Beethoven 'cello Sonatas: Live on 3, Weds 21/6/17

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can't remember the last time the complete Beethoven Sonatas were "traversed" in a single concert, so tonight's Live broadcast from the Wigmore Hall should at least be interesting. And I can't remember ever having heard the two performers (cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and pianist Alexander Lonquich) before either, so that'll be a bonus.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08v8xt2

These are such fascinating works, and for years I found them incredibly elusive - but when they finally "clicked", I became a bit obsessed, so I haven't listened to them for some time. I shall look forward to this concert.

[Pianorak]

I shall look forward to this concert.

Ditto!

[Richard Tarleton]

These are such fascinating works, and for years I found them incredibly elusive - but when they finally "clicked", I became a bit obsessed, so I haven't listened to them for some time. I shall look forward to this concert.

I'm glad you said that - but with repeated listening to Brendel père et fils recently they seem to have clicked. Wherein lies the elusive quality, do you think?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm glad you said that - but with repeated listening to Brendel père et fils recently they seem to have clicked. Wherein lies the elusive quality, do you think?

I think that, for me, the thematic material seemed less "definite" at first (and second and third and ... ) than I had associated with this composer: the phrasing "absent-minded", sort-of following the periodic antecedent/consequent procedures, but wandering from what I was trying to find was the "point", and often just dissolving into "lost" single notes - but with none of the same sense of thematic abundancy that I love in, say, Op110. I'm finding it difficult to articulate - I suppose that I just didn't like the melodies, and I couldn't follow the structural "markers"; but at the same time, phrases and fragments stuck in my memory (even if I couldn't always remember what happened next, or what had led up to them) long after the piece had finished - and I sort-of had the feeling that I was missing something important, so would regularly return to the works - usually going away with the same sense of annoyed frustration.

It didn't help that many performances (and recordings) treated the works as if they were for 'cello with piano accompaniment (when often the 'cello acts as a more impressive pedal, sustaining notes beneath the piano material) - and modern (20th Century) 'cellos grumble away noisily at the material in ways that don't feature in period instrument performances. But it still took several repeated listenings before the works embedded themselves in my imagination - such that I have difficulty now remembering why I had such problems that I've described - and, as I say, I kept playing them with an obsession that I can only ascribe to "making up for lost time".

Tonight's concert will be the first time that I've heard them in nearly three years: and the very first time I'll have listened to them one after the other in a single "sitting".

[vinteuil]

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... ferney - did this one help?

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http://amzn.eu/03mgJhv

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[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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... ferney - did this one help?

http://amzn.eu/03mgJhv

- in the box with the Piano Concertos.

[vinteuil]

- in the box with the Piano Concertos.

... a must-have :

http://amzn.eu/jceCFnZ

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[Richard Tarleton]

Thank you ferney, very helpful.....

[EdgeleyRob]

Just about to start.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hmm. I don't think that I like these works played on "modern" instruments - certainly these performances didn't engage my attention; it felt like the bad old days when I struggled listening to them. They seemed a bit flat and colourless - not much differentiation of mood within and between the Sonatas; as if they were just determined to get through the five works. (And did the 'cello sound change after the interval, as if the 'cellist had moved much further away from his mic for the second "half"?)

Or mebbe it was just me?

[Bryn]

Hmm. I don't think that I like these works played on "modern" instruments - certainly these performances didn't engage my attention; it felt like the bad old days when I struggled listening to them. They seemed a bit flat and colourless - not much differentiation of mood within and between the Sonatas; as if they were just determined to get through the five works. (And did the 'cello sound change after the interval, as if the 'cellist had moved much further away from his mic for the second "half"?)

Or mebbe it was just me?

Sorry, I can't comment re. any change in cello sound. I gave up on the broadcast shortly before the end of the 1st of these sonatas for piano and cello.

[EdgeleyRob]

Hmm. I don't think that I like these works played on "modern" instruments - certainly these performances didn't engage my attention; it felt like the bad old days when I struggled listening to them. They seemed a bit flat and colourless - not much differentiation of mood within and between the Sonatas; as if they were just determined to get through the five works. (And did the 'cello sound change after the interval, as if the 'cellist had moved much further away from his mic for the second "half"?)

Or mebbe it was just me?

It was a bit disappointing.
The cello sound seemed a bit distant all the way through I thought and the 'grumbling',especially in the lower register,sounded ugly.
I did stick with it and I think playing all the Sonatas together does work,but in better performances than these.

Maybe you had to be there https://bachtrack.com/review-beethov...hall-june-2017

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It was a bit disappointing.

The cello sound seemed a bit distant all the way through I thought and the 'grumbling',especially in the lower register,sounded ugly.

I did stick with it and I think playing all the Sonatas together does work, but in better performances than these.

Maybe you had to be there https://bachtrack.com/review-beethov...hall-june-2017

[Pianorak]

I agree with the above points made. I persevered until halfway through the second half but then gave up. Wanting more Cello and Piano but needing something different I listened to Francis Poulenc's Sonate pour violoncelle et piano (Fournier/Fevrier) and Suite Francaise (Philips/Strosser). Not entirely meine Tasse Tee either, but different it certainly was.

[ardcarp]

I think playing all the Sonatas together does work,

It's a purely personal thing, of course, but one at a time is enough for me. I regret I didn't stick with it. One problem, hinted at above, is that a modern concert piano with the lid fully up is just overwhelming. Yet they never play with the lid down. By doing so they could put (for instance) cello and piano on a more equal footing.