BaL 6.07.13 - Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 32 in C minor Op. 111

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Malcolm Bilson or Tom Beghin or David Breitman or Bart van Oort or Ursula Dütschler (?) [HELP]

Tom Beghin on an 1825 Fritz. I think I'll give it a spin right now.

Many thanks.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Kempff (from both of his cycles, mono and stereo), Arrau (1960s? Philips LP), Kovacevich a.k.a Bishop (1973?), Solomon, Vogel, Sodergren, Annie Fischer. [EDIT plus Gould and Schnabel - how could I forget Schnabel?] If I had time to play one now I think I'd revisit Mr Bishop or Solomon, tho' IIRC the latter's "a couple of bars short of a sonata" owing to careless editing before first release.

[rauschwerk]

Timings of second movement: Kempff (1952) takes 14'33", the other 5 pianists I mentioned range between 17'23" (Pollini) and 19'27" (Rosen). It seems to me that Kempff's more flowing tempo is closer than the others to what 'historically informed' performers would regard as Adagio.

Brendel (1995) was recorded at Snape Maltings, though you would hardly guess that from the recorded balance. The clarity, even severity, of the performance is complemented by the close miking. Brendel is, as one would expect, scrupulously faithful to the text but I did not find this performance to be very emotionally involving. (Some breathing and groaning from the artist is audible in headphones.)

[verismissimo]

Thanks as always to Eine Alpen for his amazing list. :)

[amateur51]

My memory, from both a recording and, later on, a 'live' performance at RFH London, is that Christoph Eschenbach's performance of op 111 is pretty special.

But can I find the CD here?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Piano-Sonatas-Nos-29-32/dp/B0000CE7FK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310635164&sr=1-2

[BBMmk2]

In my collection I have Barenboim's Dg acount(part of his complete cycle), and the DVD he did to. Plus Emil Gilels's set on DG(pity he didn't live long enough to complete that cycle)

[Bryn]

Timings of second movement: Kempff (1952) takes 14'33", ... . It seems to me that Kempff's more flowing tempo is closer than the others to what 'historically informed' performers would regard as Adagio.

Interesting. Brautigam plays the movement at a similar pace. All other performances I have heard on fortepiano have adopted more measured tempi. I find Brautigam's recording of Op. 111 to be one of his less successful in the series.

[ostuni]

Looking at my mp3 playlist, I see that Lubimov takes 17'01", and Peter Serkin 19'03". I haven't yet had a chance to listen to the first 2 yet; Serkin's piano (a Conrad Graf, recorded in the 80s) is distinctly dodgy at times, though that doesn't stop him from playing the fastest Hammerklavier fugue in my collection (yes, even faster than Gulda).

[Bryn]

Looking at my mp3 playlist, I see that Lubimov takes 17'01", and Peter Serkin 19'03". I haven't yet had a chance to listen to the first 2 yet; Serkin's piano (a Conrad Graf, recorded in the 80s) is distinctly dodgy at times, though that doesn't stop him from playing the fastest Hammerklavier fugue in my collection (yes, even faster than Gulda).

Which Gulda recording? The early '50s Decca is much swifter than the '60s recording. Though I have Peter Serkin's Op. 109, 110 and 111 on CD, I only have 106 on LP (so I'm currently backing that up to a hard disc/CD burner).

[ostuni]

Ah yes, the 1967 Amadeo - I haven't heard the Decca.

[Bryn]

Ah yes, the 1967 Amadeo - I haven't heard the Decca.

Gulda's 1954 ORF recording (on Orfeo) shaves a couple of seconds off his earlier Decca recording, bringing in the final movement of the Hammerklavier at 10' 33"! Somehow it sounds less rushed than the Peter Serkin (11' 27") to my ears.

[umslopogaas]

Just been to check the shelves, I've got (all on LP):

Arrau (Columbia, mono)
Schnabel (EMI, Great Recordings of the Century, mono)
Pollini (DG)
Ashkenazy (Decca)
Solomon (HMV, mono)
Kempff (DG)
Katchen (Decca)
Ronald Smith (EMI)
Michelangeli (Decca)

Admittedly I havent played any for some time, but I think if I could only keep one, it would be Michelangeli.

[verismissimo]

There's someone with a REAL LP collection! (Me too!)

[johnb]

On my shelves (in no particular order) are:

Kovacevich
Solomon
Brendel
Richter
Sofronitsky
Paul Lewis
John Ogdon, whose BBC Legend recording I have just been listening to.

I also have Schnabel on LP somewhere in the house. (About time I listened to that again.)

[rauschwerk]

After Brendel, Kempff seems to hail from another planet. The recording does the piano few favours in fortissimo, and parts of the first movement sound a bit clangorous. Kempff does not repeat the exposition. But within a few seconds of the start of the second movement, Kempff's beautiful voicing drew me in at once. His initial tempo is more flowing than Brendel's, and surprisingly he speeds up once the theme is stated. However, even the 'jazzy' variation does not sound scrambled because he knows just where and how much to vary the basic pulse. This pianist knew so many gradations of pianissimo! This account moved me a good deal more than Brendel's.