BaL 30.04.22 - Chopin: Piano Sonata no. 3 in B minor

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 Building a Library
Allyson Devenish compares recordings of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor and chooses her favourite.

Chopin’s final piano sonata was composed in 1844 and dedicated to Countess Émilie de Perthuis. It is a work of immense complexity, both technically and musically, and comprises four movements. The sonata opens with heavy chords in B minor, but journeys through a Scherzo and dream-like Nocturne, before ending in a dazzling Finale, which starts in B minor but ends triumphantly in a B major Coda.

Available versions:-

Louis Demetrius Alvanis
Leif Ove Andsnes
Martha Argerich 1965
Martha Argerich 1967
Claudio Arrau *
Claudio Arrau *
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Stefan Askenase *
Emanuel Ax
Paul Badura-Skoda 1971
Daniel Barenboim *
Harold Bauer
Matthew Bengtson
Gints Berzin�s
Idil Biret
Nick Van Bloss
Arpád Bodó *
Veronique Bonnecaze *
Oleg Boshniakovich *
Evgeni Bozhanov *
Alexander Brailowsky
Angela Brownridge
Joanna Brzezinska *
Stanislav Bunin *
Robert Casadesus
Susan Chan *
Sa Chen *
Shura Cherkassky
Jae-Hyuck Cho
Sang Mi Chung
Dino Ciani
Van Cliburn 1964
Jean Philippe Collard *
Josep Colom *
Alfred Cortot 1928
Sequeira Costa
Georges Cziffra
John Damgaard
Nikolai Demidenko
François-René Duchâble
François Dumont
Jan Ekier *
Nancy Hill Elton *
Brigitte Engerer *
Janina Fialkowska *
Rudolf Firkusny
Ingrid Fliter *
Samson François
Nelson Freire *
Mao Fujita
Kotaro Fukuma (SACD)
Elfrun Gabriel
Sergio Gallo *
Lukas Geniusas
Luciano Giarbella *
Emil Gilels 1978
Emil Gilels 1978 (DVD)
Emil Gilels 1979
Emil Gilels 1980
Jayson Gillham
Jakob Gimpel
Nelson Goerner 1976
Nelson Goerner 2009 DVD
Leticia Gomez-Tagle (SACD)
Elina Gotsouliak
Glenn Gould *
Anna Gourari
Percy Grainger *
Marc-André Hamelin *
Kenneth Hamilton
Adam Harasiewicz
Endre Hegedûs
Daniel Herscovitch *
Margarita Hohenrieder
Stephen Hough
Miao Huang
Angeles Iglesias *
Andrey Ivanov *
Ilona Janky *
Jin Ju (SACD)
Ivo Kahánek
William Kapell *
Julian von Karolyi
Julius Katchen *
Peter Katin
Peter Katin
Cyprien Katsaris
Hisako Kawamura *
Wilhelm Kempff
Kevin Kenner
Olga Kern *
Evgeny Kissin
Hyperion Knight *
Raoul von Koczalski
Alexander Kobrin
Martin Kasik
Yu Kosuge
Lang Lang *
Ka Ling Colleen Lee
Yundi Li
Dong-Min Lim *
Tao Lin *
Dinu Lipatti
Kate Liu
Louis Lortie
Nikolai Lugansky *
Jean-Marc Luisada
Moura Lympany *
Nikita Magaloff *
Milosz Magin *
Pietro De Maria *
Alexander Melnikov
Dominique Merlet *
Aleksandra Mikulska *
Zora Mihailovich *
Joseph Moog
Jean Muller *
Eugene Mursky
Priya Myadas *
Eldar Nebolsin
Heinrich Neuhaus
Lev Oborin
Garrick Ohlsson
Laurence Oldak *
Georgijs Osokins
Cécile Ousset *
Alexander Paley *
Murray Perahia
Javier Perianes
Vlado Perlemuter
Egon Petri *
Olivier Peyrebrune *
Maria João Pires
Andrey Pisarev
Mikhail Pletnev
Ivo Pogorelich
Roberto Poli *
Daniel Pollack *
Maurizio Pollini 1984 *
Maurizio Pollini 2011
Maurizio Pollini 2013
Nadia Reisenberg
Alberto Reyes
Charles Richard-Hamelin
Jerome Rose *
Charles Rosen *
Moriz Rosenthal *
Arthur Rubinstein
Sandro Russo
Pnina Salzman
Ann Schein *
Victor Schioler
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
György Sebök *
Catalin Serban
Howard Shelley
Howard Shelley *
Craig Sheppard
Abbey Simon *
Alex Slobodyanik *
Nicolas Stavy
Csilla Szabó *
Magda Tagliaferro
Igor Tchetuev
Edoardo Torbianelli
Daniil Trifonov
Valerie Tryon
Fou Ts’ong
Mitsuko Uchida
Mariangela Vacatello
Denes Varjon *
Dinorah Varsi
Tamás Vásáry *
Alexei Volodin *
Alexis Weissenberg
David Wilde
Stefan Wojtas *
Mu Ye Wu
Ingolf Wunder
Chuang Ya-Fei *
Yike Tony Yang
Yubo Zhou (SACD)
Gerrit Zitterbart

* = download only

[Wolfram]

This is my favourite piano sonata not written by Beethoven. Looking forward to this one.

[gradus]

How on earth could all versions be considered? Why not publish the short list in advance?

[CallMePaul]

I have Pollini 2013, Pires and Perahia. The Pollini is my favourite of these - Pollini is my favourite Chopin pianist, although performances on period instruments also interest me.

[Jonathan]

Interesting - I've not heard a performance that quite gets the finale 'Presto' enough for me. I will have to have a listen to this!

[rauschwerk]

The other week, I played all the versions in my collection: Grainger, Lympany, Lipatti and Ashkenazy (all over 50 years old!). I wouldn't be without any of them, though I suppose that Lipatti approaches perfection the most nearly.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Interesting - I've not heard a performance that quite gets the finale 'Presto' enough for me. I will have to have a listen to this!

It is a presto non tanto (or tango as my spell check serendipitously called it ) . If you take the triplets too fast a car crash or more usually gruesome braking ensues in the virtuosic semiquaver run section. It’s just about the ultimate pianists graveyard this movement. It’s so easy to create a muddied texture in the four against three repeat section. You rarely hear a clean live performance ( or indeed any live performance ).

[BBMmk2]

It is a presto non tanto (or tango as my spell check serendipitously called it ) . If you take the triplets too fast a car crash or more usually gruesome braking ensues in the virtuosic semiquaver run section. It’s just about the ultimate pianists graveyard this movement. It’s so easy to create a muddied texture in the four against three repeat section. You rarely hear a clean live performance ( or indeed any live performance ).

Many thanks, for this!

My favourite is Martha Argerich, her old EMI recording.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My favourite is Martha Argerich, her old EMI recording.

Surprisingly, I could only find two Argerich recordings: 1965 and 1967. Surely she’s played it since then?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Surprisingly, I could only find two Argerich recordings: 1965 and 1967. Surely she’s played it since then?

It wouldn’t surprise me if she hasn’t . I used to go to lots of piano recitals and I’ve never heard it live unlike the BFlat minor. I wonder if it’s because it lacks the “big tunes” you get in the latter. Maybe it’s because for non specialists having one Chopin sonata in your repertoire is considered enough along with a couple of ballades and scherzi and a selection of nocturnes / etudes / preludes . I think the slow movement is one of the most beautiful things Chopin ever wrote and as harmonically daring , in its way , as some Liszt. In recital it strikes me as a good piece to schedule because of its bravura ending whereas the finale of the Funeral March is over before you know it.

[gurnemanz]

Surprisingly, I could only find two Argerich recordings: 1965 and 1967. Surely she’s played it since then?

Not according to this site.

[gurnemanz]

In May 2004 David Owen Norris chose Nelson Goerner with Dinu Lipatti as Historic Choice.

[richardfinegold]

Interesting - I've not heard a performance that quite gets the finale 'Presto' enough for me. I will have to have a listen to this!

Have you heard Kissin?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Not according to this site.

Many thanks for the info. Yet these still all appear to be from 1965 and ‘67.

[silvestrione]

I find this sonata hard to like, as a whole. I love the first movement, and the last is splendid in its way, but it does not seem to build into a whole somehow. I have heard Demidenko and Krystian Zimerman play it live, the latter in particular technically secure and thrilling in the last movement.

There is I think a lockdown performance by Argerich from 2020, on Youtube.