Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 14 No. 2 on disc

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Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 14 No. 2 on disc · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  Thank you. This is Jed Disler, and welcome to
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  The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. Consider taking out a paid
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  subscription to The Piano Maven podcast, and
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  you can do so by going to the link to my Substack
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  page, and this link is in our episode description.
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  Paid subscribers get a free download at the beginning
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  of each month, and your support helps keep this
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  podcast going throughout the year. I would like
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  to talk today about one of Beethoven's smaller
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  piano sonatas, the one in G major, the Sonata
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  No. 10, Op. 14 No. 2. It's not one of this composer's
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  more radical or audacious works, but... It has
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  a lot of felicitous features. In the first movement,
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  you have a lot of duplet against triplet rhythms
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  that creates a slightly off -balanced effect
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  at times. The second movement I see as a kind
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  of gentle march, and it has one of Beethoven's
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  most wonderful surprise endings. the simplest
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  kind of surprise ending, but it's just marvelous.
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  Actually, the theme of this movement may well
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  have inspired Robert Schumann to write his Soldier's
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  March, which is the second piece in his collection
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  album for the young. The third movement of the
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  sonata really gives you an off -balance effect
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  because the casual listener is hard -pressed
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  to determine on which beat those upward scales
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  start. And also notice how Beethoven manipulates
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  these scales throughout the movement. He always
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  kind of keeps you guessing. Just by chance, I
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  had been listening to a relatively new recording
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  of this work that's part of a new complete Beethoven
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  cycle with the pianist David Korovar. It's a
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  digital -only release, I believe. Although there
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  was a two -disc set in physical form that I reviewed
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  last year that had the late sonatas, and I think
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  the Waldstein and Appassionato were there. I'm
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  not remembering accurately. I really should have
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  done my homework. Anyway, I was really enjoying
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  David Corover's performance of Op. 14 No. 2,
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  and I started to slide down that comparative
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  listening rabbit hole. So I thought, you know,
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  why don't I just go through a bunch of recorded
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  versions of Opus 14 No. 2 and see what I find.
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  Because although I may get a strong impression
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  from a particular recording, when I revisit that
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  recording in the context of comparative listening,
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  my opinion sometimes changes or alters. so let's
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  start with the seventy eight era and arthur schnabel
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  of course he takes the first movement at an impetuous
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  clip with great suppleness and a bracing forward
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  impetus. Interestingly, he plays the central
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  movement quite deliberately with a lot of inflection
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  of tempo. And similarly, he holds back in the
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  rondo, which is perhaps a little terse and unsmiling.
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  The performance has a lot of integrity. Wilhelm
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  Kempf has three recordings of this sonata, three
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  studio recordings. I didn't listen to the live
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  recording from his Japanese cycle for this talk.
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  Sorry about that. I find Kempf's mono LP version
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  from around 1951 very intimate. and perhaps a
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  little dainty and salon -like for my taste. But
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  the stereo remake from, I think, 1964 or 65 has
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  similar tempos but crisper articulation and less
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  use of the pedal to create a hazy comfort zone,
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  if you know what I mean. The wartime version
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  with Kempf on 78s, I think, splits the difference.
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  Now, who are some other pianists who recorded
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  this piece more than once? Oh, Wilhelm Bachhaus.
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  He was in his late 60s when he made his mono
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  version on LP for Decca. It's technically better
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  than what I think is a more spontaneous interpretation
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  in stereo from when he was in his late 70s. But
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  both of his central movements are rather perfunctory.
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  Alfred Brendel recorded this sonata three times,
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  and I didn't listen to the digital version for
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  this talk, but I listened to his first one for
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  Vox and then his analog remake for Phillips.
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  I think the one on Vox is a lot better, especially
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  in the second and third movements, which have
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  a suppleness and shapeliness that the analog
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  Philips version kind of reduces to something
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  much more ordinary and even foursquare. Probably
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  the best musically and technically of the Daniel
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  Barenboim. recordings of this piece is the one
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  for Deutsche Grammophon in the 1980s, although
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  I do sort of like the casualness and improvisatory
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  feeling of his first movement in the 2020 recording.
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  You know, he remade all the Beethoven sonatas
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  during lockdown. In the lockdown version, his
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  dynamic range is a little more constricted, but
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  I've never really liked how he gauges those final
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  chords in the central movement because the way
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  he does that undermines the surprise of the forte
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  on that last chord. But to really hear how to
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  time these chords to utter perfection, I don't
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  think anyone has matched Claude Frank, whose
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  recording... of the sonata in a way is a modern
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  equivalent to the Schnabel version. You get a
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  fleet and spinning first movement, and you even
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  have more angularity and nervous energy in the
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  finale. The sound quality is a tad dry, but this
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  is one of the highlights of a very strong Beethoven
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  cycle that deserves more attention than it gets.
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  Claude Frank. Friedrich Gulde recorded this twice
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  in the studio and there's also the version on
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  Orfeo that comes from German radio. I don't completely
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  buy his deliberation in the first movement in
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  any of his interpretations, but I do prefer the
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  tautness and energy and the urgency he brings
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  to the second and third movements, and I think
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  he realizes these qualities best in the radio
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  performance on Orfeo. Nor do I really care for
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  Claudio Arrau's tendency to telegraph subito
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  pianos, because he makes the tiniest, tiniest
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  little pause right before. It's almost a mannerism.
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  And, you know, this is a pianist whose Beethoven
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  I generally admire, especially in the later works,
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  but not necessarily in this composition, where
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  I think maybe he makes something of a mountain
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  out of a molehill, perhaps. But let me fast forward
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  back to David Korovar. I love his first movement,
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  especially in how he brings the left -hand counter
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  lines to the fore, and also how he ever so slightly
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  delays before launching into the third movement's
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  loud chords, which... gives it a little bit more
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  dramatic impetus. This is a very thoughtful interpretation
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  all around. And I plan to talk sometime about
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  this whole cycle, which I will be reviewing for
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  classicstoday .com. And look for Classics Today
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  relaunching the website. It's going to be completely
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  reconfigured and really quite terrific. And there's
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  going to be buckets full of new reviews, including
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  many that I've written. Another thoughtful interpretation
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  comes from Jean -Ephraim Bavouze. I like his
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  Beethoven cycle a lot. And in this sonata, he
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  keeps the dynamics relatively circumscribed.
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  And there's kind of a classical reserve and a
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  lightness that... directly relates to Bavuzé's
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  exemplary Haydn and Mozart playing. This is a
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  very fine performance. And you can say similar
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  things about the Richard Goode recording, although
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  Richard Goode's phrasing is sometimes more angular,
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  with a little more sting to the accents, but
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  always very warm. Richard Goode's approach relates
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  somehow to Stephen Kovacevic, who... I think
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  is even more spontaneous and inflected. And he
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  takes the central movement at quite a militant
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  clip, which I do like a lot, for sheer suavity
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  and finesse. However, Maurizio Pollini is really
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  in a class by himself, but his suavity is never
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  at the expense of intensity, and his legato is
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  quite hypnotic and long -lined. I also like the
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  poise and the control and the tasteful cultivation
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  of Vladimir Ashkenazi's recording very much.
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  People don't talk about his Beethoven cycle,
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  which I think is kind of underrated. I think
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  Ashkenazi splits the difference in many ways
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  between Kovacevic and Pollini. I know that I
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  should speak in more details about some of the
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  newer versions of Op. 14 No. 2 from recent complete
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  cycles, and I will sometime soon get to talking
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  about the cycles of Angela Hewitt, Stuart Goodyear,
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  Jonathan Biss, Igor Levitt. Minsu song. But I
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  did forget to mention a beautiful, quote unquote,
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  old school, yet utterly musical and seasoned
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  performance, which I've spoken about before on
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  this podcast. It's with Carl Friedberg from 1953.
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  This was a studio recording that was not... released
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  until the mid -80s, first on LP and then eventually
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  on CD on the Marston label. Friedberg actually
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  precedes Schnabel chronologically. Schnabel was
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  born in 1882, and Friedberg was born in 1872.
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  He died in 1955. And Friedberg was a close associate
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  of Clara Schumann as well as Brahms. This recording,
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  I think, holds much more interest than that recording
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  that Walter Gieseking made in the mid -50s or
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  maybe right before his death. I can't remember
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  when he made it. It was part of that... It was
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  part of what was going to be a complete Beethoven
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  cycle, but he died before he could finish it.
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  I find his performance rather prim and soft -edged.
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  I feel this way about his Op. 14 No. 1 also.
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  It's not really his best Beethoven, honestly.
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  For Gieseking's best Beethoven, you have to look
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  elsewhere. I'm thinking about his pre -war Waldstein
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  and Appassionata. And also from German radio,
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  his Op. 111 is pretty wonderful. And he plays
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  the Op. 2 sonatas really well. really well. We
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  should talk about that another time. I also forgot
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  to mention Maria Grinberg. How could I have done
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  that? Not only was she the first Russian pianist
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  to record all 32 Beethoven sonatas, but she was
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  the first woman to accomplish this feat. I like
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  her genial first movement very much, and also
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  she has an unusually brisk central movement,
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  but I think her scherzo finale is a bit of a
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  letdown. It's kind of sedate and underplayed.
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  However, if I have to pick one, I know that's
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  going to be difficult, but I do have a special
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  affection for... opus 14 number two in the recording
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  from the early 1950s by the french pianist eve
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  not There's a lovely flexibility and ebb and
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  flow to his first movement where the phrases
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  just sing and breathe and just move forward with
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  wonderful confidence. And also the balances between
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  the hands are impeccable. And you get discrete
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  pedaling and really heightened linear awareness
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  without being too obvious about it. It's intimate
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  without being inhibited or holding back. And
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  the slow movement moves along very nicely. And
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  there's great animation, but without being driven.
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  And Eve Knott is especially attentive to the
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  syncopations in the central movement. And his
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  finale starts out... rather offhandedly, but
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  when the crescendos kick in, they really, really
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  hit home. This performance exhibits great taste
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  and style, but it's also expressively generous,
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  but not in an extravagant way, but in a way where
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  the music just takes natural wing. Anyway, we
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  have lots of choice in this little sonata, discographically
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  speaking, and it's a sonata that really should
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  not be underrated. This is Jed Disler, and you've
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  been listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings. Thank you
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  for listening, and I look forward to being with
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  you for our next episode.