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Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 pianists: Op. 31 No. 1 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings. You can subscribe to this podcast through my sub stack page by clicking on the
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  link in the episode description. Paid subscribers get bonuses such as piano maven zoom meetings
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  where we will listen to music together and also we'll have some special guests. So please
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  consider subscribing to help us reach out further into the piano community and to keep
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  this podcast in production. I continue my survey of recommended recordings for each
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  of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. I recommend two recordings for each sonata, one historic
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  or archival recording and one modern recording from the stereo or digital era. And my goal
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  is not to repeat a pianist over this process so that in the end we will be discussing 32
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  sonatas and 64 pianists. And I think all of these performances have great distinction
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  and there are no weak links in the batch. So at the halfway point, I said that about
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  opus 28, well we still are in the halfway area, which is middle period Beethoven or
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  just about the cusp of middle period Beethoven. It's kind of curious that the delightful and
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  inventive sonata in G major number 16, which is opus 31 number one, doesn't often turn
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  up by itself on recital programs. It's probably the least performed of the three opus 31 sonatas
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  in concert. Although I did hear Emmanuel Axe play it at Carnegie Hall some years ago, I've
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  always felt the way that the chords in the first movements first theme are slightly out
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  of sync, making a kind of kerplopping effect. I think what happened here is that Beethoven
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  wanted to make fun of pianists who had trouble playing chords together in both hands. The
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  slow movement is a long and leisurely aria and one might argue that this movement goes
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  on just a tad too long. I know that's sacrilegious to say, but to make this movement work, I
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  think you really have to hit on just the right tempo. If it's too slow, you're in trouble,
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  but if you're too fast, you will sound flippant. I mean for flippant, try Glenn Gould's recording
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  where the decorative runs go like a bat out of hell. I mean it's fun to listen to, but
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  it's hardly indicative of Beethoven's grazioso directive. Actually, I'm going to talk about
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  my chosen modern recording first, and that's the recording by Richard Goode on Nonsuch.
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  I think he makes the most of those kerplunking effects that I talked about in the first movement,
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  and he times these kerplops to very varied effect. His slow movement is ideally paced,
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  not too fast, not too slow, while his finale is a model of disarming grace and it's so
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  full of character. For the historic recording recommendation, there's actually an interesting
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  recording and it preceded the one of Arte Schnabel. This was a recording by the Chilean
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  pianist Rosita Renard. This was one of her relatively few 78s, and her playing has great
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  joy and vitality and color, and her beautifully sculpted long trills and the slow movement
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  really stand out. Also, how she balances the themes and countermelodies in the last movement,
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  she does so with total independence of the hands without any effort at all. Now the sound
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  is a little boxy and dry in this recording. I think it's from 1928. I was too lazy to
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  check, but I mean it's an old recording. But Rosita Renard's artistry fully communicates
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  in this performance, and as such I thought that it would be a good historic recommendation.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings. So the next time we talk about a very familiar sonata, Beethoven's
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  Tempest Sonata, Op. 31, No. 2, watch the space as the cliché goes. Take good care.