The one Beethoven recording you may need most
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
I can barely control my finger at the play button. This recording takes us as close to Beethoven in audible terms as it is possible to get. This is the sound that filled Beethoven’s room as he composed at least half of the 32 sonatas…..
Read on here.
And here.
En francais ici.
In Czech here.
In The Critic here.
“THE ONE BEETHOVEN RECORDING YOU MAY NEED MOST”
Nope. Not even close.
If you are interested in fortepianos – and Beethoven – you need to hear Paul Badura-Skoda’s indispensable set of the 32 sonatas recently re-released by Arcana (A203), originally on Naive.
Badura-Skoda uses no fewer than seven pianos of the era, each roughly corresponding to the time the particular sonata was composed. And, mirabile dictu, all of the instruments sound in great shape and are well-tuned!
Genius music played by a superb musician on good-sounding authentic instruments. Heaven!
Badura-Skoda also recorded a beautiful set of the 32 on a modern piano, a Bosendorfer, if that’s more to your liking.
Both sets are brilliant.
Agree, 100% I have his two Beethoven sets, the Gramola made 1969-70 on a Bosendorfer Imperial, the Arcana set on period fortepianos, Schantz, Walter, Broadwood 1796, Broadwood 1815, Schmidt 1830, Hasska 1815, Graf 1824. It is interesting to compare the two sets, for me the sonatas op. 2-op. 31 do give a marked “improvement” or perspective. I find however with the later sonatas, eg 106 the Graf better overall. Even it does not have the full sonority in the bass as the Bosendorfer which has the Graf as its ancestor.
I read somewhere, Czerny or Ries said Beethoven used more pedal than is marked in the scores, perhaps the dampers were not as good? You can tell he was composing to the instruments limit of their range on the fortepiano. The sound is not so loud, the middle and upper range is bright eg in the Schantz, Walter, but less impressive in the bass register. The Broadwood he received about 1817, did not have the range for his later sonatas, which is why he had a Graf.
The Waldstein sounds ok on the 1815 Broadwood, but would be better on the Graf for the bass register. He could have played just the early ones on the Walter, and all the rest on the Graf, which is better than that Streicher.
I wonder what Beethoven would say if he knew someone in 2000+ was playing his sonatas on a piano made in 1824! I think he would say why play them on an old fortepiano when you have a Bosendorfer? He did say the piano must break, I recall.