BaL 01.02.25 - Mozart: Piano sonata 15

[Barbirollians]

I have been listening to the Brendel Mozart record in the car and the adjective SP used - " absorbing " sums it up.

[gurnemanz]

I don't listen to BaL any more in its daft new slot - at present it clashes unhelpfully with Six Nations Rugby - and content myself with catching up via our Forum's BaL threads. I don't feel an urgent need to buy another recording of this work. Most recently acquired were Leon McCawley's complete set on Avie (rec 2006) and Bart van Oort playing a fortepiano for Brilliant Classics (rec 2004), both of which I enjoy, but I most often end up going back to Walter Klien (rec 1967) , whose recordings I have loved for several decades, first on Turnabout LPs then Vox CD.

[silvestrione]

I have been listening to the Brendel Mozart record in the car and the adjective SP used - " absorbing " sums it up.

I heard him play this sonata live in Snape, and was surprised (pleasantly!) to hear him adding ornaments in repeats (slow movement)..

[Barbirollians]

I often feel this about Brendel . I hear a record for the first time and enjoy it but when i go back to them I find more and more in his recordings. His Schubert in particular.

My grandmother was a fan and she bought me his record of the Moonlight, Pathetique and Appassionata in the 1970s recording when i was a student in the 1980s and I played it ( and his coupling of the Schumann Fantasie and Fantasiestucke to death.

[smittims]

I endorse gurnemanz' admiration for the Walter Klien discs which I rediscovered in a set of second-hand (but virtually mint-condition) Turnabout LPs. His interpretations are very fresh and vital, perhaps not far from the way the composer would have played them.

[Roger Webb]

I don't listen to BaL any more in its daft new slot - at present it clashes unhelpfully with Six Nations Rugby.........

I presume you're not Welsh.....BaL would be a helpful distraction from their latest clash!

[silvestrione]

I often feel this about Brendel . I hear a record for the first time and enjoy it but when i go back to them I find more and more in his recordings. His Schubert in particular.

My grandmother was a fan and she bought me his record of the Moonlight, Pathetique and Appassionata in the 1970s recording when i was a student in the 1980s and I played it ( and his coupling of the Schumann Fantasie and Fantasiestucke to death.

His Schumann is wonderful, I think, easily overlooked (well, I did, for years!). Much cooler than, e.g. Richter, but none the worse for that. Characteristically thoughtful.

[CallMePaul]

I often feel this about Brendel . I hear a record for the first time and enjoy it but when i go back to them I find more and more in his recordings. His Schubert in particular.

My grandmother was a fan and she bought me his record of the Moonlight, Pathetique and Appassionata in the 1970s recording when i was a student in the 1980s and I played it ( and his coupling of the Schumann Fantasie and Fantasiestucke to death.

I find AB's refusal to repeat the exposition in D959 and D960 frustrating. I have his performances in his Schubert box set (his final studio recordings of Schubert) but for these sonatas I go for Serkin or Perahia on a modern piano, or Badura-Skoda on Graf fortepianos. All three play the exposition repeats.

Returning to Mozart, I do enjoy Bart van Oort's fortepiano recordings on Brilliant and was disappointed not to hear them considered by Kenneth Hamilton.

[oliver sudden]

I find AB's refusal to repeat the exposition in D959 and D960 frustrating. I have his performances in his Schubert box set (his final studio recordings of Schubert) but for these sonatas I go for Serkin or Perahia on a modern piano, or Badura-Skoda on Graf fortepianos. All three play the exposition repeats.

In D960, missing the repeat is a deal-breaker for me, whoever’s playing. There is something absolutely shattering which only happens in the first-time bar. You can’t just leave that out.

Well, obviously you _can_, but I don’t have to listen to it.

[Barbirollians]

I am reminded that Brendel played K533 in his farewell concerts. Just as absorbing but somehow much more joy in it.

[Ein Heldenleben]

In D960, missing the repeat is a deal-breaker for me, whoever’s playing. There is something absolutely shattering which only happens in the first-time bar. You can’t just leave that out.

Well, obviously you _can_, but I don’t have to listen to it.

l I wonder if Brendel left those bars out when playing live because of his long standing back problems. It’s not a musical throwaway either - recalling and foregrounding that sinister F/Gflat bass till that disrupts that serene hymn like opening melody. Almost seems to flirt with Eflat minor before re-emphasing the dominant. I suppose you could argue that dominant has already been established but those extra 9 bars really hammer it home with those very loud F7 triplet unison block chords that are straight out of the Appassionata…and then the sinister trill. It’s such a great bit I wonder why so many leave it out ?
Ps the extended lead into the recapitulation of the first movement is , in my humble opinion one of the very greatest pieces ever written for the piano.

[silvestrione]

l I wonder if Brendel left those bars out when playing live because of his long standing back problems. It’s not a musical throwaway either - recalling and foregrounding that sinister F/Gflat bass till that disrupts that serene hymn like opening melody. Almost seems to flirt with Eflat minor before re-emphasing the dominant. I suppose you could argue that dominant has already been established but those extra 9 bars really hammer it home with those very loud F7 triplet unison block chords that are straight out of the Appassionata…and then the sinister trill. It’s such a great bit I wonder why so many leave it out ?
Ps the extended lead into the recapitulation of the first movement is , in my humble opinion one of the very greatest pieces ever written for the piano.

I think he is on record as saying that the repeat leads to too much repetition, i.e. three times you get the same music (virtually), as Schubert does not vary his recapitulations (or not in these two sonatas anyway). On being challenged that that meant not playing some of Schubert's music (the 'first time' bars), he said he did not think them very good music! Or some such.

(I agree with him. But we've done this to death in the past)

[Ein Heldenleben]

I think he is on record as saying that the repeat leads to too much repetition, i.e. three times you get the same music (virtually), as Schubert does not vary his recapitulations (or not in these two sonatas anyway). On being challenged that that meant not playing some of Schubert's music (the 'first time' bars), he said he did not think them very good music! Or some such.

(I agree with him. But we've done this to death in the past)

First point is fair , not sure about the second though!