Our Summer BAL 43: Beethoven Spring Sonata in F Op 24

[richardfinegold]

Got called into emergency baby sitting duty for the grandkids...both asleep now (whew!)...listened to Kremer/Argerich and Perlman/V.A. consecutively on Spotify (once I started driving I couldn't change the playlist without putting myself at major risk).

Liked them both. Itzhak much more so than I remembered, more like two musicians who had been playing together. Kremer was low key and restrained in I, and most recordings I have heard go over the top in exuberance here, but I think the relatively low key manner is quite touching.

[Richard Tarleton]

I seem to have only have one recording, and offer this post in the interests of thoroughness - Jonathan Carney (violin) and Ronan O'Hora (piano). No idea about Carney's ethnicity, but he is a Galamian pupil and Julliard graduate, former leader of RPO and Bournemouth SO, and I picked up the recording in the interval of a Bournemouth SO concert in the first part of which he'd played Mozart 5.

[EdgeleyRob]

I have -
Menuhin/Kempff
Schneiderhan/Seemann (the complete set is on I tunes for a fiver)
and best of all IMO Nishizaki / Takako (Naxos,available for a penny on Amazon)
Just been spinning the Naxos,a sparkling performance,super sound.

[richardfinegold]

I have -
Menuhin/Kempff
Schneiderhan/Seemann (the complete set is on I tunes for a fiver)
and best of all IMO Nishizaki / Takako (Naxos,available for a penny on Amazon)
Just been spinning the Naxos,a sparkling performance,super sound.

The Soloist in the Naxos is the wife of the Label's president, Klaus Heymann. there is an interview with him in this month's Stereophile where he says the only CDs that he has retained in his personal collection are the one featuring his wife, because she forced him to retain them; otherwise when he listens it's to streaming.

[EdgeleyRob]

The Soloist in the Naxos is the wife of the Label's president, Klaus Heymann. there is an interview with him in this month's Stereophile where he says the only CDs that he has retained in his personal collection are the one featuring his wife, because she forced him to retain them; otherwise when he listens it's to streaming.

At least he has a great set of LvB violin sonatas.

[cloughie]

At least he has a great set of LvB violin sonatas.

The Spring Sonata was one of the first classical pieces I got to know at a very young age via my father's LP collection. It was on the Brunswick label and I've done some googling and discovered that it was the Fuchs Balsam recording now available on Naxos. Will I find the sound as attractive now as it was then some 60 years ago? I'm very tempted to check it out.

[rkyburz]

Back in the LP days, Szeryng/Rubinstein introduced me to this work (along with the Kreutzer sonata); later, I added Menuhin/Kempff, then moved on to Grumiaux/Haskil and Perlman/Ashkenazy — after switching to CDs, in the early '90s I really enjoyed Kremer/Argerich — they seemed to overshadow all my LP recordings in their liveliness, vitality and presence. I have since re-added the LP recordings on CD, and I went on to add a couple more; Capuçon/Braley to me didn't quite live up to what their video preview on amazon seemed to promise, Busch/Serkin is an amazing historic performance — but right now (despite my sympathies for all other musicians, Jewish and non-Jewish), nothing (to me) can beat Faust/Melnikov with this sonata, see here for a brief comparison (yes, I just can't stand strong, permanent vibrato any longer!). Well, this could be beaten if Melnikov was playing a fortepiano — and I think Mullova/Bezuidenhout haven't recorded this sonata just yet?

[verismissimo]

... nothing (to me) can beat Faust/Melnikov with this sonata, see here for a brief comparison (yes, I just can't stand strong, permanent vibrato any longer!). Well, this could be beaten if Melnikov was playing a fortepiano — and I think Mullova/Bezuidenhout haven't recorded this sonata just yet?

Thanks for this, rky. It would be good the hear from vinteuil and others about the more HIPpy offerings...

[Barbirollians]

I have and enjoy many of those mentioned but my favourite is Yehudi and Hepzibah Menuhin.