BaL 8.12.18 - Haydn: Piano Sonata in E flat, HOB XVI:52

[MickyD]

One thing's for sure for me, listening to all the extracts confirms how wonderful the Brautigam version is.

But I was a bit cross that Andreas Staier was cast aside simply because 'we don't have room for him'....

[Alison]

Schiff is the one I want to get.

We needed Stephen Plaistow back for this one.

[Bryn]

Schiff is the one I want to get.

We needed Stephen Plaistow back for this one.

In case you have trouble finding it, try here.

[verismissimo]

Over the past week I've been comparing and contrasting Schiff and Planes in this sonata and, rather to my surprise, much prefer Planes. Schiff seems rather mannered …

Didn't find time for McCabe or Staier …

[BBMmk2]

Schiff is the one I want to get.

We needed Stephen Plaistow back for this one.

I can vouch for this recording, Alison!

[gurnemanz]

Didn't find time for McCabe or Staier …

McCabe's Complete Sonatas have been a long-standing recommendation and he wasn't even mentioned as one he had no time include. Maybe they're not available separately.

[DracoM]

Which seems to point up just how ill-prepared / delivered this BAL was possibly?

[verismissimo]

McCabe's Complete Sonatas have been a long-standing recommendation and he wasn't even mentioned as one he had no time include. Maybe they're not available separately.

I find his sonata 62 a bit stately these days, although it was his recordings that opened my ears to the splendour of Haydn's music for piano.

He came and played sonata 39 for us at home on our 1790 Broadwood square in 2006, plus Beethoven Rondo in C, Op 51 No 1; GF Pinto: Sonata in A, Op 3 No 2; John McCabe: Afternoons and Afterwards. Small but appreciative audience.

[Bryn]

McCabe's Complete Sonatas have been a long-standing recommendation and he wasn't even mentioned as one he had no time include. Maybe they're not available separately.

The boxed set of the complete sonatas does appear to be the only option now. They were indeed the benchmark, but that was then, this is now. While we are at it, did Piazzini or Derzhavina get a look in? Both are very fine indeed, playing modern instruments.

[Mal]

How on earth Schiff wasn't outright winner utterly defeated me.

Well he was declared the Shakespeare of the bunch, that was kind of winning...

[CallMePaul]

That so many fine performances were not even mentioned made me wonder if Iain Burnside was given a longlist prepared by the producer. I have suspected this with other BALs where only a handful of available recordings have been discussed. For what it's worth, I was not at all impressed by the winner. On a modern piano only Brendel and Schiff interested me, and I would have liked to have heard from all the fortepianists, not just Brautigan and (briefly) Bilson. Pianists who play a wide range of Haydn interest me in this work far more than those who treat it as a virtuoso showpiece.

Do any forum members know if producers' longlists are used in BAL?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If I were to do a BaL, I’m sure I’d do a worse job if I had a second voice chiming in all the time. This was twoferism at its terrible worst.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Do any forum members know if producers' longlists are used in BAL?

There’s only one long list, and that’s produced by yours truly.