Wednesday 27 August 2008

First impressions: Beethoven Piano Sonatas - András Schiff

I bought as much of this new series of Sonatas as I could get hold of after listening short excerpts. Mr Schiff provides a wonderful, new and fresh interpretation of these great works, and impresses with his great technical ability, but also truly sensitive playing. Unfortunately, he tends to spoil some of the wonder by literally hammering out his fortissimo passages in a way that might even surprise and upset those of us who value interpretation that is true to the presumed style of playing prevalent during Beethoven's lifetime. 
Playing is (as mentioned by another reviewer) sometimes unexpectedly sluggish. 

The thing that clearly stands out is his playing of the slower movements which is crisp, but gentle with wonderful consideration of melodic lines. 

But this collection of discs will probably do for the Beethoven Piano Sonatas what Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis did for the Beethoven Violin sonatas with their recent recordings: providing a new sound and fresh interpretations to some of the most wonderful music ever composed.

3 comments:

Francois Malherbe said...

I own all six volumes of this Beethoven cycle that have been released until now. Listening to them has given me great pleasure and, since I do not play the piano myself, I am probably less aware of the finer interpretational details. As is the case with all great works many different interpretations are possible, one not necessarily being more valid than the other. In the end it boils down to the fact that you will have to own more than just one set of these great works!

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