Beethoven's hands

[Joy]

Originally posted by Peter:
Of course owing to his deafness his piano playing deteriorated to the point where public performance was out of the question - I don't know of any deaf virtuoso pianists today do you? His last known public appearance as a pianist was I think playing the Archduke trio - needless to say it was not a success. This is of course why he never performed the Emperor concerto.

I don't know of any hearing impaired pianists but The Phoenix Symphony does have a hearing impaired musician, he plays the oboe!
Re: Emperor's Concerto, I remember reading where B was quite upset over the fact that he couldn't perform The Emperor's Concerto in public as he wanted to very much.

Joy

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by Rod:
Well, I hope you find your way out of the Desert soon. I was thinking about more modern interpretations I've heard over the years and I came to the conclusion that performers probably still under-use the pedal for Beethoven, the emphasis is still too much on clarity and not the drama. The result ironically is that many of these modern performances I've heard still sound too 'choppy' or 'fussy'. I presume the huge tone of the modern piano bares part of the responsibility for this, ie there is a constant requirement to control it.

On one hand I've heard some recordings where pedaling was excessive to my taste (Kempf) and others where there was not enough. In my mind the issue is simply using the pedal wisely. I've heard recordings where octave runs are played quite well and smartly without any pedalling, yet others tend to play similar passages in a more staccato style. If done well I prefer the staccato sound over the pedalled sound.