Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 3, 1977 - 1989
V.Ashkenazy • P.Badura-Skoda II • D.Barenboim II • M.Binns • A.Brendel II • R.Buchbinder I • A.Fischer • J.Jandó • J.Lill • T.Nikolayeva • del Pueyo • B.Roberts • M.Steinberg
   | Alfred Brendel II 1970 - 1977 - Philips (analog) Not long after Brendel had finished these recordings, digital became the new thing in the recording industry and so he would go about it for a third time shortly thereafter, recording what is--at least on CD--his most prevalent cycle. Availability: Update: This cycle has now been re-issued as part of bringing the Philips recordings into the Decca fold... and include Brendel's first cycle of the Beethoven concertos with Haitink and the LPO (76/77). The Eloquence re-issue of the 70s cycle (in the mildly controversial AMSI-ambience remastering) meanwhile includes the Chicago/Levine Concerto recordings.
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  | Eduardo del Pueyo 1976 - 1977 - Pavane In 1938, Eduardo del Pueyo gave his first complete Beethoven sonatas in a series of eight recitals. This accomplishment he would go on to repeat seventeen times across Europe -- all bevore he was 34 years old. He last performed that feat in 1976 in Brussels, at the occasion of which these recordings were made. They were re-issued for the first time on CD on the the 30th anniversary of the death of the pianist. Stephen Greenbank's review of the set on MusicWeb Intl. can be read here. Availability:
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  | Annie Fischer 1976 - 1978* - Hungaroton These performances were recorded phrase by phrase with retakes, cutting, pasting, and editing taking place as late as 1992 and even beyond Fischer's death. Has its (cult?) following. Availability: (Also available on individual discs)
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  | Malcolm Binns 1978 - 1979 - L'Oiseau-Lyre Played on different period instruments. Ed. 12/21/15:
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 | John Lill 1975 - 1980 - ASV (Brilliant, Sanctuary) Availability:
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 | Vladimir Ashkenazy 1971 - 1981 - Decca My first Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle of which especially the early sonatas hold up very well while I've become rather indifferent to much of the rest. Availability:
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  | Rudolf Buchbinder I 1979 - 1981 - Telefunken / Telarc Buchbinder is one of the worlds most avid Beethoven sonata edition collectors with over 18 complete editions in his library. (Interviews here & here.) This is his first Beethoven cycle, recorded for Teldec, and it includes just about all of Beethoven's pieces for solo piano, making it the most complete single-perfomer-cycle, next to Brautigam's. Re-released in 2012. Availability:
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  | Daniel Barenboim II 1981 - 1984 - Deutsche Grammophon / Metropolitan Barenboim, Take Two. Now for Deutsche Grammophon. The DG is apparently the soundtrack to video that was filmed at Palais Lobkowitz, Palais Rasumovsky, Palais Kinsky, and Schloss Hetzendorf… directed by none less than Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. It's been just re-released on Bluray (3 disc set + Barenboim on Beethoven interview) and DVD (5 individual discs). Availability:
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 | Tatiana Nikolayeva 1984 - Melodiya (Olympia (UK), DS Berlin, Scribendum) What little I've heard about (but not of) this cycle, it must be uncompetitive in every regard. Recorded during a series of Moscow recitals over a few months in very early 1984. Availability:
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 | Bernard Roberts 1981 - 1984 - Nimbus Availability:
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  | Michael Steinberg 1981 - 1986 - Elysium LPs Michael Steinberg (no relation to the music critic) and his Beethoven cycle were hard to track down. (Many thanks to Richard Winton, cousin of the recordings' producer, for essential information!) Steinberg, a graduate of Yale University and Juilliard School of Music, long time pianist-in-residence at the Villa San Michele (Anacapri, Italy), taught in the Music Department of the University of Delaware. He made these recordings in 20 sessions in the Beethoven Halle, of Hannover's Stadthalle. Originally on 12 LPs, the set was briefly re-issued in the US as three box sets of three CDs each, but is now hopelessly out of print.
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   | Paul Badura Skoda II 1978 - 1989* - Auvidis Astrée Once available on 9 individual CDs. Not currently available in any form**. Played on seven different fortepianos and Hammerklaviers, ranging from a 1790 Schantz PF to a 1824 Conrad Graf HK. (*Not 1993, as I had previously thought. Hence the 'wrong' inclusion in Part 4 at first, instead of here.) Edit: The set has just been re-released on XRCD24s in Japan (where else). **It can be found used, albeit only for a pretty penny, on European Amazon sites.
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 | Jenő Jandó 1987 - 1989 - Naxos Naxos' pianist for all seasons seems to have recorded the complete-anything. Some Haydn I have of his is very amiable stuff, but the little I've heard of his Beethoven is too bland for making me explore it further. Availability: On individual discs. (Two 5-disc sets containing the cycle have since been discontinued.)
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This listing of all Beethoven Sonata Cycles will continue as more sets reach completion or as I find more information about sets already completed.* There are certainly plenty sets under way that should or may reach completion soon: Among them Angela Hewitt (Hyperion), Igor Tchetuev (Caro Mitis), Jonathan Biss (Onyx), Akihiro Sakiya (DPIC Entertainment), Martin Roscoe (Deux-Elles), James Brawn (MSR), Paavali Jumppanen (Ondine) [Completed & Added], Yusuke Kikuchi (Triton) [Completed & Added] et al. I will also add a selection of historically important attempted cycles that were never finished but include
* If you count, as I did, Backhaus II and Arrau II as complete, despite one and two (respectively) missing sonatas. I do not count Walter Gieseking (tapes of 4, 5, 7, 20, 22 for a radio cycle are lost, a studio cycle for EMI was missing seven sonatas when he died), Wilhelm Kempff "0" (Polydor, opp.2/3, 22, 27/1, 28, 31/2, 101 missing).
** Invaluable research on this end done by Todd, resident Beethoven-Sonata expert (and addict) at the Good Music Guide Forum.
The (Great) Incomplete Cycles
Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 4: 1990 - 1996
Part 5: 1996 - 1999
Part 6: 2000 - 2005
Part 7: 2006 - 2009
Ronald Brautigam Special
Part 8: 2010 - 2013
Part 9: 2014 - 2016
Part 10: 2017 - ____
If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.
This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them. Kind thanks to Mr. Karsten Unverricht for pointing out that Malcolm Binns complete cycle is hiding within that L'Oiseau-Lyre box!
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2 comments:
Have a look at:
http://www.albany.edu/~rshaf/beethoven32.html
Ciao,
Malatesta
Daniel Barenboim recorded the 32 sonatas again.
https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/artists/daniel_barenboim/news/daniel-barenboim-releases-new-recordings-of-the-complete-beethoven-sonatas-diabelli-variations-260719
They say this is his 5th cycle:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8828584--beethoven-complete-piano-sonatas-and-diabelli-variations
You say his 1st video cycle (EuroArts) and his 2nd audio recording (Deutsche Grammophon) are the same. I'm not so sure. EuroArts state the video cycle dates from 1983-1984 and was recorded in Vienna:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8024643--barenboim-plays-complete-beethoven-piano-sonatas
PrestoMusic tells us the DG cycle dates from 1981 to 1984 and the recording venue was Paris:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7924312--beethoven-complete-piano-sonatas
That said, I would regard these '80 cycles as different recordings.
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