Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 pianists: Op. 31 No. 3

Transcript

Beethoven's 32 Sonatas with 64 pianists: Op. 31 No. 3 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:00
  This is Jed Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
• 0:15
  recordings.
• 0:17
  And before we start, I want to tell you that you can subscribe to this podcast through
• 0:23
  my sub stack page by clicking on the link in the episode description.
• 0:29
  And subscribers get bonuses such as Zoom meetings where we share listening experiences and listen
• 0:37
  to all kinds of things together.
• 0:39
  And we'll also have special guests who you can meet and ask questions to.
• 0:44
  So please consider subscribing to help us reach out further into the piano community
• 0:51
  and to help keep the podcast in production.
• 0:55
  This podcast episode is part of a little mini series, well it's actually not that little,
• 1:00
  but it's a mini series that I decided to do to celebrate our second season.
• 1:06
  So at the beginning of the year, I decided that nearly every day, at least during the
• 1:12
  week, leaving weekends to recover, that we would have episodes where we discuss all 32
• 1:21
  Beethoven sonatas and then I recommend two recordings for each sonata.
• 1:29
  One recording is historic or archival and then the other recording is a modern recording
• 1:34
  from the stereo or and digital era.
• 1:39
  And the challenge that I gave myself was not to repeat any pianist more than once.
• 1:46
  So by the end of this Beethoven mini series, we will have discussed 32 sonatas and 64 pianists
• 1:55
  to consider.
• 1:56
  I love the sonata number 18 in E flat major, opus 31, number 3.
• 2:04
  It's basically a sunny and outgoing work in all of the movements pretty much.
• 2:09
  The scherzo's use of détaché articulation reminds me so much of woodwinds.
• 2:16
  The minuet is one of Beethoven's loveliest and that presto confuoco finale is a wild,
• 2:24
  virtuoso tour de force that's always so much fun to hear, especially when you have a pianist
• 2:30
  who can play it up to tempo, yet also make the most musical sense out of it without derailing
• 2:38
  or going past the legal speed limit.
• 2:41
  For my archival and historic choice, I'm going to pick a live recording from 1970 by Dino
• 2:50
  Ciani and it comes from when he played all 32 sonatas in a series of concerts in Venice
• 2:58
  that were archivally recorded and eventually they were released on the dynamic label.
• 3:05
  He did not record all the sonatas in the studio because Dino Ciani died very young in a car
• 3:11
  accident in 1974.
• 3:13
  So many archival recordings from concerts and broadcasts were issued after his death,
• 3:20
  including this Beethoven cycle.
• 3:23
  The sound quality is very resonant and kind of swimmy, but look, we're lucky to have this
• 3:29
  performance.
• 3:31
  In the opus 31, number 3, Dino Ciani just throws himself into the outer movements with
• 3:39
  total abandon, taking all kinds of chances.
• 3:43
  It's such an exciting performance.
• 3:46
  For the modern recording, I want to talk about my dear friend and colleague, the composer
• 3:51
  and pianist Stuart Goodyear, who recorded all of the Beethoven sonatas for the Marquis
• 3:57
  label.
• 3:58
  He brings such great vitality and creative nuance to his recording of opus 31, number
• 4:06
  3.
• 4:07
  He also has the ability to adjust his sound and his balances in order to underline a surprising
• 4:14
  modulation or an interesting sequence of counterpoint, but he does this in a way without being overtly
• 4:22
  obvious about it.
• 4:24
  I think this is one of his strongest performances in a Beethoven cycle that contains nothing
• 4:30
  but strong performances.
• 4:32
  And also what I love about Stuart Goodyear's Beethoven is that he never imitates his predecessors.
• 4:39
  He plays like himself while totally serving the composer, and that's nothing to sniff
• 4:46
  at.
• 4:47
  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
• 4:53
  guide to piano recordings.
• 4:56
  So our next Beethoven Sonata podcast will feature the two little sonatas of opus 49.
• 5:06
  And these are pieces that generally people don't really care about too much, but they're
• 5:11
  very charming early works, and this is like a little place of respite before we get to
• 5:17
  the big boys, so to speak, like the Waldstein and the Appassionata and going on and on and
• 5:25
  on.
• 5:26
  Anyway, take good care, and I look forward to being with you next time for the Piano
• 5:31
  Maven.