Listening to Annie Fischer playing the "Hammerklavier" sonata via Tidal - breathtaking! Thanks so much for bringing her music to my attention...
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My favorite Beethoven piano sonata cycles
- Thread starter hvbias
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orangejello
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Richard Goode... the most articulate of any I know. Played with a somewhat detached ethereal quality. What is lacking in passion is compensated for with exceptional elucidation of the structure of the piece. Every detail is presented effortlessly so that I get the feeling of listening to Beethoven’s mind. Ivan Moravec is better in that he is equal to Goode in elucidation of every nuance - but he has tremendous power and color. Unfortunately he recorded only a handful out of the cycle.
astr0b0y
Active Member
Nice write up, many thanks. I have very little knowledge of classical music so this really helps. Anyone have recommends on flute players/pieces that I should check out? My daughter has been playing for a few years now so I’d like to have some new things for us to listen to.
orangejello
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I am not very familiar with flute virtuosos. For baroque music though, Franz Brueggen is unparalleled. He plays transverse flute and recorder. Anything he did, especially his work with Gustav Leonhardt, is a treasure. His playing on the Leonhardt Consort Brandenburg Concertos... wow! He has a languid and relaxed ease to his playing that is as organic as listening to the leaves rustle in a gentle breeze. For someone learning to play I could easily imagine that there would be a lot to absorb from him, even though he does not play a metal instrument.
His musical abilities do not stop at his flute playing. He is also a conductor, most notably with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Here he tries for historic authenticity in every respect. I am not too keen on that effort though. Interesting... yes. But it often sounds a little too anemic.
I like the recordings by Bruce Hungerford (he died before he complete his cycle).
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Beethoven-Piano-Various-artists/dp/B07BHDZL47/
(The Big Beethoven Piano box for $0.99!)
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Beethoven-Piano-Various-artists/dp/B07BHDZL47/
(The Big Beethoven Piano box for $0.99!)
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- Thread Starter
- #27
Pollini recently released live recordings of Op. 109, 110, 111 for the Beethoven anniversary. His 109 from that disc is exceptional. I decided to revisit his complete cycle and I've changed my mind about it. It's now in my exceptional category.
I'll copy and paste what I wrote on the GMG forum for the newest Pollini disc, in quotes below.
Also made some changes to my list in the first post. Removed Gulda (Amadeo) from the recommended list (too much competition to have him included) and added Bernard Roberts to the worth hearing section, I might move this up. He has the rigidity of Backhaus with the lyrical qualities of Kempff and Lucchesini, it's in a way "ordinary" and unadorned, all these qualities make it quite special. And added Andrea Lucchesini to the titan tier ranking. I've heard Lucchesini's cycle five times now and some individual works more and it's now my overall favorite cycle.
Igor Levit another cycle that came out last year, quite popular with the critics. Fairly middle of the road interpretations. Some nice detailed playing in certain parts of the late sonatas with some of the clarity he brings to lower voices. People that like Alfred Brendel might like this.
I might write something up about individual discs of the late sonatas, these are the ones of most interest to me and I have loads of favorites.
Really special Op. 109 for me. Weirdly he sort of rushes, even clips some of the phrases yet it still sounds divine and transcendental. The same continues through the rest of 109. His tone is also much more to my taste here with a rich burnished tone compared to the steeliness of his earlier recording. Not a fan of either recording of his in 110 and 111 didn't hit the same highs for me as the earlier recording. Lots of humming throughout
Really wonderful atmosphere around the recordings too, brilliantly mic'd by DG, loads of ambient information about the hall and plenty of direct sound.
Yeah it's live, this is why I complemented DG's engineers as there is virtually no audience noise (or maybe they paid the eye watering amount his tickets go for and decided to stay quiet!); it sounds like the mics are placed closer to the piano with the amount left hand weightiness I'm hearing. But at the same time enough reverberant information from the hall that I get a feel for the recording space that it's in. Pollini does play quite briskly and one reason 111 is not entirely to my taste is how he plays variation 4 and 5. Variation 3 is also a bit lacking in the real reckless abandonment but that is fine, Gulda or maybe Grinberg might be the only ones I've heard that truly relishes this section.
If this is unedited, and I am lead to believe it might be since there are a few extremely minor mistakes here and there, then Pollini still possess tremendous skill. I'd love to see him play this program live.
Hungerford is exceptional as well, it's probably been 10+ years since I've really listened to him in any real depth. I will revisit them and see how they are.
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- Thread Starter
- #29
For those that like Levit someone uploaded his full live cycle he performed in concert last summer at Salzburg. Apparently it was deathly hot inside the concert hall 
. IMHO I would save the videos if you like them as I think they are violating some copyright as they were originally part of a paid online subscription when they came out, maybe they have since made them free? Anyway I often save them just in case as hundreds of videos in my classical playlists have been taken down for no good reason as they never had a commercial DVD release or been made available on paid streaming services that I know of.
I recently purchased his CD cycle so I could hear it in better quality than streaming. I doubt I'll change my mind on it compared to what I've already written in this thread. His real strengths are in the early and middle sonatas but I find he falls short in the late sonatas compared to the best interpretations. Jed Distler and David Hurwitz have said it is overall the finest modern cycle, to me these are two respectable critics even if I don't always agree with them.
Igor Levit also seems to be a bit of an audiophile as the artwork in the CD box has a turntable (Thorens TD-124, Denon DL-103 cartridge), tube amps and some single driver speakers. The recording quality on this cycle is certainly quite good though the mic'ing is on the close side as there is a good amount of pedal noise as well as his grunting.
Also for fans of Morton Feldman he recorded Palais de Mari on his last album which also has some fine Busoni/Bach transcriptions.
. IMHO I would save the videos if you like them as I think they are violating some copyright as they were originally part of a paid online subscription when they came out, maybe they have since made them free? Anyway I often save them just in case as hundreds of videos in my classical playlists have been taken down for no good reason as they never had a commercial DVD release or been made available on paid streaming services that I know of. I recently purchased his CD cycle so I could hear it in better quality than streaming. I doubt I'll change my mind on it compared to what I've already written in this thread. His real strengths are in the early and middle sonatas but I find he falls short in the late sonatas compared to the best interpretations. Jed Distler and David Hurwitz have said it is overall the finest modern cycle, to me these are two respectable critics even if I don't always agree with them.
Igor Levit also seems to be a bit of an audiophile as the artwork in the CD box has a turntable (Thorens TD-124, Denon DL-103 cartridge), tube amps and some single driver speakers. The recording quality on this cycle is certainly quite good though the mic'ing is on the close side as there is a good amount of pedal noise as well as his grunting.
Also for fans of Morton Feldman he recorded Palais de Mari on his last album which also has some fine Busoni/Bach transcriptions.
Robin L
Master Contributor
Heard all but three of the pianists mentioned in the original post play Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Agree 110% about Annie Fischer. Have the Schnabel, Arrau and Fischer cycles ripped from my CDs.
Murray Perahia's Beethoven was not particularly striking to these ears until I heard his Hammerklavier/Moonlight Sonatas recording that came out recently:
There's a degree of accuracy in Perahia's playing in the Hammerklavier that exceeds what I have heard from anyone else so far.
I find Sir András Schiff's ECM cycle is extraordinary set as well
Murray Perahia's Beethoven was not particularly striking to these ears until I heard his Hammerklavier/Moonlight Sonatas recording that came out recently:
There's a degree of accuracy in Perahia's playing in the Hammerklavier that exceeds what I have heard from anyone else so far.
I find Sir András Schiff's ECM cycle is extraordinary set as well
Philistine that I am and non-musician, it can be difficult for me to distinguish good from really great performances. Frankly I tend to lean to great-sound good performance over great performance with poor SQ.
- Thread Starter
- #32
I have changed my mind on the Schnabel since being able to hear the Pearl transfers, these are a lot clearer than the Naxos Historical transfers and you can more clearly hear his magnificent brio. I would now put Schnabel in my exceptional category and in sonatas like Pastoral I find him unequaled, I find he has that perfect eb and flow with his subtle use of rubato.
That Murray Perahia Hammerklavier was very well loved by Jed Distler. I'm a bit cooler on it, but no doubt it is excellent.
I enjoyed this masterclass he gave, he has great insight into interpreting it:
My overall number one pick is Peter Serkin on Pro-Arte, the recording he made on a Steinway not fortepiano.
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Robin L
Master Contributor
Peter Serkin makes the fugal finale sound like a close relative of Bartok. Murray Perahia manages to cover more of the notes with greater note-accuracy than anyone else I've heard so far. Have to say, Sviatoslav Richter's Prague performance is a favorite for its brio and dynamics.
I've owned [are you ready?] 5 different transfers of the Schnabel set*, heard the Angel and RCA LP transfers from the 1950's and 1960's [the EMI LP set from the 1980's had the best sound of the LP transfers]. The most recent transfers of Schnabel's Beethoven recordings from Warner Brothers are the best I've heard so far. Though there's plenty of digital noise filtering, there's a lot more going on in the upper registers than in the [previous] References EMI transfers, and as much going on in the upper registers as the Pearl transfers, but without the noise. The greater the clarity of the transfers of Schnabel, the greater the apparent note-accuracy of his playing. Agree about the "Pastorale". Many of his recordings of the earliest sonatas have an impact that no one [with the exception of Annie Fischer] has equaled. I've heard the Warner Brothers transfers via Amazon Music HD.
*Seraphim LP 1980's EMI UK LP, EMI References CD, Pearl CD and Naxos CD
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Robin L
Master Contributor
Bought the Artur Schnabel Warner Classics complete Beethoven piano sonata set last week from Ebay, new for $25.00 with free shipping. Have been listening a lot to it since I got it. Manages to gleam on top but has very little surface noise. It's hard to imagine them sounding any better. Having cleaned up the sound this much seems to clean up the passagework a bit, but there are still performances that are messy. Certainly worth the $25.00.
James Galway playing Bach and William Bennett playing Handel if you want modern flute playing.
I will be checking out Annie Fischer's Hugarotone. She has always been a favourite performer of mine.
Of the 2 complete cycles I have, Stephen Kovacevich's is the one to which I turn for both interpretation and recorded sound quality.
Robin L
Master Contributor
Annie Fischer is much like what Schnabel would be like with modern sound and editing. I like what I've heard of Stephen Kovacevich (his old Philips recording of the Diabelli Variations is a favorite) but find the recorded sound of the EMI recordings too close up and hard. He certainly gets a lot of the notes in the Hammerklavier. I've also got the Claudio Arrau analog cycle, like it as much as the Schnabel set, albeit in different ways. I've also got the first Alfred Brendel cycle on Brilliant Classics in their big box of the complete Beethoven, have to get that off the shelf. The packaging is quite unwieldy. Lots of good things in the Brilliant Classics box, like the Guarani Quartet's second recording of the middle and late quartets or the Arthur Grumiaux/Clara Haskil set of the violin sonatas. I'm probably going to get the mono Kempff set in the near future. I've owned that set in a budget DGG box with excellent pressings, played that a lot.
She was an enthusiastic Nazi and anti-Semite, if that's what you mean. Anyway, I don't object to people enjoying this sort of thing when the artist is long dead. I enjoy the music of Paul Graener, for example, who was a pretty good composer... and a long dead Nazi. But there's no need to try to rehabilitate the reputation of Nazis because we enjoy their music making.
Robin L
Master Contributor
It's a historically interesting subject. Wilhelm Kempff, Herbert von Karajan and Karl Bohm were all enthusiastic Nazis, it did not damage their post-war careers. Wilhelm Furtwängler was not enthusiastic, though he didn't put up much of a fight, but got into more trouble. And Wilhelm Mengelberg was shut out of his Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra post war. It seems that the closer the artists were to the center of these activities in Germany, the more likely they would not be punished. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.
Artur Schnabel, for what it's worth, headed for the hills at the first sign of trouble, with Adolph Busch and Bruno Walter soon after.
I've seen much mention of this, but nothing beyond hearsay, so I'm interested to know what the sources are for it. It is not a case of rehabilitation, but of not repeating things others have said, just because it is the prevailing opinion.
I neither know these things to be true or untrue, but would rather not rush to judgment.
Almost all the 'more compliant' Soviet artists (Oistrakh, Kogan, Gilels et al) seemed to escape unscathed of any moral condemnation, yet that was an equally horrible regime. I'm not sure why that is, but there you go.
Furtwangler is interesting, you say he didn't put up a fight, but maybe he thought he could do more from the inside and had no idea of the magnitude of the problem heading his way. Hindsight is 20/20, after all.
