BaL 19.03.16 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata no. 8 in C minor Op. 13 "Sonata Pathétique"

[silvestrione]

Are we saying there are definitely three Gulda cycles? I only know of the Orfeo and the Decca.

[gurnemanz]

As far as I can see this is the state of play on Gulda:

1 Decca - download only 1950-58 studio recordings

2 Orfeo - Austrian Radio mono. Sonatas recorded 1953 -54

3 Amadeo 1967 was available on the original, now deleted, 100CD Brilliant Classics Beethoven box, where I got them, also just the Sonatas. (Now Brilliant give you Brendel on complete box or just Sonatas)
Amadeo is still available, confusingly, on German Decca cheap label + Concertos.

I am a Gulda fan but I only know the Amadeo set which is very much a favourite.

[Bryn]

As far as I can see this is the state of play on Gulda:

1 Decca - download only 1950-58 studio recordings

2 Orfeo - Austrian Radio mono. Sonatas recorded 1953 -54

3 Amadeo 1967 was available on the original, now deleted, 100CD Brilliant Classics Beethoven box, where I got them, also just the Sonatas. (Now Brilliant give you Brendel on complete box or just Sonatas)
Amadeo is still available, confusingly, on German Decca cheap label + Concertos.

I am a Gulda fan but I only know the Amadeo set which is very much a favourite.

Fortunately I have the Decca, the Orfeo and the Brilliant Classics version of the Amadeo in boxed sets. I avoided the non-Australian Eloquence box due to the AMSI processing. Perhaps the sound is in fact better then the earlier transfers licenced to Brilliant Classics. I just don't like what I have heard of other AMSI processed recordings. I originally goot the Philips LP manifestation of the Amadeo back in the '60s, despite having read negative reviews re. the recording quality. I never did grasp what it was that such reviews held to be so bad about their sound.

[aeolium]

I have the Amadeo Gulda recording which I think is very impressive, as well as Gilels, Lupu and John Lill (off EA's excellently compiled list but surely still available in some form?)

I will listen to the BaL as I am very fond of the work and in the hope of hearing plenty of varied extracts but I won't be buying any new recordings of this sonata as I now tend to listen to it in live or concert broadcasts (the most recent being the excellent Lill as part of his Cadogan Hall Beethoven sonata series).

[ardcarp]

I haven't read all the posts, but isn't this to be included?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-The-Complete-Piano-Sonatas/dp/B000050K2Y

I've seen Lill twice playing it live. I've also heard Freddy K and Paul Lewis ditto...all very impressive...but Lill's sense of the architecture seems somehow unsurpassable. I do hope he's mentioned in the mix.

[Bryn]

I haven't read all the posts, but isn't this to be included?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-The-Complete-Piano-Sonatas/dp/B000050K2Y

I've seen Lill twice playing it live. I've also heard Freddy K and Paul Lewis ditto...all very impressive...but Lill's sense of the architecture seems somehow unsurpassable. I do hope he's mentioned in the mix.

The Lill Sonatas are also to be found in http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Ma...en+masterworks

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I haven't read all the posts, but isn't this to be included?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-The-Complete-Piano-Sonatas/dp/B000050K2Y

I've seen Lill twice playing it live. I've also heard Freddy K and Paul Lewis ditto...all very impressive...but Lill's sense of the architecture seems somehow unsurpassable. I do hope he's mentioned in the mix.

Thank you. Duly added.

[teamsaint]

And this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Piano-Sonatas-Yukio-Yokoyama/dp/B0002ZF0D0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1458250186&sr=8-3&keywords=Yokoyama+beethoven

[rauschwerk]

I have listened to Kempff's stereo version and slightly prefer it to the mono. The Adagio is slower but still flows nicely. He still does not play the dotted rhythms in the introduction strictly, but I think he was aiming at improvisatory freedom, perhaps imagining how Beethoven might have played it before he wrote it down.

Moiseiwitsch, like Kempff, apparently realises that parts of the introduction can sound plodding if played literally. His solution is to lighten the 32nd notes in the dotted rhythms, which works very well. His Adagio is most beautifully played, with the main melody singing out superbly above the accompaniment. He takes one or two liberties but I can easy forgive him that. The Naxos transfer has not quite eliminated surface noise, but that doesn't bother me.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Pi...yama+beethoven

[verismissimo]

I've been revelling in the Amadeo Gulda. So alert where others seem to drag...

[rauschwerk]

I've been revelling in the Amadeo Gulda. So alert where others seem to drag...

Talking of dragging: Paul Lewis holds the first chord for so long that you begin to think he'll never get to the next one!

[Nick Armstrong]

I have the Amadeo Gulda recording which I think is very impressive

I've been revelling in the Amadeo Gulda. So alert where others seem to drag...

Ooops I fell for the dummy there - was looking to see if Friedrich Gulda's grandson Amadeo had recorded it, unbeknownst to me... (I understand now! I should have read back beyond the last few posts. Or known more about Beethoven sonata recordings. Which I now do... )

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Ooops I fell for the dummy there - was looking to see if Friedrich Gulda's grandson Amadeo had recorded it,

[rauschwerk]

One of Moiseiwitsch's 'liberties', as I termed it, was probably the result of him using a corrupt edition. Just before the last return of the main theme of the Adagio, Czerny (yes, Czerny, Beethoven's pupil!) marked two bars rinforzando, quite spuriously. Moiseiwitsch, Czerny's grand-pupil via Leschetitzky, follows this marking. Schnabel, another Leschetitzky pupil who, however, made his own edition, does not. Tovey viewed Czerny's interference here as disastrous.