Paul Badura-Skoda Plays Beethoven

[Todd]

Back in the mid-aughts, when I was buying new LvB cycles two and three at a time for months at a stretch, I picked up Paul Badura-Skoda's Gramola cycle, where he plays on a Bösendorfer, and it came at the right time, as I was slogging my way through Anton Kuerti's cycle.  I much preferred PBS' approach in every regard and almost every sonata.  I had known about Mr Badura-Skoda's HIP cycle for Astree, and though not a big fan of HIP keyboard playing, I figured I should look into it.  Alas, the cycle was out of print.  Now, though, it is a available in Japan, reissued by JVC using the XRCD24 process, for the low, low price of ¥27,000.  While expensive, it is not the most I have paid for a cycle (both Ikuyo Nakamichi's and Akiyoshi Sako's cost more), and, well, I just had to have it. 

It's an all Japanese affair.  Only one page of the booklet is not in Japanese, so this makes me think it will not get wider distribution.  And packaging for this deluxe set is, well, it's deluxe.  There are four robust two disc packages, and one robust single disc package, along with a robust booklet, all snuggled inside a robust box.  (It's almost identical to King International's issue of Wilhelm Kempff's 1961 cycle.)  The discs themselves, emblazoned with not one, but five logos for labels and technologies, are stiffer than normal and seem to be slightly thicker than normal.  I assume this has to do with the vaunted XRCD24 technology the discs use.  This technology supposedly offers superior sound when compared to normal CDs, though that strikes me as impossible given that it's red book.  That written, part of the XRCD and XRCD24 process, as I understand it, is that the recordings are remastered.  Since I have not heard the original Astree issues, I cannot say whether the current issue offers better sound, but I can report that it offers almost state of the art sound – which is impressive given that the cycle was recorded mostly in the 80s.  Clarity matches the best recordings I've heard, timbre and tone strike me as very accurate, and dynamics are super swell.  Maybe the sound can be just a smidge bright, but then, I often found myself listening at higher than normal levels, which I usually don't do with bright recordings.  The sound is almost on par with the essentially perfect sound evident in Penelope Crawford's late LvB disc.

So is the playing.  Prior to this cycle, my only complete LvB cycle on period instruments was Ronald Brautigam's.  I'll just get straight to the point here: Badura-Skoda not only bests Brautigam, he stomps the Dutchman's guts out.  He does this by not being a one-trick pony like Brautigam – FAST! – but rather, to continue with an animal metaphor, by being a world class dressage horse.  PBS plays everything the way I like it.  Fast movements are fast.  Slow movements are slow – but not too slow.  There's tonal variation aplenty.  Dynamics are subtlety shaded, or not, depending on what the music calls for.  The music flows, except when it shouldn't.  It's aggressive where it should be, playful where it should be, deep and transcendent where it should be.  PBS plays quiet when he should, and as loud as his instrument of choice will allow, or something close to it, when he should.  This is one of those lovely sets where I can't really pinpoint this or that sonata as being really great and this or that sonata as being bad.  Everything is uniformly excellent – or better.  Think Friedrich Gulda's awesome Amadeo cycle, but on period instruments, and that's the kind of sustained excellence I'm talkin' 'bout.  Okay, for those who need nitpicking, Op 28 is not as lyrical as it could be, but then, fortepianos don't generate the same tonal luxuriance that modern grands can, and maybe PBS pushes things a bit in Op 106, losing the last degree of precision and control, but that's something I can easily live with.

About those instruments, they sound pretty damn good.  All of them offer more color, more dynamic range, more everything than I'm used to from fortepianos.  No, they do not match a modern Steinway, or Stuart and Sons, or Bechstein, but they more than do the job.  Perhaps one downside is their mechanical noise, exaggerated perhaps by the obviously very close miking, but here, if anything, it adds a little pizazz to the proceedings. 

So, Paul Badura-Skoda's HIP cycle offers not just great HIP Beethoven, but great Beethoven, period.  I like everything about it.  Even if it does not join the ultra-elite (ie, my Top Ten), it does join the elite, nesting with the likes of Francois Frederic Guy, Claude Frank, and Claudio Arrau.  August company, to be sure.  Perhaps a shoot-out or two is needed, to see where PBS will land.  A solid top ten finish is most certainly not out of the question. 

My only complaint about the cycle is the extraneous noise, particularly some occasional low-frequency noise.  Some of it is clearly the pedal mechanism of the instruments, but some of the other noise seems more distant and unrelated to the instruments – I assume something like a truck or train or HVAC is going in the background.  It detracts but slightly. 

For me, the cycle is worth the steep price, and then some.  This is why I continue to collect cycles.

[Mandryka]

Like you, I can tnink of at least 10 other Beethoven pianists  I'd rather hear.
To hear PBS at his best in Beethoven, you need to go to the LPs he recorded for Westminster.

[Gurn Blanston]

To hear PBS at his best in Beethoven, you need to go to the LPs he recorded for Westminster.

Well, I doubt that, but who can say?  Send me a set and we'll see.


Anyway, thanks for your thoughts here Todd. Glad to see that my confidence in these recordings has not been misplaced.  Mechanical noise in a pianoforte recording is so much a part of the experience that devotees don't even notice it any longer.   No denying it's there though.

[Wakefield]

These past few months I have slipped into countless Shakespearean soliloquies to decide whether to buy this set.

I guess the conclusion will be not a surprise. 

[Baroque Obama]

Badura-Skoda's cycles should deserve praise in artistic terms. But as far as the music is concerned, it's well-known and we've studied that he is not loyal to Beethoven's scores in terms of tempo, even at odds with Beethoven's directives, and he frequently abuses rhythmic freedom following Schnabel example.

[Todd]

and he frequently abuses rhythmic freedom following Schnabel example.

A most instructive misuse of the word 'abuses'.

[Gurn Blanston]

Badura-Skoda's cycles should deserve praise in artistic terms. But as far as the music is concerned, it's well-known and we've studied that he is not loyal to Beethoven's scores in terms of tempo, even at odds with Beethoven's directives, and he frequently abuses rhythmic freedom following Schnabel example.

What greater compliment to his musicality?

[(poco) Sforzando]

I have the single disc with his 106, and I think his slow movement is superb. Todd, where does one find the complete cycle?

Bonus question: identify the sonata movement whose manuscript appears on the album cover.

[North Star]

What a great disrespect to Beethoven and classical music practice.

Hmmm, another forum with collectors and reviewers but no music. Good luck.

Good luck to you, too, and goodbye.

[Sergeant Rock]

What a great disrespect to Beethoven and classical music practice.

Hmmm, another forum with collectors and reviewers but no music. Good luck.

Welcome back, Annie.

Sarge

[(poco) Sforzando]

Badura-Skoda's cycles should deserve praise in artistic terms. But as far as the music is concerned, it's well-known and we've studied that he is not loyal to Beethoven's scores in terms of tempo, even at odds with Beethoven's directives, and he frequently abuses rhythmic freedom following Schnabel example.

Care to provide examples? If the abuses are so pervasive, well-known, and well-studied, it shouldn't be hard for you to cite 50 or 60 instances (that's about 2 per sonata) off the top of your head, and then to prove your points against the scores.

[mn dave]

Hmmm, another forum with collectors and reviewers but no music. Good luck.

We don't need luck. We have skills. 

[Wakefield]

Welcome back, Annie.

Sarge

I'm not sure if Annie is behind that comment. After all, the lineages of Schnabel and Badura-Skoda aren't provided. 

[Gurn Blanston]

What a great disrespect to Beethoven and classical music practice.

Hmmm, another forum with collectors and reviewers but no music. Good luck.

Good luck has already been missed, it seems, since we were unable to avoid your appearance. It would be interesting if you actually had something to provide to the discussion. Somehow I doubt it.

[Mandryka]

Well, I doubt that, but who can say?  Send me a set and we'll see.

On symphonyshare. It was the Appassionata on Westminster which I thought was very good.

[Gurn Blanston]

On symphonyshare. It was the Appassionata on Westminster which I thought was very good.

OK, cool. I can believe that any one sonata is better in any one cycle. Hell, it happens all the time. But for cycles on period instruments, PBS is unmatched so far. Even by himself on modern ones, IMO.   

[Mandryka]

OK, cool. I can believe that any one sonata is better in any one cycle. Hell, it happens all the time. But for cycles on period instruments, PBS is unmatched so far. Even by himself on modern ones, IMO.   

Maybe. Some of Paul Komen, the Waldstein for examp,e, is pretty special, and some of Lubimov, his Erato recording. And there's that amazing stupendous life changinb op 111 from Tom Beghin.

But you may be right. I would have to think harder about that cycle with Oort and Bilson ans Beghin

[Wakefield]

OK, cool. I can believe that any one sonata is better in any one cycle. Hell, it happens all the time. But for cycles on period instruments, PBS is unmatched so far. Even by himself on modern ones, IMO.   

That's arbitrary, Gurn, because you haven't heard the Claves set (you know, the one with the other demigod and his pupils).

[short pause]

Well, you're are right, Badura-Skoda is better by far. 

[Gurn Blanston]

Maybe. Some of Paul Komen, the Waldstein for examp,e, is pretty special, and some of Lubimov, his Erato recording. And there's that amazing stupendous life changinb op 111 from Tom Beghin.

But you may be right. I would have to think harder about that cycle with Oort and Bilson ans Beghin

I can make up a nice set from various recordings that I have, including all those you mention. Not the Claves though, haven't got it. However, I believe that PBS beats the pants off the lot of them for sheer musicality and also being in the Viennese piano tradition that stretches back to well before Beethoven. In fact, for my top four composers, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, he is my pianist of choice. There are others I truly like, but no one better.

[Gurn Blanston]

That's arbitrary, Gurn, because you haven't heard the Claves set (you know, the one with the other demigod and his pupils).

[short pause]

Well, you're are right, Badura-Skoda is better by far. 

Yes, I know the one you mean. And Bilson is indeed a demigod. PBS is in a class of his own though.