Beethoven Appassionata Piano Sonata, Op.57

[richardfinegold]

This piece was one of my first “hooks” into Classical Music in my early teens. A borrowed—stole, really—a friend’s record of Paul Badura Skoda (whom Inow associate with tinkly fortepiano, not thundering Bosendorfers, but he was a bit of a fire eating virtuoso in his early days)—and played it into oblivion. All of that molten fury and passion threatening to burst loose and finally escaping—my surging testosterone levels of early puberty ate i up.
I hadn’t much listened to it until a recent chance radio hearing reawakened a long dormant passion. Pollini, Kempff, Arrau, Annie Fisher have all crossed my airwaves recently, but for me, Richter seems to have the measure of the piece—he is just a vessel for channeling Beethoven’s fury.
Is this one of Beethoven’s sublime creations, or is it his 1812 Overture? Prospero’s enchanted island, or Macbeth’s sound and fury, signifying nothing? Do modern grands do the work justice, or does a superb fortepiano Pianist such as Brautigan best convey the sense of overwhelming the limitations of the instrument?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This was the work that changed me when I was a teenage pianist. Up to that time, Beethoven’s piano music meant the G major sonata (Op 49, no. 2) & Fur Elise. Then my teacher suggested I acquired the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas books, which I did, and I became passionate about them, playing through the snippets I could manage. One of these was the 2nd subject, 1st movement of Sonata 23. It became a hook, and I taught myself the entire movement, even though it was well in advance of my playing skills at the time. It was a giant leap forward, yet it remains my number 1 piano work.

As for the instruments used to play it, I suggest no piano yet invented can match the Appassionata’s magnitude. But we’re getting there!

[richardfinegold]

What is your favorite recording, Allie?

[Barbirollians]

Mine remains Brendel’s 1970s account no doubt because I played the LP into the dust when I was at university.

[silvestrione]

Which Richter, Richard? I like best his live Moscow version on Melodiya.

This sonata seems to me an astounding piece, obviously one of his finest compositions, unique, nothing else quite like it (apart from his other two best-known named sonatas). It IS tragic though, isn't it, despite the sense of release you mention at the end. Or because of it. It plunges to some catastrophe, which is nevertheless cathartic. It is original and pioneering in every way, use of the instrument, formally (the first movement seamless with no exposition repeat), emotionally, in the sense of a psychodrama.

If I were to turn to someone else for a listen, I'd probably go for Arrau, or, yes, Brendel. I remember being really impressed by both Solomon and Schnabel, too. There's a good analysis in Charles Rosen's book on the sonatas. He points out, for example, that all the opening phrases end on a short note, very carefully indicated by Beethoven, and nobody plays it like that!

[Stanfordian]

In the 'Appassionata' I always return to Maurizio Pollini on DG. The youngish Barenboim from the 1960s on EMI (Warner) is admirable too.

For some reason Richter and Brendel generally leave me cold.

I've seen John Lill perform the 'Appassionata' live three times and he always captivated me; such a fine player.

[richardfinegold]

Which Richter, Richard? I like best his live Moscow version on Melodiya.

This sonata seems to me an astounding piece, obviously one of his finest compositions, unique, nothing else quite like it (apart from his other two best-known named sonatas). It IS tragic though, isn't it, despite the sense of release you mention at the end. Or because of it. It plunges to some catastrophe, which is nevertheless cathartic. It is original and pioneering in every way, use of the instrument, formally (the first movement seamless with no exposition repeat), emotionally, in the sense of a psychodrama.

If I were to turn to someone else for a listen, I'd probably go for Arrau, or, yes, Brendel. I remember being really impressed by both Solomon and Schnabel, too. There's a good analysis in Charles Rosen's book on the sonatas. He points out, for example, that all the opening phrases end on a short note, very carefully indicated by Beethoven, and nobody plays it like that!

I lost track of how many Richter recordings there are. I think I may have the one that you reference, perhaps on a different label. I also have a big Richter box and there is probably one there as well.. one problem with playing CDs that I have burned to a HD is I forget the provenance of some of them.
Brendel keeps coming up as a recommendation, and I have the large Brendel Phillips Brendel box, so when I return from work tonight will listen to that, perhaps while reading Rosen on this piece. My first integral set of the Sonatas was Brendel’s Vox cycle, sold here for a pittance that I could afford and pressed on vinyl that wasn’t fit for using as asphalt to fix road potholes. I recall watching the tonearm trying to track the misshapen Records, hanging on for dear life like fishermen in a Winslow Homer painting, and it seemed like the passion of the music was causing the distress of the cartridge.

[silvestrione]

I lost track of how many Richter recordings there are. I think I may have the one that you reference, perhaps on a different label. I also have a big Richter box and there is probably one there as well.. one problem with playing CDs that I have burned to a HD is I forget the provenance of some of them.
Brendel keeps coming up as a recommendation, and I have the large Brendel Phillips Brendel box, so when I return from work tonight will listen to that, perhaps while reading Rosen on this piece. My first integral set of the Sonatas was Brendel’s Vox cycle, sold here for a pittance that I could afford and pressed on vinyl that wasn’t fit for using as asphalt to fix road potholes. I recall watching the tonearm trying to track the misshapen Records, hanging on for dear life like fishermen in a Winslow Homer painting, and it seemed like the passion of the music was causing the distress of the cartridge.

Those Vox recordings (yes, I remember some unreliable vinyl!) now work very well on CD. I will have a listen to that Brendel later.


My introduction to the piece was the Barenboim EMI 1960s version referenced above, a fine performance still in many ways, IMV. Generally I love Pollini, but don't quite take to him in this work, or not so far.

[Bryn]

My delight in Op. 57 was re-ignited in 1981, with the release of Malcolm Binns recording, playing a c. 1785 Louis Dulken instrument (recorded in March 1979).

[silvestrione]

My delight in Op. 57 was re-ignited in 1981, with the release of Malcolm Binns recording, playing a c. 1785 Louis Dulken instrument (recorded in March 1979).

How does the instrument illuminate the work, then, Bryn? I am intrigued, not hostile, of course.

[Bryn]

How does the instrument illuminate the work, then, Bryn? I am intrigued, not hostile, of course.

The thing that first struck me, back in 1981, was the clear differences in timbre between the registers. The throaty rumble of the bass strings also provided a dramatic contrast with a modern instrument. I was also intrigued that Binns chose an instrument built a couple of decades before the composition of the sonata on which to play it. The quicksilver runs in the upper register really pay off for the choice, though. When the first of Binns's four volumes came out, I bought it as soon as I could and waited with bated breath for the second, then the third and fourth together, to be released. I had to wait around three and a half decades for the survey to be released on CD in its entirety (only the late sonatas had been released previously, on the Explore label), and they only after a couple of decades or so. One of the attractions of the Binns survey is that it used a range of original instruments from the Colt Collection, rather than modern copies. Later came other surveys on historical instruments from PBS and from Bilson and his students, then the Brautigam (on modern copies). Sadly, Paul Komen did not complete his HIPP survey, though what he did record are well worth seeking out.

[silvestrione]

I have listened to the early Vox Brendel. Far too 'cool' for me, almost uninvolved at times! Though he does respect the note values, piano markings, and silences that Rosen asks for in the opening, to good effect.

[jayne lee wilson]

This piece was one of my first “hooks” into Classical Music in my early teens. A borrowed—stole, really—a friend’s record of Paul Badura Skoda (whom Inow associate with tinkly fortepiano, not thundering Bosendorfers, but he was a bit of a fire eating virtuoso in his early days)—and played it into oblivion. All of that molten fury and passion threatening to burst loose and finally escaping—my surging testosterone levels of early puberty ate i up.
I hadn’t much listened to it until a recent chance radio hearing reawakened a long dormant passion. Pollini, Kempff, Arrau, Annie Fisher have all crossed my airwaves recently, but for me, Richter seems to have the measure of the piece—he is just a vessel for channeling Beethoven’s fury.
Is this one of Beethoven’s sublime creations, or is it his 1812 Overture? Prospero’s enchanted island, or Macbeth’s sound and fury, signifying nothing? Do modern grands do the work justice, or does a superb fortepiano Pianist such as Brautigan best convey the sense of overwhelming the limitations of the instrument?

That is inaccurate about Badura-Skoda, as I elaborated on the Mozart k478/493 thread (he uses a 1790s Schantz for those)......

From the extensive very detailed ECM note about the Brodmann piano of the 1820s accompanying Schiff’s Schubert - "A fortepiano of this time deliberately has no unified sound covering the entire keyboard, but different timbres for the bass, middle and treble compasses. The comparatively thin bass strings produce a quite transparent sound that avoids the danger of covering the treble.")
They also have four pedals...(soft, bassoon, moderator, sustain).

Badura-Skoda uses a modern Bösendorfer when it seems apt....“What I like about Bösendorfer is the singing sound as well as the evenness in all registers. The balance between the reverberation and the attack—this is unique.”)
Brodmann's apprentice was..... one Ignaz Bösendorfer, who took over his workshop in 1828.

He chooses the instrument to match repertoire and acoustical space.
When are these forums going to accept a basic of music history, that the development of the piano, whether forte is prefix or suffix, is a continuum; there's no crude cut-off point between fortepiano or 19th Century Pianoforte (Erard, Schleicher, as preferred by Brahms) and our modern grand; that a prime mover for its development was the need to fill larger concert halls, be audible against larger more powerful orchestras......and so on.

Op.57 is a towering tragic masterpiece anyway, Beethoven at his greatest, structural and emotionally.

[Bryn]

And when PBS plays on a Bösendorfer, at least while paying heed to HIPP, he addresses the instrument as a musical resource to be mined, not as some parody if historical instrument playing.

[pastoralguy]

When I was a music student, many years ago, my best friend on the course was a very talented pianist who was the most amazing sight reader. I recall that on one occasion a 'cellist who was doing her final recital was distressed to find her pianist had been delayed on a train that had broken down. My friend saved the situation by literally sight reading her entire programme in the concert! He did not fluff a single passage and I know 'cause I was turning pages. In fact, I was more nervous than he was since I was scared of missing a repeat!

There was another pianist on the course who was a very odd fellow. I suspect he had a type of autism that made him socially isolated although we did our best to include him in our active social lives. His piano playing was most odd since he could play the most difficult pieces albeit badly. His real gift was in academic work where he excelled.

In a very cruel way, my fabulous sight reading friend would parody the other chap by playing the Apassionata Sonata, one of our set works, in his style including real clunkers of distorted cadences, terrible phrasing and various grunts and ticks. It was an extremely funny parody that we undergraduates howled at until the day that the other chap played it during an analysis class and played it EXACTLY as my friend had parodied him!

It was incredibly embarrassing since none of us could keep a straight face and it took all our muster to stop giggling! It ended up with us being reprimanded by the senior lecturer!! To this day, I can't hear the Apassionata Sonata without being both amused and ashamed at the same time.