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Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 Pianists: Op. 109, 110 & 111 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jay Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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We come to the end of our exploration of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in this mini
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series where I have been recommending two different recordings for each sonata.
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One recording is historic in nature, meaning from 78 RPM discs or a mono LP release or
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an archival recording that's been commercially issued or else readily available online.
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And the second recording that I recommend is a modern recording, meaning from the stereo
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or digital eros and is a commercial release.
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The object has been not to repeat any pianist throughout this survey.
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So that means we will have talked about two pianists for each sonata, totaling 64 pianists
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in 32 sonatas or 32 sonatas with 64 pianists.
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I've decided to cover Beethoven's last three sonatas in this one episode, mainly because
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these works often are linked together and many pianists perform the last three Beethoven
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sonatas in concert.
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I've seen several pianists do so like Maurizio Polini, Alfred Brendel.
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Myra Hess did this also.
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I never saw her, of course.
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I was too young, but she made a big thing about playing the last three Beethoven sonatas
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in concert.
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Rudolf Sierkin did also, and I'm sure there are so many others.
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Oh yeah, Igor Leavitt recently did that, if I'm not mistaken.
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I didn't see him in concert, but I know that he has programmed the last three.
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The sonata number 30, opus 109 in E major, is a sonata in three movements.
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The first movement is almost an improvisation, and it leads directly into a tumultuous prestissimo
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movement.
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And then you have the wonderful theme in variations finale, which is the third movement.
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And this movement probably is famous for the long chains of trills, and long trills kind
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of became a signature of Beethoven in his last works.
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Among the historic recordings that I would love to recommend, I cannot recommend Arthur
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Schnabel's 1932 recording for the simple reason that I already spoke about Arthur Schnabel
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in this miniseries.
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And in fact, I recommended him for the very first sonata, opus two, number one.
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However, I do have a good historic recommendation.
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This is a recording from the early 1950s, and it features the Danish pianist Victor
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Schroeder, who was a pupil of Schnabel.
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And this is an absolutely terrific performance.
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It's very much in the Schnabel mode, but there's a little more sense of repose, perhaps, in
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the first two movements.
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This is poetic and aristocratic pianism that's impeccably controlled, yet totally heartfelt.
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Now, my modern recording recommendation is, in many ways, a historic recommendation, because
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it's an interpretation that involves an instrument that not only Beethoven knew, but it was an
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instrument that was made by the Broadwood Company for Beethoven that was outfitted with
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a device that would enable the composer to hear himself play as much as he was able to
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hear himself.
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We haven't spoken at all in this podcast about Beethoven's growing deafness and the impact
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of his affliction on his composing.
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There have been so many studies about this, and that's outside the parameter of this podcast.
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But I want to talk about a release on the Evil Penguin label.
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Yeah, that's the name of the label.
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And this release is titled Inside the Hearing Machine, Beethoven on his Broadwood.
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And on this release, the forte pianist Tom Beggen performs Beethoven's last three sonatas
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on a reconstructed Broadwood that also reconstructs the devices that they provided that helped
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Beethoven hear the instrument to the best of his capability.
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And there's a real clarity to the instrument that comes across, and also the resonant overtones
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are very palpable.
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But the main reason I'm picking this recording for a modern recommendation is because in
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addition to the uniqueness of this instrument, Tom Beggen's interpretation is really unlike
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any that I've heard before.
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He plays the opening movement with tremendous force and freedom and wide contrasts and dynamics
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within the dynamic limitations of his instrument.
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There's a lot of variety in the timbres and also a lot of variety in Tom Beggen's articulations
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and agogic phrasings.
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And he really does make this music sound like an improvisation.
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He does not tear into the prestesimo so much as he teases it.
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There's a tiny hesitancy in the opening phrases, but the inflections of rhythm keep listeners
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on their toes.
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And it's an interpretation that brings out more of the music's exploratory side than
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its surface determination.
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And I find that very convincing and quite absorbing to hear.
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Now, the way that Tom Beggen handles the third movement variations may give conservative-minded
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listeners some pause.
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He adapts a kind of walking tempo for the theme, and he also embellishes a lot on the
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repeats.
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And he does this on all of the repeats throughout the movement.
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And you get the feeling that the theme is less a meditation than one usually hears.
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But his performance actually conveys the sense, I think, of an invitation or a suggestion
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to embark on the upcoming journey of variations.
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So consequently, the first variation very naturally progresses out of the theme.
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I know that the embellishments are going to catch you off guard if you are familiar with
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this sonata and its many recordings.
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But I think perhaps Beethoven would have been intrigued by it all.
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I'm not going to go into detail about what Tom Beggen does with each and every variation.
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But suffice it to say that his creativity and his imagination and his brilliant sense
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of timing and ability to convey character all impart a fresh spin and a kind of structural
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revelation to this music.
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The robatos and the various modifications of tempo and inflections of phrase seem to
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have an organic and deeply internalized feeling about them.
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And I've always felt this way about Tom Beggen's playing.
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For instance, his cycle of Haydn's complete sonatas on the noxus label is a really, really
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interesting and compelling cycle.
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Also, his earlier Beethoven releases, I think, are cases that make my point.
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And this release with the last three Beethoven sonatas I highly recommend.
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And I've chosen his recording of Opus 109 for the modern recommendation here.
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And again, Victor Schurler is my historic recommendation.
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Now we get to Beethoven's Sonata No. 31 in Ab, Opus 110.
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It begins with a gracious and lyrical movement that evokes a sour band.
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While the scherzo is jocular and it's full of those off-kilter rhythmic displacements
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that typify the hammer-clavier sonata scherzo, actually even the Arroyo symphony scherzo
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has that kind of offbeat accentuation that keeps you guessing.
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But the last movement of Opus 110, actually some people say movements three and four,
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but they are kind of welded together because it begins with a recha-tartif that's a lamenting
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song and then it leads into a fugue.
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And the fugue isn't really a fourth movement because after the fugue, the lamenting song
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returns in a more brooding and intensified form.
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And then the fugue emerges out of that again.
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But now the fugue starts building with an ecstatic kind of cumulative momentum.
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This is such a beautiful piece and it's really very fulfilling and gratifying to listen to
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it as well as to play it.
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For my historic recording recommendation, I've always liked that graciously turned-out
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1953 recording by Myra Hess.
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Now maybe it's not as special as her Opus 109 from the same sessions, but I think it's
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very beautiful and poised and I really wanted to have Myra Hess in this mini-series.
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So I think her Opus 110 is really quite beautiful and I want to talk about a pianist from my
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modern recommendation who I thought was very special.
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And she died way too young of breast cancer in 2019.
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I think she was only 46, if I'm not mistaken.
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And her name is Dina Ugorskaya.
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She was the daughter of the pianist Anatole Ugorsky, who recently passed away.
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Now some listeners may feel that Dina Ugorskaya's rhetorical phrasing and expressive gestures
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might be a little bit mannered or self-aware, but I get the sense that she has, like Tom
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Beggen with Opus 109, that she has internalized the music to a really profound degree and
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I think she's more probing than a fetuoso.
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Yeah, I guess there's a degree of what I would call musical method acting, but I do hear
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real sincerity and a feeling of putting the music ahead of the personality.
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But this is an impression that I think you really have to listen to the recording to
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get.
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Don't just take my word for it.
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I think listen and maybe you'll agree with me, maybe you won't agree with me, but that's
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okay too.
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So now we come to Opus 111.
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You know when pianists say, oh, I'm playing 111 or I'm playing Opus 111, you don't have
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to ask questions.
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You don't have to say, oh, what Opus 111, Brahms or Foray or Sasson or...
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No, when you say 111, everybody knows immediately that you're talking about Beethoven because
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it's a very iconic sonata.
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I mean the last Beethoven sonata and it has a dark first movement introduction that might
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be described as a bleaker and more desolate manifestation of the pathotique sonata's first
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movement introduction.
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And this leads into a faster section that's marked by relentless counterpoint and jagged
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accents with very little respite.
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The second movement, Arietta, is a theme in variations where the stark and sublime theme
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is first subjected to variations where the note values become quicker and quicker.
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And then the music returns to the theme in an altered form.
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And the piano writing floats up into the highest register and we get these long ethereal chains
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of trills where it seems like heaven is gently opening up.
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I mean that's kind of a cliched analogy, but I don't know.
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That always comes to my mind when I'm encountering this music.
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My historic performance choice is one that is cathartic, expansive, volatile, reposeful,
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and at all times emotionally generous.
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And I think it's a performance that does bypass the piano en route to the music.
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The pianist is Howard Karp, who lived from 1929 until 2014.
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He taught for many years at the University of Wisconsin and he used his position there
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to really create community with music making.
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I think he was one of the best examples of being a huge fish in a modest sized pond.
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But there's nothing modest sized about his pianism.
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He's a world class artist and a fantastic interpreter.
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And you can hear that in a six disc set of live performances that came out on the Albany
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label as a tribute to Howard Karp.
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And this is a really fabulous Opus 111.
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Howard Karp is the pianist.
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Definitely check it out.
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Now for my modern recommendation, I could not choose Maurizio Polini in this case, even
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though he is the big paradigm in the sonata.
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I couldn't choose Polini for the simple reason that I used Polini to talk about Opus 22 several
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episodes back.
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However, there is a wonderful studio recording with Annie Fisher that's on the EMI label.
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Her Hungarian remake is also wonderful.
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But I think the EMI recording from the early 1960s really captures her in her absolute
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unambiguous prime.
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And if you listen to her first movement introduction, there's much more harmonic tension than usual
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in those descending sequences.
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And there's more of a conversational battle between the hands when the allegro section
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kicks in.
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And her selfless concentration throughout the arieta, it's like the music is speaking
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for itself.
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This is just wonderful unself-regarding music making, and I highly recommend this recording.
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So there we have it.
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We have discussed all 32 Beethoven sonatas, recommending two recordings for each sonata,
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one historic recording and one modern version.
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And we did not repeat a pianist, did we?
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That means we have 32 sonatas and 64 pianists.
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I'm going to post the complete list of recommendations on my Piano Maven sub stack page so you can
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access it.
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Needless to say, this mini series has been a kind of journey.
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And I hope that these podcast discussions have led you to some special listening discoveries
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yourself.
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And I hope you'll continue to explore these pianists in their respective Beethoven recordings.
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I know I will keep continuing to do so.
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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.
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We're going to go back on our regular two episodes per week schedule.
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Although I may get inspired and add an extra episode every now and then, or we may do another
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crazy mini series like this.
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I have a lot of cool things in store for you.
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So thank you so much, and please consider subscribing.
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I look forward to being with you next time.