Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Andor Foldes :: Andor Foldes Plays Beethoven

Beethoven's Advocate

Peter P. Fuchs | Washington, DC | 12/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One can only hope that when musical histories are written they will give the enormous contribution of the great Beethoven interpreter Andor Foldes its proper place. That Foldes does not occupy the central place that he should says more about the peripatetic state of stable musical thought, than about Andor Foldes or his art. As an example, somewhere in the collection of major newspapers or periodicals that we take regularly there was what could have served as an exemplary nadir of musical thought. The writer was discussing the early history of Deutsche Gramophon, and wrote that the artists they ended up putting forth on lps were an example of simple cheapness. The idea being that locals in Europe could be gotten for less money at the time. Here wrapped-up in one terrible misunderstanding by a critic was the conflation of breezy economic generalization and musical half-truths. For Andor Foldes was one of the DG artists at the time and his whole career was quite the opposite of what these words of formidable ignorance had suggested.( Mutatis mutandis for Wolfgang Schneiderhan). For after the Second World War a new style of piano-playing emerged in Europe which emphasized rhythmic precision with unaffected readings of classic works.To see how sharply the American style at the time differed from European one only has to contrast Serkin with Foldes. Unfortunately, somehow a lesser exemplar of this phenomenon, Wilhelm Kempff ,gained more fame than others, and his self-consciously priestly readings have fueled wannabe snobs and turned- off generations to the very style of which he was a weak avatar.I wanted to comment on these performances by Foldes because they represent, in live radio performances, the pinnacle of his vivid, unpretentious style. Half-baked appreciators of music have convinced themselves that they know what a fine performance would sound like. Foldes takes a radically different approach. He let the weight and gravity of the musical form create the drama, and nothing else. It is perhaps not the only way to perform great works, but at least we must be clear about what is being performed. In this sense the are few pianists as peers to Foldes."