LvB op 31/1

[Holden]

I've been away on an outback tour with our Grade 6 kids for the last 10 days and have just got back so it's time to look at another LvB sonata.

This one tends to be viewed as an inferior production by many and you won't find many individual performances of it anywhere - it's just included as part of the cycle. Personally, I love it for its verve and humour and I see it as one of Beethoven's sunniest pieces. Your preferences please

[val]

Friedrich Gulda is my favorite. His sense of the rhythm, in special in the first movement, is remarkable.

Much better than usual, Brendel (PHILIPS) is my 2nd choice.

[Todd]

When I first started listening to Beethoven's sonatas, I tended to think this sonata was a lesser work, especially when compared to the other two Op 31 works.  But over time I've disabused myself of that notion.  Sure, this work is less serious than 31/2, but its levity is what makes it so appealing.

As to versions, here more than in most of the sonatas I prefer heavy-handed interpretations.  I want the quirks and jokes brought out in full relief.  That written, Gulda's Amadeo recording and Claude Frank's recordings are probably my two favorites, and they are more serious than usual.  But beyond that, Anton Kuerti delivers the best recording in his cycle, and Russell Sherman delivers one of his best, and both are indulgent and idiosyncratic.  Gieseking (on Tahra) again delivers a nonchalant performance that fits well, and Robert Silverman makes everything fit together in a most natural way.

[Rod Corkin]

Paul Komen's CD of Op31 is easily the best I've heard for this piece (Nr1).

[Sergeant Rock]

Gulda is my favorite too. The tempos, and relationships between tempos, seem perfectly judged. I've been listening to Barenboim's 31/1 (from his first set, EMI, newly acquired). He turns the Adagio into a major romantic statement, fascinating to hear (12 minutes long) but essentially wrong, I think, for this very Classical sonata. But then I often love "wrong" interpretations.

Sarge