BaL 3.02.24 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E♭ major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

10.30 am
Building a Library

Lucy Parham chooses her favourite version of Beethoven's Piano Sonata "Les Adieux".

Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E♭ major, Op. 81a, known as Les Adieux ("The Farewell"), was written around 1810. The French attack on Vienna, led by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1809, had forced Beethoven's patron, Archduke Rudolph, to leave the city. He titled the three movements 'farewell', 'absence', and 'reunion'. The sonata has a dedication that reads "On the departure of his Imperial Highness, for the Archduke Rudolph in admiration". Beethoven's works are traditionally divided into three periods and this sonata is often thought of as one of the very best from his middle period.

Available versions:-

Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau *
Claudio Arrau
Saleem Ashkar *
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Emanuel Ax *
Abdel Rahman El Bacha *
Hanna Bachmann
Wilhelm Backhaus (pre-war)
Wilhelm Backhaus 1954
Wilhelm Backhaus 1958 *
Wilhelm Backhaus 1960
Wilhelm Backhaus 1961 *
Paul Badura-Skoda
Paul Badura-Skoda
Pierre Barbizet
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim *
Daniel Barenboim (DVD)
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Giovanni Bellucci *
Idil Biret
Jonathan Biss
Boris Bloch
Ronald Brautigam (SACD)
James Brawn*
Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel
Rudolf Buchbinder
Rudolf Buchbinder (DVD/Blu-ray))
Sylvia Capova *
Robert Casadesus
Gianluca Cascioli *
Muriel Chemin *
Dino Ciani
Van Cliburn *
Alfred Cortot
Lorenzo Cossi *
Penelope Crawford *
Timothy Ehlen *
Albert Ferber *
Sergio Fiorentino
Annie Fischer *
Andor Foldes *
Charles Foreman *
Claude Frank
Nelson Freire *
Nodar Gabunia *
Bruno-Leonardo Gelber *
Walter Gieseking
Emil Gilels
Emil Gilels
André De Groote
Friedrich Gulda
Boris Giltburg
Nelson Goerner (DVD)
Richard Goode
Giuseppe Greco *
Maria Grinberg
Friedrich Gulda (mono)
Friedrich Gulda *
François-Frédéric Guy *
Éric Heidsieck
Angela Hewitt
Tamami Honma
Michael Houstoun
Jenö Jandó
Paavali Jumppanen
David Kadouch
Giorgos Karagiannis
Wilhelm Kempff - mono
Wilhelm Kempff - stereo
Evgeny Kissin *
Dorothy Khadem-Missagh (SACD)
Mari Kodama *
Michael Korstick
Stephen Kovacevich
Christian Leotta
Igor Levit
Paul Lewis
Konstantin Lifschitz
Hj Lim *
Louis Lortie
Andrea Lucchesini *
Steven Masi *
Benno Moiseiwitsch *
Ivan Moravec
Barbara Moser
Ikuyo Nakamichi *
Yves Nat
Tatiana Nikolayeva
Guiomar Novaes
Garrick Ohlsson
Bart van Oort *
Gerhard Oppitz
Maurizio Paciariello *
Kun-Woo Paik*
John O’Conor
Olga Pashchenko
Murray Perahia
Alfredo Perl *
Georges Pludermache *
Maurizio Pollini
Jean-Bernard Pommier *
Eduardo del Pueyo
Martin Rasch *
Hans Richter-Haaser *
Bernard Roberts
Charles Rosen *
Arthur Rubinstein *
Fazil Say *
Konstantin Scherbakov
András Schiff
Artur Schnabel
Rudolf Serkin *
Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin *
Russell Sherman *
Inger Södergren *
Solomon
Yutong Sun *
Peter Takacs *
Valery Vishnevsky *
George Walker *
Gerard Willems
Llyr Williams
Jingge *Yan
Takahiro Yoshikawa
Maurizio Zaccaria *
Dieter Zechlin
Melodie Zhao

(* = download only)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This one was a little late arriving. Apologies to all. It's a personal favourite, so I didn't want to miss anything!

[Pulcinella]

Two BBC MM offerings.

Volume 8, Number 7: Paul Lewis (Wigmore Hall, 24 August 1999)
Volume 20, Number 13: Claudio Arrau (RFH, 10 June 1985)

[richardfinegold]

This one was a little late arriving. Apologies to all. It's a personal favourite, so I didn't want to miss anything!

Isn’t there a short list for only the recordings that the reviewer will be considering?

[CallMePaul]

Isn’t there a short list for only the recordings that the reviewer will be considering?

I doubt if this information is available before the broadcast.

I have 4 recordings, all in complete sets of the sonatas:-

• Brendel (digital recording now on Decca)
• Buchbinder (1980s set on Warner Classics)
• Buchbinder (2014 Salzburg live recording on DG)
• Badura-Skoda (period instrument recording now on an Outhere label)

My preference is for Badura-Skoda on an 1815 Hassler fortepiano, but I suspect on the basis of previous BALs, that only one fortepiano recording will be considered and that is likely to be Brautigan. Buchbinder is, in my opinion, a greatly underrated pianist in this country - more appreciated in Germany and his native Austria. I would be interested to hear performances by an older generation of pianists, particularly Schnabel but also Kempff and Fischer.

[pastoralguy]

This one was a little late arriving. Apologies to all. It's a personal favourite, so I didn't want to miss anything!

Thanks for your hard work, Alpie.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I doubt if this information is available before the broadcast.

I have 4 recordings, all in complete sets of the sonatas:-

• Brendel (digital recording now on Decca)
• Buchbinder (1980s set on Warner Classics)
• Buchbinder (2014 Salzburg live recording on DG)
• Badura-Skoda (period instrument recording now on an Outhere label)

My preference is for Badura-Skoda on an 1815 Hassler fortepiano, but I suspect on the basis of previous BALs, that only one fortepiano recording will be considered and that is likely to be Brautigan. Buchbinder is, in my opinion, a greatly underrated pianist in this country - more appreciated in Germany and his native Austria. I would be interested to hear performances by an older generation of pianists, particularly Schnabel but also Kempff and Fischer.

Not having played a fortepiano I wonder if the lighter key weight makes the final movement , which is full of cascading scales and tricky figurations , considerably more playable ? It also has that very demanding later Beethoven trademark of trills (or presto semiquavers) plus melody all played by the same hand .That final movement is as tricky as the concerti. I have perfs from Kempff , Schnabel , Brendel , Roberts , Perahia , and Oppitz.
The first movement for me marks a real musical change in Beethoven and the piano - a considerable move on from Op 79 and Op 78 - a really remarkable piece of music. And then the intensity of the absence movement - so interpretatively demanding. Like the middle movement of the Waldstein it looks so easy on the page but it’s not at all really. One of my all time favourite pieces of music - to paint that sort of emotional picture and narrative with the relatively limited tonal resources of a piano - absolutely extraordinary.

[Alison]

Not having played a fortepiano I wonder if the lighter key weight makes the final movement , which is full of cascading scales and tricky figurations , considerably more playable ? It also has that very demanding later Beethoven trademark of trills (or presto semiquavers) plus melody all played by the same hand .That final movement is as tricky as the concerti. I have perfs from Kempff , Schnabel , Brendel , Roberts , Perahia , and Oppitz.
The first movement for me marks a real musical change in Beethoven and the piano - a considerable move on from Op 79 and Op 78 - a really remarkable piece of music. And then the intensity of the absence movement - so interpretatively demanding. Like the middle movement of the Waldstein it looks so easy on the page but it’s not at all really. One of my all time favourite pieces of music - to paint that sort of emotional picture and narrative with the relatively limited tonal resources of a piano - absolutely extraordinary.

And good to see the Bernard Roberts get a mention.

[Barbirollians]

Gilels DG,Solomon and Gulda my favourites.

[silvestrione]

Martin Roscoe has done it, I know. Possibly an underrated pianist.

I have struggled to like this work, but am greatly encouraged by others' enthusiasm here, to give it another go.

[richardfinegold]

I doubt if this information is available before the broadcast.

I have 4 recordings, all in complete sets of the sonatas:-

• Brendel (digital recording now on Decca)
• Buchbinder (1980s set on Warner Classics)
• Buchbinder (2014 Salzburg live recording on DG)
• Badura-Skoda (period instrument recording now on an Outhere label)

My preference is for Badura-Skoda on an 1815 Hassler fortepiano, but I suspect on the basis of previous BALs, that only one fortepiano recording will be considered and that is likely to be Brautigan. Buchbinder is, in my opinion, a greatly underrated pianist in this country - more appreciated in Germany and his native Austria. I would be interested to hear performances by an older generation of pianists, particularly Schnabel but also Kempff and Fischer.

I have the big Brendel box, which probably contains 3 different complete Beethoven cycles, as well as complete cycles by Bis ,Arrau, Goode, Annie Fisher, Schnabel, and Backhaus. I don’t think that I ever purchased the piece in the absence of a complete set despite it being a particular favorite. My only forte recording is Brautigan, whose cycle I particularly like because it is the least period sounding of any pianoforte recording.
We listen to Radio Venice as background music here in Casa RFG, and they have this work on a playlist. My wife has gotten rather good at whistling the final movement

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Isn’t there a short list for only the recordings that the reviewer will be considering?

If only I were psychic.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I was having piano lessons at school, soon after Grade 8, I started learning this sonata. After a few weeks on the first two movements, my teacher said she’d never learnt the finale, so I suggested we both practised it for a week to see who played it better! She said that was a good idea, but I made the mistake of telling one of the other music teachers about this. Big mistake! In the following lesson, she told me not to be silly when I raised the issue.

[Ein Heldenleben]

When I was having piano lessons at school, soon after Grade 8, I started learning this sonata. After a few weeks on the first two movements, my teacher said she’d never learnt the finale, so I suggested we both practised it for a week to see who played it better! She said that was a good idea, but I made the mistake of telling one of the other music teachers about this. Big mistake! In the following lesson, she told me not to be silly when I raised the issue.

I remember my music teacher playing a bit of it and saying I won’t try the third movt “it’s notorious.”

[CallMePaul]

The first movement for me marks a real musical change in Beethoven and the piano - a considerable move on from Op 79 and Op 78 - a really remarkable piece of music. And then the intensity of the absence movement - so interpretatively demanding. Like the middle movement of the Waldstein it looks so easy on the page but it’s not at all really. One of my all time favourite pieces of music - to paint that sort of emotional picture and narrative with the relatively limited tonal resources of a piano - absolutely extraordinary.

Similar points are made by Haeey Halbreich in his notes to the Badura-Skpda set. He also draws similarities with the Emperor concerto that had never occurred to me. I must give the latter work a listen and hear for myself.