Customer Reviews

Yves Nat: Ses Enregistrements, 1930-1956 [Coffret du 50ème Anniversaire] [Box Set]

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This is a fantastic set of great piano playing. I would say personally, that it ranks among the best. Very refined, insightful, on the other hand not heavy, just original, somehow as for the access to the played works it is in its own class. Not in the superiority of playing, no, Nat is great, but there are for sure other great players as well. But he is unique in his concept. I cannot describe it, but if you want to hear e.g. Beethoven as never before and after, go for Nat. Do not worry, it is not unnatural, superartificial, original for the reason to be original. No. Nat is genius taking in the Beethoven scores and ideas and giving it out in absolutely beautiful and special manner. The same for Schumann, Brahms etc. Believe me, I heard many Beethovens and I like very much Richter, Gilels, Arrau, Backhaus, Haskil, Annie Fischer, also Barenboim, Serkin, Kempff, Chodos, Michelangeli (in his few Beethoven pieces), Horszowski, Sofronitsky, Yudina, BUT Nat belongs there too and with very prominent place.

Yves Nat's traversal of Beethoven's sonatas should be heard by all pianists and those who collect notable interpretations of the grand 32. If I had to choose three words to describe Nat's playing they would be lucid, solid, and idiosyncratic (re: some tempo choices). In this day and age of re-issues - particularly those in the EMI Icon black bricks - it is important to note the sound quality of the recordings themselves, in addition to the pianistic technique on display. Here's where it gets somewhat touch and go for some.

The Beethoven recordings date from the 1950s and are quite good sound (needless to say, mono) EMI France provides better, clearer, more authentic piano sound (as they did in their recordings of Samson Francois) rather than the recordings made by their counterpart in Britain did for other pianists (ie, Solomon, Gieseking). The sound reproduced however, is that of a somewhat "tubby" piano, with occasion - emphasis occasional - hammer "double-strike" echoes. The tapes themselves have been restored beautifully (virtually no hiss) but have an occasional flaw. One egregious moment has major tape "wow" in the third movement of Sonata 12 at 1:47m. There are other moments like this, which sound as if the "needle" playing an LP record hit a large warp. (That's what it sounds like - these recordings were made on magnetic tape. It's likely that there were small lengths of tape stretch.)

The Schumann fares less well - understandably, as the recordings arise (mostly?) from 1930s 78 RPMs. Again, the remastering is superb - but as a set this simply cannot be recommended when the likes of Kempff is available in a low price budget DG box.

Yves Nat is a French national treasure. He re-introduced major German repertoire to a country ravaged by the tyanny WWII and repelled by Teutonic culture. I purchased this set to hear Nat's take on the great 32, and in that regard, I was not disappointed. It is enjoyable, distinctive, well played and well worth hearing by collectors and to those to whom music is more than an occasional avocation. It's not the set to purchase if you're only going to own one. My mainstream recommendation to those who only want to own a single set would be Kempe Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-32. To those who would like to explore a more idiosynctratic set with world class pianism, I would suggest a personal favorite, Gulda, who melds clarity, speed, and structure into a timeless set of performances Beethoven Piano Sonata 1 - 32 & Piano Concerto 1 - 5 [Box set]

Kudos to EMI - both Britain and France - for re-releasing all of the historic releases for those of us who choose to explore pianism from a different age and time.