Search - Beethoven, Chopin, Michelangeli :: Piano Sonata 32 in C Minor Op 111

THE LION IN WINTER

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 08/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To my everlasting regret I missed this recital which proved to be M's last in London. There's no question in my mind about a 5* rating in spite of some serious problems with the sound. What marks out Michelangeli more than anything else is his tone-production, the recorded sound here is simply not true to it, and that is a miracle of the wrong kind not achieved by recordings made during world war II. The other problem is noises-off. As a rule I am insensitive to these, but here they bother me. There is a fair quota of emphysema-sufferers in the audience, and for these I would echo Shaw's benevolent wish that someone would take them out into the street and gently pass a steam road-roller over their chests. Worse and stranger are some other effects, possibly of multiple origins. If some were made by the maestro himself, they are worse than any I ever heard from Serkin. You will find here three of the finest Chopin performances you ever heard plus a notable Beethoven op111. Other than the Emperor, which is nothing like such an interpretative challenge, this is the only piece of the greatest Beethoven that I know of M giving in public. I have an earlier reading by him as well, and if anyone still thinks M was just a great technician I counsel them to hear this. He absolutely wrestles with the first movement in a way he didn't quite do before, and on balance this performance does more for me. In the Arietta/variations he doesn't quite get it right. His tempo is a tad too fast and the tinkling high-treble variation is nervy-sounding in consequence. Also the trills near the end are merely excellent, not completely out of this world as they were before. For a comparison I played Serkin -- another outsize musical personality noted for rhythmic grip, strength of line and a giant left hand. They have almost switched roles! Here it is Michelangeli who is fiercely involved in the first movement and Serkin who is note-perfect and smooth and rich in tone. Serkin was not satisfied with himself here, and certainly I don't feel gripped by the throat in the way he could do to me in the Waldstein or Appassionata, which is not to say he is not first-class by any normal standard. But in the arietta movement Serkin shows how the thing should be done -- the speed dead right and the later stages of the piece taking us out to some strange transfigured other world.I never thought much of the Andante Spianato & Grand Polonaise until I heard this performance. Horowitz and Rubinstein play it very well as a piece of effective minor Chopin. Michelangeli finds more in it than I suspected was there -- all grandezza and hyperbole, making a terrific finish to the recital. This is the third and best version I have from him of the big B minor mazurka op 33/#4. The special effects of timing and tone contrasts are played up this time even more than previously. And there's the B minor scherzo. For the first time, I believe, in my lengthening life I could have thought I was listening to Liszt. I have two magnificent versions of it, Horowitz and Richter, and obviously not even Michelangeli can give a performance with the special virtues of these giants on top of his own. Richter's introversion, which I don't always like, plays effectively here, and Horowitz is at his unique best -- steel-fingered dramatic and serious without self-indulgence. Michelangeli takes a more deliberate speed, the whole effect is bigger, and the end is like nothing I ever heard or imagined. There is pain in this playing, and it cries out unbelievably at the end of the Chopin scherzo. The sense of vulnerability is something very new from Michelangeli of all players, and oddly it enhances, not diminishes, his haughtiness. His lengendary infallibility of fingerwork has deserted him at last, though the small quota of fluffed notes is of no importance whatsoever and less than one would have expected in the average recital by Horowitz or Richter. I gather this recital did not draw a full house -- he was a sick man and many did not believe he would show up. Now he has cancelled irrevocably and for ever but at least we have got one more treasure in his legacy to us..."

Unique pianist

manuel | Lisbon, Portugal | 03/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The "Andante Spianato" is the ultimate one! I heard, in London, that performance. Unique! Absolutely unique! The "Scherzo" is the only I know by Michelangeli on disc. Chopin and Bellini are - ONLY NOW - united!"

Beethoven's Op. 111

Arquimedes W. B. Oliveira | Belo Horizonte, Brasil | 01/29/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am a real fanatic for all Beethoven's music, and, naturally, the Piano Sonatas. But, for me, Op. 111 is the final, ultimate piece that has ever been written by a human being for piano solo, particularly the second movement (if there are some ET's pieces, I don't know...).

I must confess - I am really addicted to this sonata - so I have been collecting everything I can get, recordings included, related to it.

This recording was, really, a surprise. Although it plays more or less on the average time (I have one, played by another italian pianist, Massimiliano Damerini, where the second movement goes as far as 20 minutes, this is the longest...), when conmparing to other monsters such as Kempff, Backahaus, Serkin and Solomon, it is really totally different from the ones I have. Somewhat 'broken' at a first listening, mainly after the 'ragtime'tempo, but I do confess - I loved it! Each time I heard it, I can extract new delights from Benedetti's playing... And when I think that this a live recording, from a 70 year person at the time, I only have to be humble and acknowledge that geniuses exist... Benedetti was one of them...

Buy it... Just for Opus 111, it's worth your money..."