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Five "Under the Radar" Beethoven Sonata Cycles · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:06
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:10
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:15
  Please consider subscribing to The Piano Maven
• 0:19
  podcast, and you can find a link to subscribe
• 0:22
  on my Substack page by looking at the episode
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  description. And if you subscribe, you'll be
• 0:29
  helping to keep this podcast in production. I
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  am still getting some wonderful feedback and
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  suggestions from many of you on the topic of
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  our marathon miniseries that we had in January
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  devoted to recommending recordings for each and
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  every Beethoven piano sonata. And in that miniseries,
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  You remember that I recommended two pianists
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  for each sonata without repeating a pianist.
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  So we had 64 pianists recommended and 32 sonatas.
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  And you can search for these episodes if you
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  miss them. We had episodes Monday through Friday
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  all throughout the month of January 2025. I've
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  been asked about which cycles of all 32 sonatas
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  by individual pianists would I recommend. But
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  the problem is that there are so many. Beethoven
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  cycles on the market and so many good ones that
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  it's impossible for me to know where to begin
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  besides the usual suspects, the usual reference
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  contenders. The situation was so much easier
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  in the 1950s and 60s when you had far fewer choices
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  insofar as complete Beethoven cycles were concerned.
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  So I thought maybe I could take a look at five
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  cycles that might be familiar to some listeners,
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  but these don't often come in for discussion.
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  And a few of these might not be easy to source.
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  But these five Beethoven cycles I'm going to
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  talk about in very general terms are stylistically
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  different in character and attitude, and they
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  all are worth hearing. The first one I want to
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  talk about is from the Russian pianist Maria
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  Grinberg. who lived from 1908 until 1978. Not
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  only was she the first Russian pianist to record
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  all 32 sonatas, she also was the first woman
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  to ever record all 32. These recordings date
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  from the early to late 1960s, from what I can
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  remember. The sound quality can be strident and
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  metallic, especially in loud passages. But it's
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  certainly listenable. Her Beethoven style is
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  generally straightforward. It tends to be emphatic
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  with a lot of sectional retards and underlined
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  transitions. And these, I think, had to do with
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  the vestiges of romanticism that prevailed among
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  many Soviet -era pianists who didn't. play in
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  the West, and to Western ears trained or more
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  accustomed to the literalist zeitgeist that took
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  over in the mid -20th century. Grinberg's Beethoven
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  might sometimes seem crass or provincial in certain
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  ways, but there is no questioning her dedication
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  and her firmly committed music -making and her
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  exceptional pianism certainly is a historic document.
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  I think her cycle holds a great deal of interest
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  and much more. At the total stylistic opposite
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  end is the Chilean pianist Alfredo Perl. He recorded
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  all 32 sonatas and the Diabelli variations in
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  the 1990s, which were issued individually and
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  in a box set on the Arta Nova label. Much of
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  the Arta Nova material was later picked up by
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  Ehrm's Classics. I don't think I ever saw a complete
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  Alfredo Perel Beethoven cycle. on ohms classics
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  i think i've seen like individual sonatas but
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  i do have the arte nova box set in my collection
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  and you might call alfredo pearl a more muscular
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  version of his older compatriot, Claudio Arau,
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  he doesn't have that kind of luminous singing
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  tone that Claudio Arau had. Yet Alfredo Pearl
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  shares Arau's scrupulous adherence to Beethoven's
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  frequent subito dynamics, meaning the sudden
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  instances of loud and soft levels. And the intensity
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  in which Alfredo Pearl does this helps to energize
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  his performances. And he's really terrific when
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  pure vim and vinegar and vigor. Did I say vim
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  and vinegar? I meant vim and vigor. I mean, one
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  cliche replaces the other. But anyway, Alfredo
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  Pearl is best in places where you really need
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  this kind of vim and vinegar in the outer movements
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  of sonatas like the Pathetique or the Appassionata.
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  I'm thinking his Opus 101 is very strong in this
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  regard. The Hammer Clavier, of course. Opus 111's
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  first movement. Opus 31 No. 3's outer movements.
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  And he tends to take his time over slow movements,
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  but tends to press ahead in faster movements.
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  So you get these extremes. I think the Alfredo
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  Pearl... Beethoven's cycle has a lot to offer.
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  He's now re -recording all of the sonatas again,
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  along with the rest of Beethoven's piano music
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  for the Audit label. And I'm going to be talking
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  about these new recordings in future podcast
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  episodes. But if you can find the Artanova -Alfredo
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  Pearl cycle at a good price, I would get it.
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  I've spoken before about Seymour Lipkin, who
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  studied with Rudolf Serkin, and he follows his
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  teacher's tradition in Beethoven, meaning lean
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  and gritty sonorities, rhythmic steadiness, textural
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  rectitude, and a total lack of artifice. In some
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  ways, I think Seymour Lipkin is even more fundamentalist
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  than Rudolf Serkin. or such comparably stylistic
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  contemporaries like Jacob Latiner and Leon Fleischer,
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  or in some ways the later Beethoven recordings
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  of Friedrich Gulda. Seymour Lipkin's Beethoven
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  cycle appeared on conventional CD on the Newport
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  Classics label, and they also issued the performances
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  on MP3, and the MP3s were bundled. all together
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  on a CD -ROM. You remember CD -ROMs? Anyway,
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  I think it's easier to find the MP3s to download
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  or to stream than to try to get hold of second
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  -hand copies of the physical CDs, which have
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  long been deleted. During the pandemic lockdown
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  period, I was following the Luxembourg -based
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  pianist Jean Muller. who had this impressive
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  weekly online series devoted to all 32 Beethoven
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  sonatas. And you can find these on YouTube. But
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  it wasn't until later that I learned that he
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  had played an earlier Beethoven cycle between
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  October 2007 and March 2009 in the small Luxembourgish
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  city of Etelbrook. And these concerts were recorded
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  and issued on CD, both on the Bella Musica and
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  the Membran labels in budget -priced box sets
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  that provided nothing in the way of booklet notes
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  or documentation. I found a really cheap copy
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  of this release on Amazon, I think. And having
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  seen John Mueller's YouTube videos, I figured,
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  what the heck? It's the price of a decent sandwich,
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  and why not? And I'm so glad that I bought this
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  cycle because it's a terrific Beethoven cycle.
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  John Muller plays Beethoven with stylish drama.
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  He has really fluid virtuosity and contrapuntal
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  astuteness. And there's a freshness and vitality
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  that's just what this repertoire needs. These
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  are live performances, and there's very little
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  editing, if there's any editing at all. So, you
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  know, there are occasional finger slips or blurrings,
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  but, you know, they really don't matter when
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  you consider the spontaneity and the sense of
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  occasion that prevails pretty consistently in
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  these performances. Also, I like how Jean Muller
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  organizes the programs for each disc. He places
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  the opus 2, the opus 31, and the opus 109, 110,
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  and 111 triumvirates on their own respective
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  recital discs. But for the rest of the sonatas,
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  he mixes and matches them to create really well
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  -contrasted programs. I reviewed the cycle for
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  Classicstoday .com, and I've put a link to that
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  review in the episode description so you can
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  get a more detailed overview about what I think
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  about these performances there than what I'm
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  saying here. But like I said, I'm very happy
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  to have this cycle in my collection. Incidentally,
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  John Muller is just on the cusp of... completing
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  a Mozart sonata cycle that's been quite excellent
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  throughout. And I'll talk about that, I guess,
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  once I start doing podcasts on Mozart sonata
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  cycles. I've been putting that off because that's
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  going to take a lot of research and development
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  and reacquainting myself with tons of recordings.
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  But do give serious consideration to John Muller's
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  Beethoven cycle. And the last of these five quote
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  -unquote unsung Beethoven sonata cycles that
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  I'm talking about today comes from the Italian
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  pianist Andrea Lucassini. I first heard his Beethoven
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  in the late 1980s when the EMI label released
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  a studio recording of the Hammer Clavier. And
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  I remember it was an expansive and highly inflected...
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  quasi -romantic interpretation that really held
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  my attention. I liked it a lot. In 2003, the
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  Stradivarius label released a complete Beethoven
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  cycle with Lucassini recorded live, and one can
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  order it in the form of digital downloads or
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  listen to it on streaming services. But I just
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  found out that Noxus uploaded the cycle onto
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  YouTube, so you can listen to it for free if
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  you want to try it out that way. I don't think
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  the physical CDs are available anymore, but I
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  do have the physical CDs in my collection. Anyway,
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  it was clear by 2003 that Lucasini had become
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  a more expressively discreet, yet at the same
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  time harder -hitting, kind of Beethoven player
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  than he was in the late 80s, with a similar vitality
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  to what you hear from John Muller. He favors
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  similarly fast tempos to those of Seymour Lipkin,
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  but he has a warmer and a more songful kind of
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  pianistic orientation. He has a real natural
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  sense of ebb and flow, and you sense that the
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  piano is an extension of Lucasini's body. And
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  this is a very enjoyable Beethoven cycle, and
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  it's very, very consistent. I always like coming
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  back to this, and I think you should listen to
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  it. So there we are. We have five Beethoven cycles
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  that have a great deal to offer for both listeners
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  new to these works and seasoned Beethoven collectors
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  alike. Again, the pianists I've talked about
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  are Maria Grinberg, Alfredo Pearl, Seymour Lipkin,
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  John Muller, and Andrea Lucassini. This is Jed
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  Dissler, and you've been listening to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  And thank you so much for being with me. And
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  we'll do some other episodes where we talk about
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  other Beethoven cycles, but I just thought I
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  would get these five out there for you to...
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  think about at least. Take good care and we'll
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  be together for the next episode. Hopefully.
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  Be well.