Beethoven's last piano sonata. Op.111

[Beef Oven!]

Just Glenn Gould (Sony), Jen Jando (Naxos) and a recently acquired Wilhelm Kempff (Deutsche Grammophon).

[ahinton]

Any thoughts from anyone about the one that I put forward earlier? Just curious...

[Bryn]

Any thoughts from anyone about the one that I put forward earlier? Just curious...

Well, I just ordered a copy from an amazon.co.uk marketplace supplier. I just hope you have not enticed me into wasting £4.24.

[Bryn]

As this is the Radio 3 Forum, let's hear it for Igor Levit of Radio 3's New Generation Artist Scheme.

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/beethoven-the-late-piano-sonatas

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Any good,

Yes - very good (as is the Hammerklavier coupling).

or should I be seeking another?

Yes - another fifteen might just be enough.

[Richard Barrett]

I'm a great admirer of Pollini, but I find his late Beethoven sonatas a bit didactic-sounding. I would really like to hear them played well on a piano of the time but I haven't been convinced by any such recording I've heard as yet.

[Bryn]

Yes - very good (as is the Hammerklavier coupling).


Yes - another fifteen might just be enough.

Including Brautigam, Binns, Badura-Skoda, Peter Serkin, Paul Komen et al on various fortepianos.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Including Brautigam, Binns, Badura-Skoda, Peter Serkin, Paul Komen et al on various fortepianos.

Indeed. Like Richard, I haven't been entirely convinced by the fortepiano recordings that I've heard (yet to hear Brautigam and Komen) - I think that I'm still imagining the work via Wendell Kretzschma, perhaps, rather than thinking in Beethoven's own terms - the instruments he knew, remembered and wrote for. (Unlike RB, I adore the Pollini recording.)

[richardfinegold]

Indeed. Like Richard, I haven't been entirely convinced by the fortepiano recordings that I've heard (yet to hear Brautigam and Komen) - I think that I'm still imagining the work via Wendell Kretzschma, perhaps, rather than thinking in Beethoven's own terms - the instruments he knew, remembered and wrote for. (Unlike RB, I adore the Pollini recording.)

I agree with Richard about the Pollini recordings (I didn't get to hear Pollini during a recent Chicago all Beethoven concert, but at least 1 person that was there told me that his approach is now significantly different than what is on display in those 20+ year od recordings). I like the Brautigam recordings very much, and this is from someone that isn't predisposed to liking a fortepiano.

[ahinton]

Well, I just ordered a copy from an amazon.co.uk marketplace supplier. I just hope you have not enticed me into wasting £4.24.

I've not enticed you into doing anything,sir!

[Pulcinella]

Yes - very good (as is the Hammerklavier coupling).


Yes - another fifteen might just be enough.

No, one is just fine thanks!

Including Brautigam, Binns, Badura-Skoda, Peter Serkin, Paul Komen et al on various fortepianos.

Quick, nurse! Send for the anti-allergy tablets. I feel an attack coming on.

[Richard Barrett]

Including Brautigam, Binns, Badura-Skoda, Peter Serkin, Paul Komen et al on various fortepianos.

I remember Komen as being not at all bad, though I haven't listened to his recordings for years and there must be a reason for that, and Badura-Skoda's technique is not quite all it could be. I don't know the others.

[ahinton]

I remember Komen as being not at all bad, though I haven't listened to his recordings for years and there must be a reason for that, and Badura-Skoda's technique is not quite all it could be. I don't know the others.

Perhaps one of the oddest accounts - albeit of the Hammerklavier rather than any of the last three Beethoven piano sonatas - is this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGyX5W9a_IE ...

One might wonder what he'd do with Opp. 109/110/111.

The pianist, excited, shall never be repeated?...

Coat on.

[Tapiola]

Yes - another fifteen might just be enough.

Not quite 15 or 16 here, fhg, but I am working on it! From memory, what graces my shelves here are: Schnabel (both recordings), Kempff (stereo), Yves Nat, Yudina, Richter, Serkin, Gulda (1967), plus a very recently acquired, though as yet unplayed, copy of Kempff's 1935 rendition (though I am waiting impatiently to remedy that, given time). I would not want to be without any of them - it would be like trying to choose a favourite child. But if pushed, I would plump for Schnabel's earlier recording, or Yudina's (don't tell the other kids...).

For me, this sonata is probably in the Top 1 of all music I know, words are inadequate to describe its transcendental and liberating power. Perhaps Busoni came closest when he talked of the destiny of music: "the day of its freedom will come. - When it shall cease to be 'musical' [musicalisch]".

[gradus]

Perhaps one of the oddest accounts - albeit of the Hammerklavier rather than any of the last three Beethoven piano sonatas - is this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGyX5W9a_IE ...

One might wonder what he'd do with Opp. 109/110/111.

The pianist, excited, shall never be repeated?...

Coat on.

I rather enjoyed his approach, thanks for posting it.