BaL 7.11.20 - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 29 in B flat, Op 106 ‘Hammerklavier’

[silvestrione]

Fear not, "advisors advise - ministers decide".

I was very much taken with Barenboim's first recorded survey of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas with opus numbers, as I was with the many of the insights of his masterclass DVDs on the same works. However, this latest recording of Op. 106 I would describe as both tired and consequentably soperific. I will have to go back to his earlier surveys to check whether it is he who has changed in approach to the works or that I have shifted mine.

Yes indeed, working with Alessio Bax no less, on the op 106, on the masterclass DVD, which I did purchase. And afterwards Bax recorded a well-received version which I have, and liked, but have not got round to listening to again.

My'first' Hammerklavier was the Barenboim Westminster recording which is a 'bonus', I believe, in the new package.

[Mandryka]

This BAL is a thankless task, why don't they tell us which recordings they're reviewing in advance when it is plainly impossible to listen to all recorded versions.
John Lill for me.

Four years late to the party, but I just wanted to say thank you for mentioning John Lill's Hammer. I just happened to stumble across the post. It seems like a particularly beautiful, delicate op 106. Calm and collected, expressive. I don't think I've heard a more satisfying modern piano performance. It may be one sided and iconoclastic in its way - a good way IMO.

[smittims]

I'm still enraptured by Eschenbach's 1979 EMI recording, which is certainly 'one-sided' though very much to my taste. He takes 25'17" in the Adagio. Quite a difference from Egon Petri's 14'22".

[Mandryka]

I'm still enraptured by Eschenbach's 1979 EMI recording, which is certainly 'one-sided' though very much to my taste. He takes 25'17" in the Adagio. Quite a difference from Egon Petri's 14'22".

I haven't heard that one, but I have heard his 1971 for DG where be takes slightly less time for that adagio - 24.21

https://www.discogs.com/release/9770194-Ludwig-van-Beethoven-Christoph-Eschenbach-Hammerklavier-Sonate-Op-106

IMO nearly everyone makes that adagio at least listenable, and hardly anyone makes the opening allegro listenable.

[smittims]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'listenable', but a performance which makes the first movement clearer than most is the Philips CD by Mitsuko Uchida. It includes the other sonata first published as 'fur das Hammerklavier' op. 101 in A major.

[Mandryka]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'listenable', but a performance which makes the first movement clearer than most is the Philips CD by Mitsuko Uchida. It includes the other sonata first published as 'fur das Hammerklavier' op. 101 in A major.

I can't explain "listenable" except by ostensive definition - I find Backhaus at Ludwigsberg on 12 December 1953 listenable in the first movement

https://open.spotify.com/track/62ssKnDLVPw9gmsfwBsN41?si=e9e46b28e62d42fa&nd=1&ut m_medium=organic&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA7WO TQqDMBSETxOXWmOQWpDSIm76Q6HQrUR90WBMwktEevvGQo9QGB iY4WNm9N66Q5I4a7wU75hbGyupp%2BRo0fRL50tjQUeEMrEo1S yoynFDSHYitA7a6vhHd2YOkUfeTcFz6txFV9fXYy2G2Yn17O4s JVntJMkqKIDlLd1DTntGBf9ucKXaAP9zh9Bc9yFPIwHcLwilwY Fr2YUDOwQBiFIPTYtmdYDlzbRSQaieXHCUHwY1syMwAQAA&pro duct=open&%24full_url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.c om%2Ftrack%2F62ssKnDLVPw9gmsfwBsN41%3Fsi%3De9e46b2 8e62d42fa&feature=organic&_branch_match_id=1361008 267175371154

And the one from Bonn on 24 September1959 is pretty listenable too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxfq7nJEBcY&t=7s&ab_channel=LeonardoPolyph oniae

[smittims]

...and now I'm 'not sure' what you mean by 'ostensive definition'. I do like Backhaus very much though. Maybe we should leave it at that .