Beethoven: Die Späten Klaviersonaten

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Pollini's performances of Beethoven's last five piano sonatas have assumed almost legendary status, and this reissue at midprice in improved sound ought to win them many new friends. Sometimes considered a cold interpreter, Pollini here pays scrupulous attention to Beethoven's instructions, an attention that never gets in the way of sincere expression. There's a lot to be said for approaching this music with a maximum of clarity and simplicity, and a minimum of Romantic panting and heaving. In fact, Beethoven's instructions are so detailed, and the music itself is often so elaborately developed, that it's all most pianists can do to play it as he wrote it. Pollini does that, and much more. --David Hurwitz

Tracks:

Sonate No. 28 A-dur, op. 101: Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung. Allegretto, ma non troppo
Sonate No. 28 A-dur, op. 101: Lebhaft, marschmig. Vivace alla Marcia
Sonate No. 28 A-dur, op. 101: Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll. Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto - attacca:
Sonate No. 28 A-dur, op. 101: Geschwinde, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit. Allegro
Sonate No. 29 B-dur, op. 106 - Grosse Sonate Fur Das Hammerklavier: 1. Allegro
Sonate No. 29 B-dur, op. 106 - Grosse Sonate Fur Das Hammerklavier: 2. Scherzo. Assai vivace
Sonate No. 29 B-dur, op. 106 - Grosse Sonate Fur Das Hammerklavier: 3. Adagio sostenuto. Appassionato e con molto sentimento
Sonate No. 29 B-dur, op. 106 - Grosse Sonate Fur Das Hammerklavier: 4. Largo - Allegro risoluto

Tracks:

Sonate No. 30 E-dur op.109: Vivace, ma non troppo
Sonate No. 30 E-dur op.109: Prestissimo
Sonate No. 30 E-dur op.109: Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung (Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo)
Sonate No. 31 As-dur op.110: 1. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo
Sonate No. 31 As-dur op.110: 2. Allegro molto
Sonate No. 31 As-dur op.110: 3. Adagio ma non troppo - fuga, ma non troppo
Sonate No. 32 c-mol op.111: 1. Maestoso - Allegro con brio ed appassionato
Sonate No. 32 c-mol op.111: 2. Arietta. Adagio molto semplice e cantabile

Amazon.com essential recording

Pollini's performances of Beethoven's last five piano sonatas have assumed almost legendary status, and this reissue at midprice in improved sound ought to win them many new friends. Sometimes considered a cold interpreter, Pollini here pays scrupulous attention to Beethoven's instructions, an attention that never gets in the way of sincere expression. There's a lot to be said for approaching this music with a maximum of clarity and simplicity, and a minimum of Romantic panting and heaving. In fact, Beethoven's instructions are so detailed, and the music itself is often so elaborately developed, that it's all most pianists can do to play it as he wrote it. Pollini does that, and much more. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

JUST ANOTHER INTERESTING VERSION(s).......2007-07-18

There is no such thing as the 'Greatest' Beethoven recording(s), just as there is no 'Definative' performance or 'The Greatest meal I ever had'.

Pollini's Beethoven is very interesting. His Hammerklavier is clean, to the point, and I like it. But I don't think it's Great' nor do I prefer it to many others. To do so would mean that Beethoven's piano sonatas are not very profound and it's easy for one person to 'nail' them. They're not. What makes them 'Great' is that like Life itself, there are many ways of looking at them, feeling them, hearing them.

BTW These recordings are over 30 years old. I heard Pollini a couple of months ago at Carnegie Hall play the Hammerklavier. Now, in his old age, he just bangs it out as quickly as possible.

A must have set for any Beethoven fan.......2006-07-11

Giving a hearty recommendation to this recording would not do it justice. The sound is quite good and the performances are simply spectacular. I'm lucky enough to have complete works by Kempff, Claude Frank, Bernard Roberts, and Ashkenazy (excerpts). They are most worthy masters in their own right but for me, this set really speaks from the heart. There is incredible intensity in some passages combined with a poignancy that is difficult to ignore. I am rather puzzled that theses works are viewed by some as cold and overly technical. Though technically superb, I would not refer to this work as cold by any standard. Listen to to the Adagio Sustenuto on sonata 29 and decide for yourself. Possibly the finest recording I have yet heard of that piece. Upon an initial hearing I had to replay it two more times to believe my ears.

One of the most enjoyable features of this recording is the tempo of the pieces. The quicker passages have all the necessary flair and the slower movements are played with a deft touch. I have tried, desperately at times, to find renditions of the sonatas that capture the essence of the work. This set is a veritable gold mine and a purchase you can make without fear. You will be pleased with your decision for a long time.

Probably the most deeply satisfying interpretation of Beethoven's Late Sonatas .......2006-03-26

Forget about the debate on whether or not Pollini has the highest dynamic control and technical facility among all living pianists, as when it comes to this partcicular set of recordings (made in June 1975 for op. 109 and 110, Sept. 1976 for op.106, Jan. 1977 for op. 101 and 111) this debate is completely irrelevant.
What a sublime, intense and wondefully heart-warming interpretation of Beethoven's late sonatas. A sprititual experience. Please do listen to other greats like Brendel, Arrau, Kempff, Rubenstien, and then listen to Pollini's; in these particular works, Mr. Pollini will make you forget that you have ever heard these pieces before. The music flows as new and fresh as it must have sounded in the great composer's head.

What a delicious op. 101.
What an unforgetable performance of the Hammerklavier, with its slow movement so deeply medidative and its third movement almost rising to other-wordly dimensions. And for the first time, you will thoroughly enjoy the Fugue. You will never get enough of the elegance and beauty of op. 109, 110. As for op. 111, words do not rise to the occasion. Pollini's interpretation leaves one speachless: dramatic, deeply felt, highly noble, and yet spontaneous and flowing like un unstoppable stream. As another reviewer put it: Perfect...a fitting performance of Beethoven's last piano sonata.

Some may not know that Mr. Pollini is also a humble and approachable artist. If you hear his interviews or talk to him after a concert, he will tell you that he records pieces only after having played them extensively in public performances. What an impressive artist: the magical journey of discovery he produced in the 70's with this recording set is being produced again with new ones, such as the Apassionata recording released in March 2003.

Peak Performances.......2005-07-16

I understand the controversy that surrounds some of Pollini's recordings of 19th century music. He's known for being a bit clinical or emotionally aloof. It's been said that his interpretive approach is often at odds with works that demand a more direct emotional involvement and "heart-on-sleeve" style from the performer. If one compares some of his recordings of "Romantic" era piano literature with those done by much older (or earlier) artists, it's apparent that only people like Backhaus (sp?) seemed to share Pollini's affinity for Stravinsky's dictum: "just play what's in the score, and the rest will speak for itself."

Not surprising then, that this pianist excells so much in repertoire like Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and other 20th century composers, and even gives such music a powerful emotional pull that (arguably) exceeds what he's able to do with the Romantics. Perhaps he's more comfortable with works of a certain unique complexity, compositions that already give so much detail through the score, that there's little more for the artist to add? One of the few Romantics he's truly celebrated for playing has been Chopin, a composer who himself, was not a great lover of Romantic music (HIS heros were Bach and Mozart). Pollini addresses that Chopin when he plays, the enigmatic, reserved, "unknowable" side of Chopin, the one who never gives all his secrets. There too, Pollini hits his emotional stride, and merges well with works like the piano concertos, and other similar pieces.

So why Beethoven? Why particulary the late piano sonatas? How did one of the all-time interpreters of 20th century piano music come to record one of the most discussed and listened-to sets of these particular works in all recorded history? Perhaps much of the answer lies in the very nature of these pieces, the last of their kind that Beethoven would ever write. The old master by this time in his life had already written plenty of barnstormers like the sonata "Appassionata", the "Waldstein", the "Emperor Concerto", and other such works, as well as the quieter and more lyrical piano pieces like the "Pastoral" sonata and 4th concerto. These compositions, for all their differences, are bound together by a singular emotional directness, a sense of the composer speaking to the listener "with both feet planted firmly on the ground". This dialog between Beethoven and the listener was to change radically by the time the last 5 sonatas (and quartets, incidently) were being written. After a 5 year period of relatively little creative activity, and many turbulant personal changes, a very enigmatic, less earthbound creative voice emerges. Gone are the trappings of his earlier style, with the narrative forms, and the 'epic' battles between darkness and light. Even "melodies" and "main themes" are replaced a good deal of the time by improvisational-sounding sequences and shifting blocks of abstract line and harmony (particularly in the first movements of the E major and A flat sonatats, and in the transition between the 3rd and 4th movements of the "Hammerklavier"). Sonata form has been discarded in favor of fantasia, fugue, and theme-and-variation. Even the parameters between some of the sonata movements themselves, have been blurred beyond recognition. With all this, the dialog has ended, and we are now simply overhearing the composer's thoughts.

So who better to traverse this maze of musical thought than Pollini? Other pianists favored more by a couple of the other reviewers do indeed imbue their performances with a greater emotional directness, at least when the music grants the oppertunity. However, when the music decides to shift into the abstract, and the lyrical moments give way to the more jagged, expressionistic episodes, some of these same celebrated artists seem-well...a bit lost. Hearing Serkin, for instance, play the "Hammerklavier" makes me love his courage more than anything else. Perhaps Schnabel, out of all the older pianists (even with his weaker chops) has the most success with it all. But then again, Schnabel was also an atonalist composer who created some of the most fiendishly complex abstract music for piano of the early 20th century.

So again, who better to interpret this music than someone who has the sense of detail and insight (and grasp of the musically obtuse) of a Schnabel, but with the technique and command of phrase and color of...maybe Hofmann(?), and finally the emotional commitment of a Richter (another pianist who knew how to express with great intensity and reserve at the same time)? There is not a single page of this music that he has not found a way to get inside of, and the stickier the passage, the more he seems to rise to the occasion in every way, and makes you "get it". Far from being "dry", the interpretation, like the music itself speaks to the listener from beyond the realm of simple earthly passion, and even the pain in it seems as if filtered through a profound state of spiritual bliss.

Dry? Clinical? Not if Pollini is heard in just the right repertoire, and with completely open ears.

A compelling and controversial classic.......2004-11-21

I fondly remember the time I bought the distinctive green LP box set of these recordings in the late 1970s.

I was not very familiar with the Beethoven piano sonatas. I made many attempts to try them out by auditioning the local library copies by well known artists, or whatever there was in the scant record collection at the college radio station music library. All to no avail. The music just didn't click for me.

I read some of the rave reviews about these Pollini recordings for a few months, so one day I just decided to bite the bullet and buy the LP box set. I was determined that if I'd give all the works in it enough thorough and attentive listening, I would understand why the music is so loved by so many.

Well, it didn't take much determination. From the first beat of op. 101, I got hooked. Pollini's unusual combination of high energy and contrasting effective tenderness made the music come alive for me.

When I got to the famous op. 106 "Hammerklavier", I must have replayed it 4 times the first night.

The LPs were worn out quickly. Actually, I liked them so much I took even more care than I normally would, and I was pretty picky about LP care in those days. I was not about to see these LPs get thrashed!

Time has brought me around to appreciate the Beethoven 32 in ways that I never thought I could. I now treasure such notables as Kempff, Arrau, Brendel, and many more. Pollini seems somewhat excessive in comparison to most of the artists I now revere in this reportoire. But there is room for much interpretation in Beethoven, and I find myself returning to these Pollini recordings often just to remeber how much more there is to these pieces than is often rendered in more "classical" and accepted interpretations.

Severely disappointed was I when these recordings first appeared on CD in the 1980s. The first CD versions were dreadfully riddled with a resonant twang that marred virtually every movement in every sonata at some point. The LPs were OK, but this music, especially with the high dynamic contrast of Pollini's playing, demand hushed quiet to be appreciated. CDs psomised some that hushed quietness, being free from crakcles, hiss, and so on. But the timber of the piano was very unnatural. Listening to those CDs was very painful.

Once again, DG have redeemed themselves by remastering these spectacular analogue recordings in the late 1990s to give us what have before us now. The Originals series continually give us CDs that approach the warmth and naturalness of analogue LPs. Thanks Universal. Give us more.

After reviewing many releases in the Originals series though, it is time I do criticize DG about one aspect in their reissues that is not "Orgiinal". The liner notes. Like most of the other releases in the series, there are virtually no notes about the works themselves. The only notes are about the performer, in this case Pollini, and perhaps the performers' affinity for the music on the disk, or something special about the particular recording. In this case, the original LP box set had excellent essays about the late sonatas. I read them several times, and picked more insights with each reading. The lack of notes about the works on the disk make it difficult to recommend any items in the Originals series as first choices for collectors that are not going to buy multiple versions. But that is exactly what these should be. So get with it, Universal, and next time give us ALL of the Originals, inculding the notes.

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