What are you listening to now?

[Sorrano]

Right now it's Kempff's rendition of Op 10 no 3 - the piano sonata in D. Doesn't get played enough to be honest, it's a wonderful piece .

Haven't decided which cycle of the sonatas to buy yet, so I'm listening to as many different versions on youtube at the moment. So hard to pick a favourite for the entire set, as different pianists excell at different pieces. What to do

Was this an earlier recording or later of Kempff's? I have the later Kempff cycle but am not too pleased with it. This particular Sonata, which is a favorite of mine, was not up to snuff for me. So far my preference for a cycle is with Brendel.

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Borodin's 2nd String Quartet
Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture

[Peter]

Right now it's Kempff's rendition of Op 10 no 3 - the piano sonata in D. Doesn't get played enough to be honest, it's a wonderful piece .

Haven't decided which cycle of the sonatas to buy yet, so I'm listening to as many different versions on youtube at the moment. So hard to pick a favourite for the entire set, as different pianists excell at different pieces. What to do

Well here are plenty of suggestions to add to the confusion!

Richard Goode
Brendel
Wilhelm Kempff
Claudio Arrau
Wilhelm Backhaus
Claude Frank

Jean-Bernard Pommier
Vol. 1, Sonatas 1-10: 3 CDs, Erato 2292-45598-2 (1991) Vol. 2, Sonatas 11-20: 3 CDs, Erato 2292-45812-2 (1992) Vol. 3, Sonatas 21-27: 3 CDs, Erato 4509-91727-2 (1994)

Ivan Moravec
Vol. 1: Piano Concerto No. 4, with Martin Turnovsky conducting The Orchestra of the Vienna Musikverein;Sonata 27; 32 Variations in C Minor, WoO 80 VAI Audio VAIA 1021 (1963, 1966, 1992)Vol. 2: Sonatas 8, 14, 23, 26 VAI Audio VAIA 1069 (1962-1970, 1994)

Murray Perahia
Sonatas 1-3
Sony Classical SK 64397 (1995)

Charles Rosen
Sonatas 27-32
2 CDs, Sony Essential Classics SB2K 53531 (1971, 1994)

Period instruments:

Alexei Lubimov
Pianoforte: John Broadwood & Son, 1806
Sonatas 8, 14, 21
Erato 4509-94356-2 (1994)

Paul Komen
Pianoforte: Salvatore la Grassa, Viennese school c. 1815
Sonatas 16-18
Globe GLO 5136 (1995)

Paul Komen
Pianoforte: Johann Fritz, Vienna 1825
Sonatas 21-23, Globe GLO 5118 (1994)

Paul Komen
Pianoforte: Conrad Graf, Vienna c. 1830
Sonatas 30-32 Globe GLO 5106 (1993)

Historical performances

COMPLETE - Schnabel (1935 - mono) (PEARL)

[Eva]

Was this an earlier recording or later of Kempff's? I have the later Kempff cycle but am not too pleased with it. This particular Sonata, which is a favorite of mine, was not up to snuff for me. So far my preference for a cycle is with Brendel.

I'm afraid I don't know - I checked the video and the uploader didn't give the date of recording. It was this one though

Well here are plenty of suggestions to add to the confusion!

Wow, that's great thank you! I'll try to listen to as many as possible! I'm a bit obsessed with the sonatas at the moment . Normally I love period recordings (especially for baroque) but I must admit I'm not a fan of the fortepiano.


Anyway, this morning I'm listening to Paul Lewis' version of the 4th piano concerto for the BBC Proms. I think he opens it exceptionally well.

[Sorrano]

Last night began to listen to Lohengrin.

This morning: Liszt's Piano Sonata in B Minor

[Chris]

Normally I love period recordings (especially for baroque) but I must admit I'm not a fan of the fortepiano.

I feel the same way. Actually, I like modern instruments better overall for Beethoven.

[Eva]

I feel the same way. Actually, I like modern instruments better overall for Beethoven.

Somehow I think Beethoven would have felt the same. His music seems to have been written with an idealised piano in mind, not the instruments of his day...

I'm listening to Andras Schiff's version of the Pathétique at the moment. After hearing his lecture on this sonata I wanted to see what the first movement was like with the repeat from the start. I really like it

[Chris]

Somehow I think Beethoven would have felt the same. His music seems to have been written with an idealised piano in mind, not the instruments of his day...

I'm not sure. Beethoven was practical in this regard, I think. I think he would have very much appreciated the modern grand piano, with its wonderful tone and longer sustain and greater volume and power, and been happy to write for it, but the fortepiano did have the quality of having different timbres in the different ranges of the instrument, whereas the modern piano has a more uniform sound. It could be that he was thinking of this when composing for the piano, and would consider something lost without it.

Personally, I consider the advantages of the modern piano to outweigh that loss, especially for slow movements. (But then again, perhaps the greater sustain tempts us to take those slow movements too slowly...) But I can't say what Beethoven would have thought.

It's also true that people back then were not nearly as concerned with authentic performance as we are today. Mozart, for example, rearranged some of Handel's works to have a more modern orchestration, a practice a lot of us would scoff at today. So that might be another argument for Beethoven preferring the modern piano.

In the end, I suppose I don't care much about Beethoven would have preferred. I know what I prefer, and that's the way I'll listen

[Sorrano]

This morning:

Liszt/Busoni: Fantasy on Two Motives from Mozart's Marriage of Figarro
Pierne: Konzertstuck in G-Sharp

[Roehre]

Today:

Strauss:
Der Rosenkavalier op.59: highlights
BBCMM latest CD which I found in my mailbox returning from abroad this morning.
Enjoyable CD, my only “less positive” remark being that it’s a pity that the voices of the two sopranos are so very alike, hardly to distinguish. But IMO beautifully sung.

[Sorrano]

Welcome back, Roehre! Hope you had a great trip!

[Roehre]

Welcome back, Roehre! Hope you had a great trip!

Thanks Sorrano.
Was an excellent trip: my father's 90th birthday, and I wish that -should I reach that age- I would be in his present physical and mental shape.

[Sorrano]

This morning: Katchachurian's Suite from Spartacus

[Roehre]

Today:

Schubert:
Fierrabras op.76 D.796 (1823)

[Megan]

IGNACY FELIKS DOBRZIYNSKY: Piano Concerto in A flat major Op. 2
Howard Shelley (piano and conductor), Sinfonia Varsovia


This is a lovely piece and I thought very much in the musical style of Beethoven.
As I was listening to this piece while I was in the kitchen and didn't get the intro to it, I thought it was perhaps by Beethoven, but discovered it was a piece by Dobrziynsky, a pianist I must admit haven't discovered till now.
What a pleasant surprise.




.