Beethoven Piano Sonatas; a quick vote

[Bryn]

So, so difficult, but much as I am tempted to say Brautigam, or indeed Binns (the uneven condition of the instruments notwithstanding), I think I will plump for the Orfeo Gulda set. I'd known the '67 set for decades, along with the Decca of the final three. Next I got the full Decca set and was pretty much bowed over. Then came the Orfeo set. If you have not heard it, make sure you change that situation.

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/beethoven-complete-pianos-sonatas

[BBMmk2]

That would be my choice too. I'd just have ro do without the others.

But my real answer is that I would choose the Associated Board edition of the complete sonatas and play them myself. Despite the inferior end result, it's by tar the most satisfying way to get to know these amazing works.

Likewise, those AB scores are very good indeed. Likewise, the trouble is, if I could be Gilels or Barenboim, or Schnabel, combined, would'nt that be wonderful!

[VodkaDilc]

That would be my choice too. I'd just have ro do without the others.

But my real answer is that I would choose the Associated Board edition of the complete sonatas and play them myself. Despite the inferior end result, it's by tar the most satisfying way to get to know these amazing works.

And I am sure that you mean the classic red hardback Craxton and Tovey 1931 edition and not the soulless, fussy and difficult to read new Associated Board edition of the 35 (sic) Beethoven Sonatas. My copies are over 45 years old and still going strong.

[BBMmk2]

That's the edition I have! *The 1931 Craxton & Tovey)

[Bryn]

I'm still relying mainly on Lea Pocket Scores.

[VodkaDilc]

That's the edition I have! *The 1931 Craxton & Tovey)

Clear print, durable binding which stays open on the piano, practical fingering, editorially sound for all but the most pedantic, Tovey's peerless commentaries - this edition is head and shoulders above the others.

[Alison]

It would have to be Brendel for me.

The off air recordings of his early eighties cycle - thanks dad - I hold in the very highest regard.

The CDs not always quite so inspired.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And I am sure that you mean the classic red hardback Craxton and Tovey 1931 edition and not the soulless, fussy and difficult to read new Associated Board edition of the 35 (sic) Beethoven Sonatas. My copies are over 45 years old and still going strong.

Yes indeed. The new Barry Cooper edition is an exercise in oneupmanship, with the 3 sonatinas added, and a few editorial changes of relatively little consequence. Unlike the original Craxton/Tovey volumes, these new ones are a devil to keep flat when playing.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm still relying mainly on Lea Pocket Scores.

Your eyesight's better than mine! I use the Henle "Urtext" edition.

[VodkaDilc]

Yes indeed. The new Barry Cooper edition is an exercise in oneupmanship, with the 3 sonatinas added, and a few editorial changes of relatively little consequence. Unlike the original Craxton/Tovey volumes, these new ones are a devil to keep flat when playing.

The editorial change include some very odd distribution of the notes between the hands - possibly changed to what Beethoven wrote, but making it hard for less experienced players to grasp. The Pathétique slow movement is a good example; I've recently had relatively advanced pupils who have struggled, but then, when I have produced the original edition, they have played it easily.

[anamnesis]

It would have to be Brendel for me.

The off air recordings of his early eighties cycle - thanks dad - I hold in the very highest regard.

The CDs not always quite so inspired.

I've got the LPs ("vinyls"). For me, Brendel is one of the finest Schubert-players, but his Beethoven is imho sometimes too "controlled" (Vienna Gemütlichkeit) when a vulcano eruption is requested. I mean, I don't consider op 57 as a great masterpiece (heretic, I know...), but I really want to hear such a vulcano eruption in the 3rd movement. And I can hear it in Ashkenazy's Decca record and also in Erich Thenberg's 10" record.

[anamnesis]

Erich Thenberg's 10" record.

I must apologies. Erik Then-Berg of course.

[aeolium]

Gulda - either the mono set on Decca or the broadcasts on Orfeo. Miraculous playing matched by wonderful concentration and intelligence. Not that other cycles don't have all this, but I find Gulda to be as compelling an intepreter of this music as anyone.

I also would opt for Gulda for consistently superb playing and also a refusal to approach the music with undue reverence (I have a soft spot for Schnabel's cycle too).

[Arcades Project]

Really it's impossible, isn't it?

On period pianos I hope Paul Komen's Globe recordings won't be forgotten (such a shame he didn't get to record more or all of the sonatas): if he had I suspect I'd have preferred them generally to Brautigam. The ZigZag Alexei Lubimov disc of op. 109-111 is for me indispensable. & there are many recordings of individual sonatas on modern pianos that are of such great insight.

Otherwise for a box I'd go in general for Gulda's Orfeo set (though the late 60s 'cycle' is excellent). Three other sets that haven't been mentioned, maybe because no one apart from me likes them

yes, he has his way of doing things but I often listen to András Schiff's ECM CDs from concert recordings.

François-Frédéric Guy on ZigZag. He can certainly sound perverse or mannered, but there's much more life & provocation of thought than most http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Zigzag/ZZT304 (etc. divides opinions). Staggeringly it's his third recording of the Hammerklavier, which IMV he always plays superbly. (To digress, I also heard him give in concert a performance of Schubert's A major sonata D.959 which was a thing of astonishing intensity & pathos).

Rudolf Buchbinder's new 'live' set http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/RCA/88697875102 which again will divide opinion. Maybe no bad thing.

I have Brendel recordings, I've heard him give concerts, but his playing has never really clicked with me. Oddly, given what's written above, I prefer him in Beethoven to Schubert; taken together with his ruinous omission of D.960's exposition repeat.

[BBMmk2]

Ah, Arcades Project, what would you choose though?