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Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 pianists: Op. 31. No. 2 ("Tempest") · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:00
  This is Jed Disler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:15
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• 0:23
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• 0:36
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• 0:46
  We are in the middle of a mini series where I'm discussing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and I'm making recommendations for recordings for each sonata.
• 0:57
  I'm picking two recordings for each sonata, one historic or archival and one modern day recording, either stereo or digital.
• 1:07
  And my goal is not to repeat any pianist more than once, so in the end we will have 32 sonatas and 64 different pianists.
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  So now we arrive at the so-called Tempest Sonata. This is a very popular sonata.
• 1:26
  It's Sonata number 17 in D minor, Opus 31, number 2. Beethoven's pupil, Carl Czerny, described this sonata as a musical painting.
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  While in more recent times the pianist Alfred Brendel likened this sonata to a marvelous fresco, one of the most perfect sonatas Beethoven ever wrote.
• 1:52
  In the middle of two absolutely black movements there is an absolutely white one. That's the Alfred Brendel quote.
• 2:01
  I also should mention that the nickname Tempest did not originate with Beethoven.
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  Although there is some evidence that Beethoven advised his future biographer Schindler to read Shakespeare's Tempest in order to gain insight into the music.
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  I don't know if that's true, but I guess it's a good story.
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  Anyway, I can talk about the work in a little bit of detail for the simple reason that I wrote about the Tempest many years ago in a program note.
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  And I'm not ashamed to steal what I wrote 25 years ago and pretend that I am speaking off the cuff because I'm not.
• 2:41
  You see, you're getting all of my kitchen secrets here. You think that I'm being so eloquent and spontaneous, but I really am not.
• 2:49
  You know, I script all these podcasts. Well, for the most part I script them.
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  But when I did write this program note many, many years ago, I described the Opus 31 No. 2 sonata as having an overall theatrical arc that unites the three movements like a three act drama.
• 3:10
  I wrote that. Yeah, well, I guess that's kind of true.
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  The first movements stage, set and scenery and mood are entirely encapsulated within the opening bars.
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  And the movements recitative have a trance like quality, unlike anything Beethoven had written up to that time, like spooky soliloquies, maybe.
• 3:36
  That is true. I'm glad I wrote that.
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  Anyway, let me go on with what I wrote. I wrote that one might expect the peaceful adagio to provide some respite.
• 3:48
  And it sort of does. The movements starkly beautiful main theme develops over time and is elaborated on by the composer.
• 3:58
  But it's also anchored by sparsely placed accompanying chords and triplet figurations that suggest murmuring kettle drums.
• 4:09
  Fewer Beethoven adagios are so texturally exposed, and that makes it a challenge to hold together.
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  The finale's motu perpetuo begins quietly and then gathers steam as the music progresses.
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  Astute listeners may connect its descending motif.
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  You know, the one that goes, yeah, da da da da da da da da da da da dum bum bum bum bum that thing to its more obsessive manifestation many years later in the scherzo from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
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  I kind of like what I wrote for that program note. I don't remember what I wrote it for.
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  I think it may have been for the Salzburg Festival when Maurizio Polini was playing
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  the Tempest.
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  Anyway, my historic choice for a recording is the one that the late Byron Janis made
• 5:05
  for RCA Victor in 1950.
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  It was on an early LP release, actually on a 10-inch LP.
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  And the story goes that when Byron Janis proudly brought a copy of the disc to his teacher
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  Vladimir Horowitz, Horowitz just brushed him off saying,
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  I don't want to hear that.
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  I don't like Beethoven.
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  Now, I never got to ask Mr. Janis if that was true, but that story is in Glenn Plaskin's
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  biography of Horowitz.
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  In any event, I think had Horowitz taken the time to listen to the recording, he would
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  have heard something of himself in Byron Janis's interpretation, although Horowitz didn't play
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  this piece, or at least he certainly didn't record it.
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  But I think he would have recognized something Horowitzian in Byron Janis's lean and gaunt
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  textures, the nervous energy informing the outer movements, and the imaginative legato
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  phrasing that Byron Janis brings to the slow movement.
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  And here, Janis employs subtle pedal blurrings and the kind of overlapping finger legato
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  that was a Horowitz trademark.
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  And Byron Janis makes this technique completely his own.
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  For a modern day choice in this work, I've always loved Vladimir Ashkenazi's recording.
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  And I actually think his entire Beethoven sonata cycle is really underrated.
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  It does not get the accolades that it deserves.
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  Ashkenazi approaches the tempest with a lot of freedom, yet always, always in the best
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  of taste and the utmost musicality.
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  If anything, such flexibility only enhances the dramatic trajectory that I was talking
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  about earlier.
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  And as always with Vladimir Ashkenazi, especially in the 60s and 70s, the pianism itself is
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  faultless.
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  And the interpretation has a very individual profile that always reveals something new
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  each time that I listen to this recording.
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  This is Jed Dissler, and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  And next time we talk about the final piece in the Op. 31 trilogy, Op. 31 No. 3 in E flat
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  major.
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  So, I look forward to being with you next time for the Piano Maven.