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Andre Laplante's Under the Radar Brahms Sonata No. 3 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  The Gramophone Collection is a series of repertoire surveys on disc that Gramophone Magazine publishes
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  on a regular basis.
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  And in the series, a critic discusses various recorded versions of a particular work and
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  the critic has to come up with usually four choices, one of which will be the top choice.
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  Now, naturally, a writer cannot take each and every recorded version of a popular work
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  into account.
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  For instance, we were talking about Bach's Goldberg Variations a few episodes back and
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  there are more than 700 recordings of that work and I'm talking only about piano versions,
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  forget about harpsichord versions.
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  I mean, it seems like every pianist on earth wants to record the Goldbergs.
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  At least more than 700, maybe even more, have been published commercially of that piece.
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  So how on earth can one human being go through all of them, let alone listen to all of them?
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  Well, maybe there is a human being somewhere that's that compulsive, but I've heard maybe
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  two thirds of them for the record.
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  So then I'm kind of, that's the pot calling the kettle black, right?
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  So usually for the Gramophone Collection, we have to pare it down to about 20 recordings.
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  The first of these Gramophone Collection surveys that I happen to have written was published
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  back in 2007 and the featured work was the Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Opus 5 by Johannes
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  Brahms.
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  This is a composition that happens to have been quite well served on disc, starting way
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  back in the 78 RPM era with wonderful performances by Percy Granger and Harold Bauer and continuing
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  up through the stereo and digital eras.
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  And there's a general consensus about what the reference versions of the Brahms F minor
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  Sonata are, at least in stereo.
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  I'm thinking of the Arthur Rubinstein 1959 recording, the Clifford Curzon recording has
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  always been reference worthy, Claudio Arau and Julius Katchen also I think is considered
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  to be a reference.
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  He recorded it twice in mono and then in stereo.
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  I know a lot of piano mavens who swear by Ratolupu and I was actually fortunate enough
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  to hear Ratolupu play the Sonata live in concert.
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  I'm also very happy to have the Brahms F minor recordings of Emmanuel Axe, Marie Pariah and
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  Earl Wilde in my collection.
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  But before I discuss one recording in particular that I find very special yet may be way off
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  everyone else's radar, let's quickly talk about what this Sonata entails.
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  First of all, Brahms was about 20 years old when he first visited Robert and Clara Schumann
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  in 1853 and this is when he played sections of the Sonata in progress for both of them.
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  The Schumanns were totally enthusiastic about this music and they embraced the young composer
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  right away.
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  So Brahms was quite inspired by their encouragement and he went off to finish the F minor Sonata
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  at white heat very quickly and he came up with a work that still stands out for its
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  imposing scope, its unusual structural design for the time and its unbridled passion.
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  It remained Brahms' largest work for piano solo.
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  It's in an arch form of five movements which, as I said, was not typical of the time.
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  And in fact, in terms of form, it remained rather unique for decades.
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  It opens with a very heroic Allegro Maestoso movement that really feels orchestral in its
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  size and scope.
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  It's big in every way.
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  Then we have the Andante espressivo which is both luminous and intense.
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  Then a third movement scherzo brings the listener down to earth more or less with both swagger
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  and lightness of texture at times.
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  There's a brief intermezzo that's really kind of dark and mysterious.
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  I love this movement.
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  And it helps set the stage for a finale that starts out in a quiet, almost teasing manner,
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  but then the music gives way to thunderous eruptions and torrential passage work.
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  When I was working on my gramophone survey of the Brahms F minor Sonata on record, I
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  remember I'd listened to maybe around 60 or so recorded versions and I'd listened to them
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  blind without knowing who was playing.
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  At least I didn't look at my computer screen and if I was playing a physical CD, I made
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  sure that I didn't have the cover in front of me or I put the disc into my player with
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  my eyes closed.
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  And then as I listened, I took extensive notes.
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  Then I winnowed my list down to about 20 contenders, but then I found that I kept circling back
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  to this one particular recording.
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  And after several hearings, I just had a look to see who was playing.
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  And this recording turned out to be by the Canadian pianist André Laplante, released
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  on the Canadian Onalecta label.
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  And the physical disc is probably difficult to source, but you can easily find this release
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  on streaming platforms and via digital download.
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  So what makes André Laplante's Brahms third sonata so special?
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  Well like Claudio Aureo, he orchestrates his sonority from the bottom up, yet he avoids
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  the older pianist's rugged grandeur, if you have to call it something like that, in favor
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  of the kind of prismatic transparency that one associates with pianists like Sviatoslav
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  Richter, even though Richter did not record this particular piece.
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  And also, André Laplante's variety of articulation adds inner drama to passages that often seem
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  rambling, such as, let me think, like the soft chords accompanied by the staccato D
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  flats in the finale.
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  I think that's something that I wish I had a sound sample of, but it was an example that
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  I wrote about, and so I'm just stealing from my review here.
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  And also, André Laplante is especially attentive to Brahms' accents and his dynamic markings,
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  and he probably doesn't sweep you away with the impetuosity of Arthur Rubinstein in the
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  stereo remake, or either of the two Julius Katchen recordings, or even the 86-year-old
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  Earl Wilde, who was on amazing form in his recording.
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  There's also this mind-blowing, live, 1961 BBC Legends recording with Annie Fisher.
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  That's an amazing Brahms F minor.
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  But André Laplante offers what I wrote to be, and I quote from my Gramophone article,
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  an unusually worked-out, personalized, deeply felt, yet totally unindulgent and beautifully
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  engineered performance that deserves serious attention.
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  And it's coupled with equally excellent performances of the Brahms' Rhapsodies, Op. 79.
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  This is Jed Disler, and thank you for listening to the Piano Maven Podcast.
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  Please tell all of your piano-loving friends about this podcast, and I look forward to
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  being with you next time.