Customer Reviews

Moonlight & Appassionata Piano Sonatas

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The reading of these pieces are quite different from Backhaus or Kempff. If you want to have a change from these German pianists (or even from the Russians), this might be the one for you. Casadesus in these pieces will for sure give you boundless inspirations and insights.

But personally, and as a fan of both Casadesus & Horszowski, and oddly enough, I would prefer the former's Mozart & the latter's Beethoven at times. However, also note that the inlay gives no information on recorded time/place and the sleeve says "mono" and the recorded sound simply leaves much too be desired, much worse than what we get from Kempff's 50's Beethoven cycle or even Horszowski's Mozart cycle.

This classic stereo recording of Beethoven's named sonatas played by Robert Casadesus has got the timeless quality and the hallmark of great performance. His touch is very light and his interpretation is straightforward, but there is a kind of divine simplicity, in his playing, which captures the transcendental quality inherent in Beethoven's music. Most of pianists achieves it by hard labour and extreme concentration, but Casadesus' account of Appassionata Sonata, for example, never sounds heavy or laboured, and yet it has the intensity and the depth this Sonata demands.

I lived for a year in the house in Princeton NJ where the Casadesus family had lived.
His daughter, Therese, was crippled and there was a hot bath in the basement
for her. Thus, the inclusion of this sonata had a special meaning for this wonderful
pianist, who in my opinion was the equal of Schnabel and Kempff in playing Mozart and
Beethoven with such beauty.

This is the first (and only) "classical" CD I've ever bought, and it hasn't let me down yet. I bought this CD primarily because of "Moonlight Sonata", but listening to the rest of the CD, I found that the different pieces really flow well throughout the CD.