Customer Reviews

The Glenn Gould Edition: Ludwig Van Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Volume II (Nos. 15-18, No. 23, Nos. 30-32)

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just returned this CD set to the library; it was like saying goodbye to a dear friend. Other reviewers comment on Gould's irreverence. He isn't irreverent to Beethoven, but to the accumulated weight of two centuries of performance tradition. His approach is direct: just play the notes and let them guide you to an interpretation. Listening to other pianists play the same material is painful "Why slow down here? Why that sudden dynamic change?" Their "interpretations" seem fussy and intrusive.

The first movement of the Appassionata is the most obvious. I laughed through it the first time. All the drama is removed: a slap in the face to traditional interpretation. As I listened again and again, the somber magnificence of Beethoven's genius emerged. Gould explores every note and lets it speak. He never short-changes a passage to achieve an effect.

In his late sonatas, Beethoven became more contrapuntal. Gould shines in these movements, allowing the great fugues to build from their own internal strength, revealing the architecture.

I imagine Beethoven listening (if he somehow could) to these performances and saying (in German), "Of course! How else would you play it?"

These are not at all rhythmically accurate performances. The rhythmic structure of the Arietta of Opus 111 is formed from ever decreasing diminutions of a basic triple time metre: 9/16 at the opening. You'd never know this from Gould's performances. If only he "just played the notes" because, like most pianists, he certainly doesn't get the rhythmic structure of this piece right at all. It's a chaconne, basically, and if the rhythms are not kept fairly strict then the music risks falling apart. He arpeggiates chords all over the place. The famous 2+1 rhythm of the so-called "boogie-woogie" passage is smoothed out, sounding like streams of identical notes. Listen to the young Eschenbach, the young Brendel or Pollini or, on DVD Michael Houstoun in particular to hear how this passage is meant to go. This is not "interpretation", it's deliberate and perverse negation of Beethoven's complex but completely clear notation of the rhythmic and metrical structure of the piece: Beethoven spent a lot of time getting the notation of this movement right in order to convey the subdivision of the triple-time metre into progressively smaller subdivisions and the only tempo indications after the first page are "L'istesso tempo" (ie. keep the same tempo which is what almost no one does). Gould then speeds up the triplet 32nd notes of the twinkling "star-music" of the Arietta so much so that the fact that they are variations on the opening bars simply cannot be perceived and making the passage sound like Liszt at his flashiest: I urge caution, they are "interesting" but they are not performances of Beethoven. With this kind of rhythmically and formally incoherent "interpretation" Gould might as well have played the sonata 3 octaves lower or backwards.
Does anyone besides me care much about the fact that a composer like Beethoven took great pains to notate exactly what his ideas were and yet most pianists play what are at most approximations of those ideas?

Although the first word that comes to mind with Glenn Gould's name is Bach, he didn't bring baroque sensibilities to romatnic composers. His Beethoven obeys no authority but his own, and as a result Gould's readings are often high-wire acts. The trudging first movement of the Appassionata is a fall from grace, and you have to avert your ears. But he brings fresh vitality in many other places. I like the unpredictable originality in Gould's Op. 109, 110, and 111 -- it takes a free-wheeling mind to recreate Beethoven's free-wheeling invention.

Yet Gould is also enjoyably vivacious in "easy" sonatas like the Pastorale and the Op. 31 group, where he's never outrageous and is often perfeclty balanced. Even when a movement runs off track, you sense the pianist's excitement and good humor; he's not simply being a bad boy. The apoplectic one-star ranters should have started there instead of with the Appassionata (or maybe they groove on outrage). I don't think Gould plays for insight, however -- he just insists on responding the way he responds, like Beethoven himself. Mikhail Pletnev is Gould's spiritual descendant, although the Russian is quirkier still, since he often changes tempo several times in a few bars and jumps around on the griddle with more sizzle.

In any event, there's a way to hear these recordings as "genuine" Beethoven, not simply a barrel of monkeys. If I want to go ballistic, it's Gould's Mozart that I would pick, not his surprisingly sympathetic Beethoven.

P.S. -- Columbia didn't always give Gould the best sonics, but almost every sonata here is in realistic, easy-to-listen-to sound.

Shakespeare and Beethoven are two powerful examples that show that no matter you face his work, even how terrible you play his message they resist as a big tree any intention, they simply are far beyond the present circumstance, they talk to the best of ourselves and the power of synthesis and strong conviction make them indestructible.

Glenn Gould's approach is an irreverent reading, trying to diminish the epic in some Sonatas and emphasizing the grief and passion. That's why the whole sum can produce great positive surprises but also terrible disappointments. For instance I love his version of the Op. 49, The Funeral March, Second, Third and Seventh Sonatas, and even the Moonlight, the Tempest and the op. 110, because somehow this last Sonata reflects more than any other else the intimate universe of Mr.Gould.

I mean, do not expect glorious results from the Hamerklavier. I know Gould to guess he could do a best performance but simply didn ` t because his intention was clearly to refuse the argument lines and the historicity. I agree totally with him in what concerns with the absence of any Romantic approach with Beethoven, and in this sense he triumphs in several works due the true Beethovenian dissonances must sound hard, bitter and wild.

GG does something with Beethoven: the voicing, the phrasing, the accents--all brilliantly insightful and ingenious. Not to mention GG's miraculous digital ability: he had skills like no other: he does things because he COULD do things. You see?

The Opp. 31s are great; but the real treat is the last great three sonatas Opp. 109-11. I have Pollini; I have Kempff--whom I usually prefer to anyone with Beethoven; still, Gould beats them all here. I just keep listening to GG's Opp. 109-11 over and over again. Each hearing reveals new exquisitenesses.

Also, the Appassionata here is read in a similar fashion to GG's realization of the HammerKalvier: magnificent. You have to put down your tired old prejudices, and come to the work of Art as an unique phenomenon. Understand?!

It is always fascinating to hear Gould's interpretations. Despite what people say, they are never purely irreverent or conceited; Gould was an inspiring and insightful musical thinker and had nothing but respect for his art. That said, these are in no way definitive recordings, certainly Gould's recordings are not the way to learn Beethoven's music. Though they are not a worthy first experience, the recordings offer a great window into the thoughts and feelings of an important musical mind. Yet, these recordings, like Gould's musicological writings, are part of a much larger conversation. We should not allow ourselves to be easily persuaded by Gould's rhetoric, but it is certainly interesting to consider his views.

As for particularly outstanding performances, Gould's rendition of the Funeral March sonata, the Pastoral and the contrapuntal sections of the later sonatas (I find his Fuga from Sonata No. 31 quite fascinating)are all high quality items. Although it is somewhat controversial I also agree with Gould's Moonlight Sonata (the 'Presto Agitato' is electric under his fingertips). His rendition of the 'Appassionata' is lamentably eccentric, but it an important and legendary performance and should be heard, if not owned.

All in all, I would highly recommend listening to these recordings. Purchase, however is not necessary. For more definitive recordings see Wilhelm Kempff, Alfred Brendel or, for a more modern approach, Richard Goode. But pianists, music lovers, and Beethoven fans should definitely engage Gould's singular performances here. My recommendation: take this out from your local library, study it, then return it and try to suspend negativity and criticism: these are worthy recordings. If you're looking to buy, however, stick go with something else.

Every Gould recording is an adventure and should be given at least one listen or more. The recording sound and playing style is so unique as are all of Gould's recordings.

Beethoven was a composer who amazed, shocked, perplexed and caused a lot of scratching of heads in his day. Then, over the course of time, his music was painted over with accumulating layers of performance "tradition" as people got used to 'their' idea of Beethoven, to a form of Beethoven that was comfortable, that "made sense". After enough time has passed no-one remembers how this music must have sounded when it was first heard. Now I'm not saying that Glenn Gould has got it "right" but NO-ONE knows how Beethoven played his own sonatas so NO-ONE has the right to say Gould's playing them the "wrong way". I can't find it hard to imagine that Beethoven himself would have played his works with the same kind of unexpected simplicity, and at times, eccentricity that I find irresistible in Gould's performances. Beethoven was no "traditional" anything. So let's not assume we know how his works "should" be played and just listen to these performances with an open mind, a mind open to the understanding that genius can be expressed in many ways but it will NEVER look or sound or even feel like anything we've experienced before. THAT'S what makes it genius.

For anyone willing to experience it, these performances contain many, to me, sublime moments of transcendence where I feel as though, through Gould's hands, Beethoven's music has transported me somewhere "more Beethoven" than I've ever been before. The second movement of the Op. 57 Appassionata Sonata is such a moment. It feels as though Beethoven is right there speaking to me with his own words. Playing this simple and direct yields wonders. Op. 78, 'À Thérèse' offers much playfulness and moments of sheer heart wrenching beauty, passages sing out in ways I have never heard under other fingers. To me the true revolutionary, profound and perplexing energy that I perceive Beethoven to have embodied leaps out of these sonatas whether it sounds "right" or not it never sounds boring or uninspired. Gould does everything he does for a reason, because it feels true to him. That's all we can ask of any artist.

My perfect antidote to any form of depression: The irreverent side of Glenn Gould, deconstructing the hallowed Appassionata sonata, showing that the emperor, in this case, was without clothes.
The whole record is perceptive, revealing new insights (and opinions) on Beethoven`s music. But it is not a representative Beethoven piano recording, and should be supplemented with one of the many excellent "correct" recordings that exist - Alfred Brendel is but one example.
This is for those who appreciate Gould`s unique and always fresh way of making music come alive and speak to you. Enjoy!

There seems to be a constant buzz around his name... one can tell simply by the fact that there is a Glenn Gould edition. And of course, the grotesque flattery his name is given - Glenn Gould, the troubled genius!

That said, it is all as empty as his performances of Beethoven. This is passion? This is a lie! Glenn Gould has never touched a score without the urge to use it to make himself look good. He plays every passage of everything he touches, not with the music in mind, but with the ambition of his performance being different than any other. There is nothing wrong with originality and this so-called "audacity"! Needless to say, Beethoven's music was different than any other music when he composed it. But in Beethoven's case this was because he was constantly learning as he composed how to deeply express himself! He wrote different music because the music there was wasn't capturing his feelings and dreams as he needed it to. Gould's renditions of these masterpieces are, on the other hand, originality for its own sake - simply in the name of appealing to every pseudo-intellectual who listens to music (and believe me, there are far too many of them) with a fit of avant-garde vulgarity.

Take for example the Adagio of Op. 109 ... a piece of utmost luminescence and tenderness. Other performers know to play this piece sweetly and slowly, to let every note ring as though it is traveling to infinity, but precisely since this is the way the sonata is performed (and the way Beethoven intended it - if you don't believe me simply see the amount of instructions and specifications he wrote in the scores of these sonatas), Gould plays it faster, cutting off the notes in mid-ring, and then draws out parts which are meant to flow more quickly, only further removing the listener from the peace they are meant to feel. Op. 109 is one of Beethoven's most serene and tender compositions, and he wrote it with a sense of peace, of the sighs of a pining lover, in mind. Gould's rendition attempts (but fails, as no charlatan's lies can ever overshadow a spirit like Beethoven's) to transform this work into an expression of loss and isolation.

Gould constantly receives high praise based mostly on his Bach performances. Those are, at least, bearable and at times among the best, simply because Bach's music affords a great deal of freedom to the performer to express the work as they like... and in that case Gould's urge to play everything differently than everyone else can provide a unique perspective of the genius of Bach. Beethoven's music, and especially his piano works, do no such thing! He worked in the outer realms of perfection, where a piece was often one note, one slip away from sailing headlong into oblivion. Of course he wrote lovingly enough to spare room for a performer who understood his voice to add a personal touch - take Wilhelm Kempff, who plays Op. 109 in a way that draws me to tears, while adding his own personal voice to the performance. The difference between the two is that Kempff approched Beethoven humanely, while Gould approaches Beethoven as he approached any piece at all, intellectually, as though it were some new bit of postmodern philosophy. This is sickening beyond words.

To conclude concisely: I almost recommend this from an academic perspective for a listener or budding pianist to see how not to approach Beethoven (though as a pianist it seems even the most horrific performances dressed up in intellectuality earn a great deal of praise), but if you want to hear Beethoven's music with the intensity, fantasy, and spirituality it was written in, I suggest you enter "Beethoven piano sonatas -Gould" in your search box and try again.