Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Piano Works Vol. 6

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One of my earliest memories is of hearing this recording by Artur Schnabel (1882-1951) of the 'Tempest' Sonata, Op. 31, No. 2 in the music room of one of my musical aunts. I begged to hear it over and over. I eventually owned my own copy on 78 rpm, later on LP, then on CD. This CD is part of newly transferred series of all the Beethoven recordings of Schnabel, mostly made in the 1930s. These three sonatas were part of the, for the time, gargantuan undertaking to record all 32 sonatas for the British Beethoven Sonata Society. There had been earlier recordings of various of the sonatas, but no one had recorded them all. In fact, when this performance of the 'Tempest' first came out it was compared unfavorably by some with that of Walter Gieseking. And Schnabel was taken to task for his 'overuse' of the sustaining pedal, particularly in the first movement. For me, though, that haze of pedal sound in the recitative sections gives it a sort of musing sound. I suppose I was imprinted on that sound, but when one thinks about how Schnabel was criticized for being a 'scholarly' and 'dry' pianist in his day, it's hard to imagine how someone so 'dry' would choose to overlay such a scrim of pedal sound in an otherwise rhetorical passage. The fact is, Schnabel was not a dry pianist. Scholarly, yes, but he was as dramatic as any and more than most, not only because of his thorough understanding of Beethoven's architecture but also from the utterly reliable control of his wide tonal palette. As to the Op. 31, No. 2, the only quibble I have is the rather foursquare sound of those delicious downward right-hand chromatic runs towards the very end of the third movement. They should, in my view, simply disappear into thin air; Schnabel simply plays them. A disappointment in an otherwise electric performance.

The first Beethoven sonata I ever learned to play was the four-movement Sonata No. 18, Op. 31, No. 3, in E flat major. I had never heard Schnabel's recording at that point and only came to it years later. As well as I knew the sonata, there were things he did in all four movements that made me perk up my ears. In the first movement there are slightly elongated cadences in the midst of the statements of the main theme that give it a slightly diffident quality that made me go 'well, of course,' and as far as I know they are unique to Schnabel. The second movement Scherzo, rather than being headlong (that is reserved for the Presto final movement), is genial; this is not to say there aren't slightly surprising sforzandi (and these are among the few places where the recording technique of the time couldn't quite handle the volume of sound) but on the whole the movement is quite civilized in Schnabel's hands. And the same is true of the delightful Menuetto third movement. Schnabel here follows Beethoven's seemingly capricious dynamic markings in the trio carefully. The Presto finale is a whirlwind, yet dynamics are managed subtly even at this breakneck speed. There is a slight bobble in the first half of the movement, and I always chuckle at that. Good old Schnabel! I'm sure he had the opportunity to re-record the movement, but I suspect he liked what he'd been doing overall and murmured 'Macht's nichts' and approved it for release.

The disc closes with the 'Waldstein,' surely one of the great recordings of this much-recorded sonata. It opens faster than one expects but with precise rhythmic clarity and one might think it will become simply a virtuoso showpiece. But by the time Schnabel gets to the second theme of the first movement one realizes it will be poetry as well as fire. Again, even at this furious pace the management of dynamics and legato is breathtaking. One is not prepared, then, for the noble serenity of the second movement. Taken at a slowish 'adagio molto' which in lesser hands could stagnate, the movement is enlivened by a singing tone that, again, belies any notion that Schnabel is 'dry.' One's heart could break from such time-stopping beauty. [One is not surprised that Brahms was influenced by this movement when he came to write the slow movements of his piano concerti.] Of course, this movement is entitled 'Introduzione,' and indeed the third movement comes right out of the incomplete final cadence of the second. And here we have one of the most magical things in all of Beethoven: the long-held pedal during changing harmonies at the beginning of this movement. Much debate raged in earlier years about whether this was a mistake made by Beethoven. After all, he was deaf wasn't he? Yet, the long-held pedal provides a haze of sound even more impressive than that in the first movement of the Op. 31, No. 2; while the left hand is scurrying up and down, the right hand octaves are singing a beguiling yet shyly pianissimo song. Schnabel does it justice. The recorded sound, although from 1934, is more than acceptable here although there are occasional too-bright sforzandi later in the movement. The ecstatic final octave glissandi and trills are luminous.

The transfer of sound from the original shellac 78s is done by engineering magician, Mark Obert-Thorn. One knows it's not modern sound, but one wouldn't think it is from the 30s.

I've reviewed several of this series, but so far this my favorite. I can't stop playing it. If you buy only one of this new series, I urge you to try this one.

TT=68:35

Scott Morrison

With the high praise given in other reviews about the sound of these reissues, I ordered the set with great expectations. I regret to report that the sound is badly dulled by the engineer's filtering. While not as dull as the original LP or EMI CD releases, if you compare it to the Pearl releases of the mid 1990s, you will see what is lost. The Pearl series sounds unfiltered --- it has the greatest surface noise, but for the first time you can actually hear the sparkle and vibrancy of Schnabel's piano --- almost like a modern recording with a lot of noise. That sparkle gives the music a psychoacoustic aliveness that is profoundly important to the emotional impact. The engineering of the Naxos series puts the musician behind a veil of 70 years. The Pearl series brings Schanbel into your room now. The mind can filter out the surface noise and hear the vibrancy present. Perhaps someday computers will be able to do this for us. But this is not to be found in this Naxos series. As to the performances --- I can focus on the sound, because the performances are simply essential to any lover of Beethoven; when I sit down and close my eyes and listen, Schnabel more than any interpreter evokes a stream of images, moments, characters, feelings, and indescribable stories that inhabit Beethoven's musical world. But use Amazon's advanced search to find the Pearl editions of these recordings.