Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 9, 2014 - 2016
Incl: J-E.Bavouzet • T.Ehlen • T.Honma • M.Houstoun II • Y.Kosuge • C.Leotta • S.Masi • D-B.Pienaar • M.Rasch • M.Pollini • M.Zhao
   | Maurizio Pollini 1977 - 2014 - DG After almost 40 years in the making, Maurizio Pollini has completed his Beethoven cycle when Sonatas Nos. 16 through 20 (opp.31 & 49) were released in November of 2014. The following is from DGs website on the project, but since it's to the point, there's no point in fancifully re-phrasing into my own words what would amount to much the same thing: Pollini’s recordings of Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas, issued on three LPs, attracted critical praise and were chosen as “Instrumental Album of the Year” at the inaugural Gramophone Awards in 1977. Gramophone’s reviewer wrote of the “noble purity” of Pollini’s interpretations, an observation inspired by the intellectual rigour and spiritual intensity of his music-making. The pianist’s account of the Late Piano Sonatas proved both a commercial and critical success. Today it remains among the best-selling titles in the Yellow Label’s Originals series. It was also the subject of one of the earliest "Dip Your Ears" reviews written here on ionarts. His 2014 releases made our "Best of 2004" list, a decade ago: "...the literally brilliant interpretations go some way in shining light on the less popular, shorter opp. 54 and 90..." Availability:
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 | Christian Leotta 2008 - 2014 - ATMA Classique Five volumes of nine discs. A native of Catania, Italy, when Leotta "appear[ed] in Montreal in 2002, at the age of only 22, Christian Leotta was the youngest pianist since the youthful Daniel Barenboim ever to undertake a recital series encompassing the entire corpus of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas." I think that his name and origin easily qualifies his to be a Beethoven-loving mobster's cycle of choice. Availability:
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 | Timothy Ehlen 2009 - 2014 - Azica Timothy Ehlen is Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Piano Division at the University of Illinois School of Music. Availability:
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 | Daniel-Ben Pienaar 2012 - 2014 - Avie Recorded at the Duke’s Hall of the Royal Academy of Music, London. Availability:
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 | Michael Houstoun II before/up to 2014 (?) - Rattle Throughout 2013, Chamber Music New Zealand's ReCycle Series featured acclaimed New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun performing all thirty-two of the Beethoven piano sonatas. As he says of this, his second, cycle: This time it’s a different experience, because I’m older, and music is a whole different world for me than it was 20 years ago. I think I’m a more natural musician than I was before. I’m much more relaxed, and more in tune with the sonorities of the instrument. I still love clarity, people have always said to me that my playing is clear, and I think that’s important – clarity allows the audience to choose for themselves what they want out of the music. For me, I’ll be even less inclined to impose myself on the music, and to impose my own ideas. What is important is sincerity, and not getting in the way, and being true to the instrument.Here's him in an extended interview where he talks, explains, and plays. Availability:
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 | Mélodie Zhao 2014 - Claves Records are made to be broken, even in classical music. When then 24-year-old Korean HJ Lim recorded the complete Beethoven Sontatas for EMI, released for a tenner on iTunes, it made a splash mostly for audacity. Two years later she is bested in every way: Swiss-Chinese Mélodie Zhao has done it at 19… and much more gratifyingly. This cycle is tastefully individual instead of idiosyncratic, thought-through instead of overwrought, and to the point instead of proving one. Take the confident rhythms of the Largo of op.7, muscular Finale of op.10/1, the unsuspected sweetness of op.14/1, the staggered Andante of the Appassionata, the terrifically lilting op.27, or the wistful op.30: the fresh, vivid, never overwrought playing Mlle. Zhao's delivers much and promises even more. Availability:
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   | Yu Kosuge 2011 - 2015 - Sony Japan (SACD) Yo Kosuge, a Germany-based Japanese pianist, recorded these Beethoven Sonatas for Sony Japan between August 2011 and August of 2015 on a Steinway at the Art Tower Mito Concert Hall in in Mito (Ibaraki Prefecture), Japan. The set comes in five 2-disc digi-packs stowed in an oversized paper box, each with a title in German: "Aufbruch", "Liebe", "Leben", "Transzendenz", und "Botschaft"... (("Departure", "Love", "Life", "Transcendence", "Message") which seems to be an Asian thing to do with Beethoven sonatas. (Ed. The SACDs are hybrid-SACDs.) Availability:
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 | Tamami Honma 2015? - Divine Arts From the label's website: "While core repertoire is not our main priority, sometimes an interpreter comes along with fresh perspectives as well as technical skill, and we hear ‘the divine art of music’ in reality." Availability:
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 | Jean-Efflam Bavouzet 2011 - 2016 - Chandos The cycle (and pianist) whom Chandos have invested their fine efforts into, over the last years. We may have only reviewed him once on ionarts, when he gave his Washington debut at the Terrace Theater. (Jean-Efflam Bavouzet Floats Ravel but Sinks Beethoven) That recital, granted, was not indicative of a Beethoven cycle being in the near future (even though he had won first prize in the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Cologne in 1986), but it showed his talent in sublime Ravel (which he has also recorded). His work on 'the full Ludwig' did not, in any case, start until five years later. First issued in three releases of three CDs each; now out as a 9-disc set. Recorded on a Steinway Model D (587 462) concert grand at Potton Hall. I quite like Andrew Clement's moderately positive review of the third installment (to which I am listening as I write this) in The Guardian. Gramophone magazine is more enthusiastic: "Here is the concluding instalment – Volume 3 – of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s chronological journey through the 32 Beethoven sonatas, a cycle which may have been matched by one or two but has not been surpassed, I would judge, in the last 30 years. Yes, it’s that good. I greatly enjoyed Volume 2 (3/14) and this is an even higher achievement." (as per Stephen Plaistow; who one volume earlier still engaged in pedantery to show how erudite his criticism is, jamming this gem of a statement into the review: "...in the first of the Sonatas quasi una fantasia, Op 27 No 1, there is a finger slip at bar 9".) Also, there's a review of the whole set by Dominy Clements on MusicWeb International to be found here. Availability:
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 > | Steven Masi 2011 - 2016 - Troy Albany 10 CDs. Recorded at Patrych Sound Studios, NYC; performed on a Hamburg Steinway CD 147. A MusicWeb review of Brian Reinhart's of volume 1 can be read here. Availability:
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 | Martin Rasch 2014 - 2016 - Audite FORUM A Munich-based project from Audite; a bit of a surprise of a release that smells of "Executive-producer-knows-pianist-in-question-very-well". Perhaps he uncovered a gem; I have not found any reviews yet. The pianist uses a Steinway D. He teaches at Munich's University of Music and Performing Arts and his bio professes a love for complete cycles of music. It was published on Audite's new sublable "Forum", which is Audite's way of publishing interesting projects that may not quite meet the quality-criterion for a 'proper' Audite release but are still deemed worth seeing the light of day. Availability:
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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.
Part 1: 1935 - 1966
Part 2: 1967 - 1975
Part 3: 1977 - 1989
Part 4: 1990 - 1996
Part 5: 1996 - 1999
Part 6: 2000 - 2005
Part 7: 2006 - 2009
Ronald Brautigam Special
Part 8: 2010 - 2013
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. If you are looking for recent releases, like the Ponelle-filmed cycle of Barenboim's Beethoven Sonatas, or his "Beethoven for All" set, they are included with the sets of which they are actually re-releases.
Discographies on ionarts: Bach Organ Cycles | Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycles I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX | Beethoven Symphony Cycles Index | Beethoven String Quartet Cycles | Bruckner Symphony Cycles | Dvořák Symphony Cycles | Shostakovich Symphony Cycles | Sibelius Symphony Cycles | Mozart Keyboard Sonata Cycles
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9 comments:
So what are the top 3-5 that I should buy/listen to?
Oy... just created an answer with links and all... quite elaborate. And now the internet ate it. #&@* Twice!
Anyway, the short answer is:
1) Backhaus II (Part 1: 1935 - 1966)
2) Brautigam (Ronald Brautigam Special / Part 7: 2006 - 2009)
3) Pollini (Part 9, 2014 - onward)
or
3) Arrau (Part 1: 1935 - 1966)
4) Marie Kodama (Part 8: 2010 - 2013)
or
4) Michael Korstick (Part 8: 2010 - 2013)
and, although not complete, decidedly
5) Gilels.
Grazie!
Thank you, Jens!
Based on your recommendation, I bought the Backhaus. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E0LB7C?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
I have only listened to CD 2 (Sonatas 4, 6, 7, and 8) but I am very impressed. He seems very precise with his dynamics, articulation, and phrasing (it reminds me of Angela Hewitt playing Bach). Thanks for the recommendation.
Very glad you are liking what you hear. Your descriptions certainly chimes with what I hear in him.
I would amend the above list with Paavali Jumppanen's cycle.
Hi. Apparently you prefer Backhaus II to Backhaus I, but it's not exactly clear to me why - perhaps I'm missing something or misreading what you wrote. Could you please elaborate? Thanks.
Updating...Tamami Honma's highly anticipated Beethoven cycle release was in 2024 (not 2015)!
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