moves into playing where the good clarity just shows how rushed and jagged some of the playing sounds.  The unusual accenting and tendency to rush some passages not only robs the playing of any sense of transcendence, it sounds kind of annoying.  Perhaps it could crack the top one hundred recordings out there if all the stars aligned.  The Allegro of Op 106 clocks in at just a hair over eleven minutes, so about normal, and the opening sounds brisk.  As soon as things slow up a bit, the normal tricks return, though in subdued fashion.  With some almost errant accents and unsteady volume between voices, the piece sounds chaotic, which is one of the ways Bellucci makes it sound faster than its timing suggests.  It sounds harried.  At about six minutes in, the playing sounds rushed and like a splatter of sound.  It's quite odd.  Think of it as quasiorchestral, but of the early HIP orchestra variety, all ugly and scrappy.  The Scherzo offers more of the same, with some tempo deviations tossed in, and a clunky transition to the ugly trio.  The coda introduces a real WTF moment.  Bellucci goes for a super long, slow Adagio at over twenty four minutes.  On the credit side, he starts off with a nice, desolate sound and he holds the line.  On the debit side, beyond the seemingly interminable length, the playing adds some plinking and plunking to the mix.  Listening is a chore.  And it's long enough that one can do chores while listening.  The final movement starts off small in scale and almost ethereal in nature.  That's nice.  The recorded perspective for the movement changed, which is less nice.  Then Bellucci scampers around some before splattering some more notes, and then it launches into the Allegro, which sounds jittery and disjointed and unfocused and untidy.  Bellucci darts through this, zips through that, plays trills that sound slurred so much that one could be forgiven for thinking Phil Spector produced the recording.  Some of the playing then takes on a musical doodle quality, and then just spins and swirls without purpose.  It drags on and has the proverbial pregnant pause before the last chord.  Hard to say if this would crack the  top one hundred.

The last three sonatas start off with Bellucci delivering a fairly standard opening to 109, with a nice overall tempo, comparatively little fiddlin', and a complete lack of any sense of a late LvB soundworld.  The Prestissimo is swift but often halting, and it sounds curiously small-scaled and fussy.  In the final movement, Bellucci finally delivers some decent late LvB, with some serenity and a minor semblance of transcendence in the opening theme, which carries over to the first variation.  Little touches abound, but they are within reasonable bounds.  The second variation sheds the appealing quality of the first, while the third variation defaults back to Belluccisms.  The last three variations waver between decent and Belluccized, so it falls flat.  Not a top one hundred take.  Op 110 follows a similar path.  The opening movement has nice cantabile playing punctuated by accents to open, with unstable playing following that, with a sort of stylistic back and forth through to the end.  The Allegro molto is quick, bold, clomping, and almost early LvB sounding.  The final movement starts with a slow but at times tense first arioso and then moves to a slow, reasonably clear, but unappealing fugue.  The second arioso sounds perhaps just a smidge more elevated than the first, but that's it.  The repeated chords build up to a satisfying climax and slowly transition, haltingly, to the inverted fugue, which is a bit quicker and more varied in terms of tempo and dynamics when compared to the fugue, but it's hardly a great take.  The same holds for the sonata as a whole.  Op 111 starts with a cutting and somewhat beefy, but not especially dark or ominous Maestoso and then moves to an Allegro with nice and weighty left hand playing underpinning right hand playing that skips and prances about.  It's hard to tell if Bellucci was going for a less serious than normal take, but that's what it sounds like.  The Arietta sounds a bit rushed to start, but also reasonably attractive.  The second half ups the ante in terms of beauty and serenity, but even then, it kind of falls flat.  The first variation sounds decent, but it evokes no sense of anything,  Nor does the second.  The boogie woogie variation is quick and rhythmically vital, but boogie woogie it most certainly is not.  The last two variations veer off into Belluccisms, wherein the "little stars" get clunkified, the chains of trills turn antiinspirational, any sense of transcendence goes AWOL, and a general sense of dissatisfaction pervades the listening experience.  Very much an unfavorite.

Now, I love me some heavily interventionist LvB playing.  Fully thirty percent of the scientifically determined ten best cycles recorded to date can be described as heavily interventionist and/or idiosyncratic.  It's just that those pianists do it better.  The most obvious comparison here for me is Russell Sherman, who likewise can't help but futz with tempo everywhere.  There are big differences, though.  Sherman's playing never sounds unstable, and all of the tempo deviations sound properly related to other tempo deviations, rather than haphazard, as here.  Sherman's tone is bigger, fuller, and more powerful, and the recorded sound is more satisfying, and his dynamic contrasts compel throughout.  Sherman's vision, like a King Size Snickers, satisfies.  Bellucci's, not so much.  It's like half of a soggy right Twix. 

When I saw that Brilliant Classics was going to issue this cycle at a bargain price, I was mildly excited as a small adrenaline rush coursed through my veins.  Since the release date was pushed, I opted to stream this cycle.  I'm glad I did.  I'm not sure I'm enthusiastic about laying out even the modest asking price for physical media here.  Fourth tier, teetering on the brink of fifth.

[Mandryka]

I have an earlier op 106 from him, 19 minutes in the adagio. You're welcome to have the files.

[San Antone]

Bellucci goes for a super long, slow Adagio at over twenty four minutes.  On the credit side, he starts off with a nice, desolate sound and he holds the line.  On the debit side, beyond the seemingly interminable length, the playing adds some plinking and plunking to the mix.  Listening is a chore. 

I never thought Beethoven could sound so much like Chopin - and not very good Chopin.

[JBS]

Just want to express my thanks for saving me $47.99 plus tax.

[prémont]

My principal listening project at the "moment" is to re- (visit) all the recordings of Beethovens pianosonatas I own. I had not yet come to Bellucci (from whom I own vol. 1 and 2  - the sonatas 1-23 incl.), but after Todd's review I became curious and listened to op. 22, 26 and 27.

Todd's comments are spot on, I have never before heard Beethoven played in this, at the same time, hyper-interventionist and sloppy way. Strange that anyone wanted to release these recordings, which certainly do hit the bottom. I don't think I have the patience to listen to the rest of the sonatas in Bellucci's version.

[hopefullytrusting]

Strange that anyone wanted to release these recordings, which certainly do hit the bottom.

I mean it still is an impressive feat, so I have also went and listened to this recording using my benchmark (Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109), and while it is slower than I am used to - I actually quite liked his over-articulation, how he dragged out each chord as if he was playing them one finger at a time - that's an interesting way to handle chords (sort of how I was taught long ago if I ever wanted to play a piece with a reach greater than a 9th or 10th). I also found it lyrical and his logic held together over the course of the sonata. It definitely sold me on at least giving a few more of my favorite sonatas a shot (No. 22, Op. 54 is my next benchmark).

[prémont]

I mean it still is an impressive feat, so I have also went and listened to this recording using my benchmark (Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109), and while it is slower than I am used to - I actually quite liked his over-articulation, how he dragged out each chord as if he was playing them one finger at a time - that's an interesting way to handle chords (sort of how I was taught long ago if I ever wanted to play a piece with a reach greater than a 9th or 10th). I also found it lyrical and his logic held together over the course of the sonata. It definitely sold me on at least giving a few more of my favorite sonatas a shot (No. 22, Op. 54 is my next benchmark).

Not having heard his op.109 I can't comment on it, but I note that Todd says a few positive words about it. However I don't think I shall acquire the complete box for the sake of the late sonatas only.

Today's a slew of brand, spankin' new Beethoven Op. 109, which only live on because of YouTube.

Erina Ishiyama (2024): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvDrXzNzF-U (spectacular, still need to listen to the rest)

Yağmur Ak (2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJ6oleOn6Q
Nicole Loretan (2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HYXspwfLes
Benita Rose (2025): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43YLLZY_vk

Instead I have listened to the four versions here in a row. Thanks for posting them.

To me there is no doubt that Nicole Loretan is superior to the three others, both as to piano technique and interpretation. She plays with authority and conviction, and a crystal clear part playing, giving the music a lot of inner life. I also think she nails all three movements best concerning their affect.

The second best IMO is Yagmur Ak. Her playing is more straightforward and technique orientated, and for that reason a bit less musically rewarding than Loretan's reading.

Erina Ishiyama's performance feels in these ears good and solid but
a bit routinier without individual characteristics. I admit that this with other pianists may go too far (Bellucci e.g.), but the point is to find a balance here.

I didn't enjoy Benita Roses version. She sounds clumsy and undecided. I wonder if some of my impression is caused by a less good piano.

[hopefullytrusting]

Not having heard his op.109 I can't comment on it, but I note that Todd says a few positive words about it. However I don't think I shall acquire the complete box for the sake of the late sonatas only.

Instead I have listened to the four versions here in a row. Thanks for posting them.

To me there is no doubt that Nicole Loretan is superior to the three others, both as to piano technique and interpretation. She plays with authority and conviction, and a crystal clear part playing, giving the music a lot of inner life. I also think she nails all three movements best concerning their affect.

The second best IMO is Yagmur Ak. Her playing is more straightforward and technique orientated, and for that reason a bit less musically rewarding than Loretan's reading.

Erina Ishiyama's performance feels in these ears a bit routinier without individual characteristics. I admit that this with other pianists may go too far (Bellucci e.g.), but the point is to find a balance here.

I didn't enjoy Benita Roses version. She sounds clumsy and undecided. I wonder if some of my impression is caused by a less good piano.

Loved reading all of this.

Rose, if I recall, is very old. She reminded me of the best pianist in a rural church.

Sort of like "Tickle the Ivories" - a public access show from way back in the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOMce_Axnh8

(I find it charming, but I can see how others would not, lol.)

[hopefullytrusting]

I listened to Op. 54, and he played that well, but Op. 109 and Op. 54 are two of the "easier" sonatas, so I went to the prickliest of the sonatas to see how he would do when his skills would really be tested - Op. 111, and there, I agree that he falls apart. It felt like he was trying to reduce the complexity of the task by trying to play Op. 111 like he played the lighter sonatas, but Op. 111 requires not just a complete shift in technique, but a complete shift in mind, and mind cannot overcome matter, so while he might have wanted to will his hands to play the piece - his hands were simply not capable of following those commands.