Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Rudolf Serkin :: Beethoven: The Last 3 Piano Sonatas, Nos. 30-32

A BIT VARIABLE

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 03/08/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Only one of these three performances strikes me as being top-class Serkin. What I had been hoping for was some hitherto-undiscovered early versions from him that had somehow escaped the compilers of the discography in the 2003 biography of Serkin by Stephen Lehmann, but what I have got is three performances from the 1970's that I already knew and owned. Serkin was a bit of a pain for recording performances and then deciding not to release them. How he arrived at his decisions in this matter is intriguing - I wouldn't have reached the same conclusions as he did in all cases. The most interesting issue is over the A flat sonata op 110. The version we have here is the one he actually did release, and it seems to me nowhere near as good as the one he sat on, available as part of the posthumous collection eventually issued with the agreement of Peter Serkin. That strikes me as one of the greatest Beethoven sonata renderings that I know, whereas the one here is a poor second. The touch lacks crispness, the dynamics are less well differentiated, the first movement is a little bit too slow and the fugal sections of the finale do not give the same thrilling sensation of great doors opening and closing. The E major op109 suffers from these characteristics to some extent as well. Surely this speed in the first movement is never 'vivace'? Serkin had recorded the work once before, and happily that reading is now available again as part of this same series. His earlier tempi in both the first movement and the following prestissimo are more my idea of what these indications require, and in the final andante, while the speed is slow in both performances, it convinces me more in the earlier one.



The last sonata op111 is more like the real thing - much more. There is no hint of tiredness here, the touch is the great Serkin touch as we know and love it at its best and there is a striking evenness about it too. Just what Serkin was not satisfied with is not at all clear to me, and we should heave a sigh of relief that this recording has been reprieved for us. The first movement is grand and effortless, but I will admit that it doesn't have quite the sense of fierce involvement that I get from a live 1990 performance from London by, of all people, Michelangeli - not as a rule my idea of a natural Beethoven interpreter. The arietta is sublime in every way, though, taking us away to some transfigured outer realm in its later stages.



Serkin is still Serkin and a unique prophet of Beethoven even at not quite his best. There is any amount to be learned from all three sonatas here. Nobody need have any hesitation in acquiring this record if the purpose is to understand Beethoven better. For the special followers of this great musician and player these are performances not to miss. He left us little enough."

A piano colossus plays Beethoven!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 03/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Sonata No.30 may be well considered as part of an impressive Trilogy, in which languid flame of Beethoven begins to vanish. The profound homesickness is far to be self indulgent. Beethoven has come to the end of the road and searches untiringly an exit door. This autumnal character is visibly remarked by the composer through the employment of the Fugue form in every one of these three works. Beethoven opposes deliberated or unconsciously the Fugue as signal of resigned acceptation, cathartic refugee and warm memories and smartly contrasts with his fiery and thunderous attacks expressed as Fortissimos to carve in relief the untamed human spirit. Indeed you may easily realize the Farewell taste, because of the fact all these endings are achieved, just leaving float the bars, without that marked heroic affirmation of previous works such as Patetique or Appassionata for instance; on the contrary he accents the ebb tide and tepid atmosphere of the last breath, but loaded with infinite noblesse, without signals of despair, anguish or inner conflict ( as Tchaikovsky or Mahler).



I have always thought around the Sonata No. 31 that express like no other else, the "Memory Reverberation", but emancipated of any trace of nostalgia or pain. I would say Beethoven is hovering through his livings, early childhood dreams and illusions, adopting a similar attitude that you or me assume when open an old photographs album.



Finally the Sonata No.32 anticipates from the second Movement a journey without return; and that unstoppable sensation of unavoidable missing in the thickness of an unending night is only agreabled for a very brief motive that reminds us to the first seed of an unborn musical genre: the jazz. The last Movement is loaded of such dramatic density and furtive evanescence that engages even the most indifferent listener.



As you know, most of pianists accustom to follow the loyal tradition that has become a non sacred ritual, that consists in playing these last three Sonatas in tandem, without play any encore. The unsaid meaning would support my thesis about the unbreakable unity of these piano works.



The impeccable good taste and superb genius of Rudolf Serkin made possible to listen these unvaluable recordings keeping in mind all the previuos considerations, due Serkin was a thinker musician.

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