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

[Keraulophone]

Oo no...I can't abide how Freddy Kempf releases some of the lower notes in those opening chords to effect a steeper diminuendo. Surely we need to hear all those underlying notes decaying equally?

[verismissimo]

Angela Hewitt so uninteresting. Bound to win.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oo no...I can't abide how Freddy Kempf releases some of the lower notes in those opening chords to effect a steeper diminuendo. Surely we need to hear all those underlying notes decaying equally?

Yes - I can see why Freddy does this, though: on a modern piano the f notes take so long to decay into the subsequent p. He wants the shorter decay that was provided by the pianos of Beethoven's time.

So he should play those instruments (or reconstructions of them), of course

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Angela Hewitt so uninteresting. Bound to win.

Oh, I didn't find her "uninteresting": those extreme contrasts of "this is angry Music"/"this is sad Music" I found ridiculous - the word "Hammyklavier" popped most uncharitably into my mind!

(Mind you, I think she's absolutely right about where the "Exposition" Repeat should start. )

[Keraulophone]

So he should play those instruments (or reconstructions of them), of course

Precisely!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

(Mind you, I think she's absolutely right about where the "Exposition" Repeat should start. )

It seems to work either way. Interestingly, I'd tried playing it this way before hearing (today) that this might indeed be correct.

Yes - I can see why Freddy does this, though: on a modern piano the f notes take so long to decay into the subsequent p. He wants the shorter decay that was provided by the pianos of Beethoven's time.

But I can't agree here. The deficiencies of the early pianos can hardly be lauded as a Good Thing, interesting though it is to hear them. Is it really better to lose the long notes (bars 27-28) of the Adagio Cantabile, just to emulate the crappy and inadequate instruments of 1798?

I'm off now, in my Ford T.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There are, of course, no "deficiencies" of any "crappy and inadequate instruments of 1798" - just those of performers and listeners in 2016.

[DoctorT]

Kovacevich: good choice.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There are, of course, no "deficiencies" of any "crappy and inadequate instruments of 1798" - just those of performers and listeners in 2016.

Hmm. I wonder why they bothered to "improve" them.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Kovacevich: good choice.

Yet he didn't feature all that much in the comparisons.

[Tony Halstead]

I can't quite believe that Sarah didn't include any John Lill...

[Keraulophone]

I can't quite believe that Sarah didn't include any John Lill...

She assumed he was too busy communing with the spirit of Beethoven on t'Other Side.

[DracoM]

Yet he didn't feature all that much in the comparisons.

Exactly! Talk about rabbits and hats!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hmm. I wonder why they bothered to "improve" them.

I appreciate the inverted commas. The instruments themselves were no more "improved" than were the compositions written for them: Mozart sounds perfect played on the instruments with which he was familiar, and (as we heard today) more recent instruments create problems and encourage "interpretative" distortions of the text from the less sensitive players - problems that vanish with instruments contemporaneous to the compositions (liberating the performer to concentrate on the manifold problems - to extend your motor car metaphor - of the Music itself).

As performing conditions developed and altered, moving from intimate spaces to ever-larger public concert halls, louder instruments became increasingly necessary, losing much of the gentle subtleties of the earlier instruments. (In much the same way that factory farming techniques and chemical additives were required to meet the necessity of providing food for an ever-increasing population.)

Rachmaninov, Sorabji, Stockhausen and countless others need the technical developments of the Twentieth Century Piano, of course - the composers are able to overcome the deficiencies of that horrendous animal. But Beethoven (and Beethoven's Music) doesn't. Which doesn't "invalidate" Pollini, Brendel, Schnabel, Gilels, Lill etc etc etc, of course. But for pianists like Freddie Kempf, it's very very clear that the sort of effects he realizes are present in the Music are better served by using the instruments of the composer's time. And with Ms Hewitt, the deficiencies of the instrument she chose to use lead her to produce distorted extremes of interpretation which sounded (to me) risible.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Exactly! Talk about rabbits and hats!