Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 pianists: Op. 14 Nos. 1 & 2

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Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 pianists: Op. 14 Nos. 1 & 2 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  I do hope it's friendly.
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  You can also take a free subscription of course and you will still get episodes but if you
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  want all those extra goodies, consider paying.
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  And we continue with our mini series devoted to the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven.
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  We've arrived at the two little sonatas that comprise Beethoven's Opus 14.
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  I should tell you that what the game plan is about this mini series is that I recommend
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  two recordings for each sonata, one historic recording and one modern recording and the
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  aim is not to repeat a pianist and I was challenged years ago to come up with a list of 32 sonatas
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  and name 32 different pianists for each sonata, I mean one of the 32 for each sonata and you
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  can't repeat a player.
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  So I thought I'd make it extra hard on myself, twice as hard on myself by nominating two
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  pianists per sonata, historic and modern in terms of the recordings and without repeating
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  a pianist.
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  So that means that by the end of this mini series we will have talked about 64 pianists
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  and I'm trying to include a broad range of musicians who represent many generations of
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  pianists on disc and it's not that I'm aiming to represent the quote unquote best recorded
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  versions of a certain work because that's next to impossible but I will say that I think
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  that there are no weak links in any of my recommendations although certain of my recommendations
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  might be unconventional or surprising or idiosyncratic but I think having two recordings of each
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  sonata with a total of 64 pianists will cover quite a bit of interpretive and pianistic
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  ground.
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  Okay, enough already with my preamble.
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  The sonata number nine in E major, opus 14 number one and the sonata number ten in G
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  major, opus 14 number two, these are such wonderful works.
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  I really really love them.
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  In some ways the E major sonata relates to the early Beethoven sonatas just as his E
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  minor sonata, opus 90 relates to the late sonatas because it's a little work on the
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  surface in terms of scale and it's essentially lyrical in nature but there is inner urgency
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  and great melodic strength.
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  In fact anyone who says that Beethoven couldn't write a tune to save his life really should
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  listen to the opus 14 number one.
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  There are such beautiful melodies throughout the sonata.
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  For my historic recording choice I have a favorite version that I always come back to
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  and I prefer it to a lot of other recordings of this piece.
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  It's the recording made in the early 1950s by the French pianist Yves Nott.
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  I just love that gorgeous sound that he gets out of the piano which is abetted by the beautiful
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  close-up engineering and I love the utter naturalness of his phrasing and his impeccable
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  choices for tempos.
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  I think the feeling of total rightness that I glean from this performance of Yves Nott
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  is probably better experienced than described.
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  That's my way of getting out of telling you what it sounds like.
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  No, but the combination of intimacy and inner strength that comes across in the performance
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  as well as the composition, I think you just have to hear it for yourself.
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  My modern recording choice for this sonata is the recording on the EMI label by Awadadjin
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  Pratt and the qualities that I spoke about in the Yves Nott recording readily apply here.
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  This is one of the most communicative and joyful and shapely interpretations I know
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  of this sonata and I'm very happy to have it in my collection.
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  His recording of the Opus 110 sonata by the way is also quite a winner but this Opus 14
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  No. 1 with Awadadjin Pratt, this is a real keeper.
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  The G major sonata, Opus 14 No. 2, has a simple and disarming first movement while the central
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  movement's march-like theme sort of foreshadows Schumann in an odd way.
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  You know, I wonder if that soldiers march from Schumann's album for the young drew
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  direct inspiration from this particular Beethoven movement.
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  Perhaps so.
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  And the Rondo, the third movement, has wonderful rhythmic imagination and variety just in its
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  main theme alone.
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  My historic recording choice is a romantically inflected yet obviously seasoned interpretation
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  that is full of quiet authority and it features the pianist Karl Friedberg.
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  He was a pianist who knew Brahms.
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  He lived from 1872 until 1955 and this performance was taped in 1953 for the Zodiac label as
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  part of what happened to be this pianist's only commercial studio recording sessions.
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  But it was not released until 1985 when the International Piano Archives of Maryland edited
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  the original tapes of the sonata and they issued the recording on LP.
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  Ultimately, all of the Zodiac Karl Friedberg material appeared on CD on the Marston label
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  and I'll put a link for that in my episode description.
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  For my modern recording recommendation, I keep returning to Claude Frank.
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  He recorded all of the Beethoven sonatas in or around 1970 and they first were issued
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  as a cycle in a box set on RCA Victor's Budget Victrola label and then many years later they
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  appeared on CD on the Music and Arts label.
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  I love the vehemence and the edge that Claude Frank brings to the outer movements.
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  Sometimes pianists can be a little too prim or gentle with this music, but not Claude
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  Frank and he brings out the central movement's latent humor wonderfully well.
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  His timing of that surprise ending you just simply have to hear.
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  It's like a comedian who knows exactly how to make a punchline land or how to place a
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  line in order to ensure maximum laughter.
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  You know when it comes to Beethoven interpretation, I think timing is a quality that one really
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  has to have or to learn how to cultivate and also the art of transition.
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  Like how does one place or how does one judge the voicing of let's say, oh that diminished
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  chord that links the end of the Appassionata's slow movement and the beginning of the finale.
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  But I'm getting ahead of myself, the Appassionata will have to wait until a later episode.
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  But the next episode of this piano maven miniseries features one of Beethoven's least discussed
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  yet most engaging sonatas, the Sonata No. 11 in B-flat major, Opus 22, as well as his
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  so-called Funeral March Sonata No. 12 in Ab, Opus 26.
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  Maybe I'll link those two together in one episode or maybe they'll have separate episodes.
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  We will find out.
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  This is Jed Disler and I hope you'll join me next time for another episode of the piano
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  maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings as we continue our survey of all
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  32 Beethoven piano sonatas.
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  Take good care.