Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle Journal (Redux)

[Todd A]

So, to the actual question: if you had to choose an excellent interpretative cycle BUT also the best recorded, which would you actually go for?

Yusuke Kikuchi.
​

Can anyone comment on sound quality of the much more recent Daniel-Ben Pienaar cycle? Its available from presto classical for £23 (as opposed to £75 at amazon).

Sub-par for a modern set.

 

[Todd A]

Slow. Lotsa slow stuff in this set. One can glean that from some of the timings, not least the 54'+ Hammerklavier, with its 25'+ Adagio. How one feels about slow Beethoven may inform the decision to buy or listen to this set. Not me, of course, I preordered the first day the set was avaialble and waited anxiously for it to arrive. Out of the gate, the first two Op 2 sonatas sounded spontaneous, at least in places - aided by the live recording - but they also sounded a bit heavy for the material and a bit off-kilter, with extra-slow slow movements. With Op 2/3, Lifschitz finds his groove, or rather my taste aligns with his approach, and he demonstrates that he can do the virtuosity thing. This sonata starts a fairly long chain of high-grade, if slightly idiosyncratic takes on the sonatas. Op 7 is really very fine, with perfectly judged opening and slow movements, all three Op 10 sonatas sound just swell, as does the weighty Op 13, the almost but not quite overdone Op 14 sonatas, and the extremely fine Op 22. Here, somewhat against expectations, Lifschitz's slow approach to the slow movement really pays dividends, and the whole sonata is superb. Everything cruises along nicely until Op 31/1. The strange thing is that I thought all of Op 31 would work splendidly. Lifschitz adds spontaneity to an obviously well thought approach, and I started to think of him as basically a spontaneous neo-Kuerti. Except for 31/1. I'm not a huge fan of Kuerti's cycle overall, but he delivers one of the great 31/1s, but Lifschitz whiffs. The opening movement is a bit broad, but the 14'+ slow movement is just too much. And the finale also drags. 31/2 is also too slow, but Lifschitz's tendency to play dynamic extremes well helps here, though the slow movement is again too slow. 31/3 is good, with more energy, and the Op 49 sonatas are nice enough. The 50s are mixed. The tendency toward slowness makes the Waldstein drag a bit in places, and the stark dynamic contrasts are not nuanced enough. This latter tendency also informs Op 54, and Op 57 at times comes close to banging, though in person I'm sure it would work. Things then sort of cruise along at a good or very good level until Op 101, which sounds too heavy, kludgy, and almost sloppy in the fugal music, something which reappears in the finale movement of Op 106, which itself has a saggy, way too slow slow movement. The day I listened to the last three sonatas I also happened to revisit Fazil Say's recent set, and listening to both on the same day offers a fairly stark contrast. Both tend toward individuality almost to a fault, but there's something more right about what Say does. It just jells more, and the playing is more refined. To be sure, there are good things in the last three works from Lifschitz, but they're not as elevated as I like, and the half-hour plus Op 111 is again too slow for me. So, as with his set of Violin Sonatas with Daishin Kashimoto, a mixed bag, with some really good stuff in the first half of the cycle.

Sound for the live recordings is excellent, but not the best avaialble.

Third tier.

 

[Todd A]

A couple new cycles. The Honma comes later this year, while the Nuber was released last year.

 

[kullervo]

The Wigmore Hall has just announced an Igor Levit 8-concert cycle in the Winter 16/17 season. What's 8 x £30?. Presumably recordings will follow over the next 12 months.

Hello my friend,
I kindly ask you if you can to tell me something about Malcolm Binns edition of Beethoven's Sonatas:
I need, if you can send me this data, which fortepianos were played in each Sonata because I los the booklet of the big box.
I have Badura-Skoda edition on original instriuments which I love as I think you do.
Thanks a lot in advance!!!!!!

 

[Todd A]

This is the list of instruments which go more or less chronologically with the sonatas. There are too many to specific by sonata.

Heilmann, 1770-1775
Broadwood, 1794
Stein, 1802
Helimann of Offenbach, 1800
Haschka, 1810
Dulcken, 1785
Schiedmeyer, 1775-1785
Haschka, 1825
Clementi, 1812-1814
Graf, 1835
Erard, 1818
Broadwood, 1815
Broadwood, 1819

 

[jon l]

Igor Levit's Salzburg 2020 Festival cycle can be watched here until 20th Sept
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/098585-000-A/igor-levit-spielt-beethoven/

 

[Todd A]

Daniel Barenboim's fourth recorded cycle will be released this anniversary year.

Also, Konstantin Scherbakov's cycle will be out in the next month or two.

 

[Todd A]

Two more cycles for this Beethoven year, Minsoo Sohn's first cycle and Irina Mejoueva's second cycle.

 

[Todd A]

The most objective ratings system known to humanity - refreshed!

Top Tier – The Holy Tetrarchy
Annie Fischer (Hungarton)
Friedrich Gulda (Amadeo)
Wilhelm Kempff (DG, mono)
Wilhelm Backhaus (mono)
[Rudolf Serkin; OK, he didn't complete a cycle, but this is where he belongs]

Top Tier – The Rest of the Top Ten (sort of in order)
Wilhelm Kempff (DG, stereo)
Eric Heidsieck
Russell Sherman
Andrea Lucchesini
Emil Gilels
Daniel-Ben Pienaar
[Sviatoslav Richter; OK, he didn't complete a cycle, but this is where he belongs]


Second Tier - Cycles 11-20 (in alphabetical order)
Artur Schnabel
Fazil Say
Francois Frederic Guy
Kazune Shimizu (Sony)
Minsoo Sohn
Paul Badura-Skoda (JVC/Astree)
Takahiro Sonoda (Evica)
Wilhelm Backhaus (stereo)
Yu Kosuge
Yusuke Kikuchi

Second Tier - Remainder (in alphabetical order)
Bernard Roberts
Claude Frank
Daniel Barenboim (EMI, 2005)
Eduardo del Pueyo
Friedrich Gulda (Orfeo)
Maurizio Pollini
Michael Levinas
Peter Takacs
Robert Silverman
Rudolf Buchbinder (Unitel)
Seymour Lipkin
Takahiro Sonoda (Denon)
Younwha Lee

[Bruce Hungerford; OK, he didn't complete a cycle, but this is where he belongs]


Third Tier (in alphabetical order)
Abdel Rahman El Bacha (Mirare)
Akiyoshi Sako
Alfred Brendel (Philips, 1970s)
Alfred Brendel (Vox)
Alfredo Perl
Andras Schiff
Claudio Arrau (1960s)
Claudio Arrau (1980s)
Craig Sheppard
Daniel Barenboim (DG)
Daniel Barenboim (EMI, 1960s)
David Allen Wehr
Dieter Zechlin
Friedrich Gulda (Decca)
Garrick Ohlsson
Gerard Willems
Gerhard Oppitz
Ian Hobson
Ichiro Nodaira
Igor Levit
Irina Mejoueva
John O'Conor
Jonathan Biss
Konstantin Scherbakov
Kun-Woo Paik
Louie Lortie
Malcolm Binns
Michael Houstoun (Morrison Trust)
Michael Houstoun (Rattle)
Michael Korstick
Paul Badura-Skoda (Gramola)
Pavaali Jumppanen
Peter Rösel
Robert Silverman (AudioHigh)
Rudolf Buchbinder (Teldec)
Sequeira Costa
Stephen Kovacevich
Stewart Goodyear
Wilhelm Kempff (1961, King International)
Yaeko Yamane
Yves Nat


Fourth Tier (in alphabetical order)
Abdel Rahman El Bacha (Forlane)
Aldo Ciccolini
Alfred Brendel (Philips, 1990s)
Andre De Groote
Anton Kuerti
Christian Leotta
Daniel Barenboim (DG, 2020)
Dino Ciani
Georges Pludermacher
Idil Biret
Ikuyo Nakamichi
Jean Bernard Pommier
Jean Muller
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Jeno Jando
John Kane
John Lill
Konstantin Lifschitz
Llŷr Williams
Mari Kodama
Maria Grinburg
Martin Rasch
Martino Tirimo
Melodie Zhao
Paul Lewis
Richard Goode
Robert Benz
Robert Taub
Ronald Brautigam
Rudolf Buchbinder (RCA)
Sebastian Forster
Steven Herbert Smith
Steven Masi
Timothy Ehlen
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Walter Gieseking (Tahra)
Yukio Yokoyama


Bottom Tier (in sorta particular order)
HJ Lim
Rita Bouboulidi
Tatiana Nikolayeva
Anne Oland


Eighth Circle of Hell
[Glenn Gould; OK, he didn't complete a cycle, but this is where he belongs]