Beethoven: Schnabel, von Bürlov and Henle

[pianoman53]

This christmas was a bit of a nerdy chirstmas for me. Apart from the Henle edition I have (obviously the one every student should start with) I got both the edition Schnabel and the edition by Hans von Bürlow.

Von Bürlow was born 1830, and Schabel 1882. Bürlow was the first one to play the complete cycle of the Beethoven sonatas, Schnabel was the second. They were both big virtuoso players of their time. They were both teachers and composers.
They are very much alike in those ways, yet, completely different in their approach to Beethoven. I play Pathetique at the moment, and follow both editions. Schnabel have the beginning of the allegro marked 152-178, and no real connection with the Grave, tempo wise. Bürlow has a clear connection with the grave (dubble tempo), and start the allegro in 132, and says basically "since it's such a dramatic piece, the tempo should rise to somewhere around 144". He's also got a few tempo changes In the piece (ex. the "coda", where he writes "You cannot play this coda too rapidly). Schnabel is quite much "on the beat" and Bürlow is very much "on the highest tone" (phrasing).
...
I don't really know what I want to say with this, more than I find it very interesting. Anyone else here that follows several editions? Any ideas on editions that are "should haves" (ofc, not only in Beethoven).

[pianowolfi]

In the case of the Pathétique I'd certainly go with von Bülow. I have his edition, it was very helpful to me regarding the execution of some fiendishly difficult things in the last sonatas.
Bülow was also the pianist who used to play the whole five last sonatas from op. 101 through op. 111 in one program, I think!  

[chrisbutch]

Apart from the Henle edition I have (obviously the one every student should start with)

Not sure that would be said in the English-speaking piano world, where for many years the  Tovey/Craxton edition from the Associated Board (now ABRSM) has dominated, as much as anything because of Tovey's magisterial commentaries, which I remember devouring in my teens as if they were holy writ. However, its recent replacement in the ABRSM catalogue, the completely new edition by Barry Cooper, has had a very mixed reception - heavily criticised by, among others, Paul Lewis. I've been working with it for about three years now, and I'm still reserving judgement. It does, incidentally, include three early sonatas without opus numbers, so 35 in all.

[pianoman53]

I will take the best from two worlds, I think

The thing I find most interesting is probably the tempo. In only 50 years, the tempo changed from "start from somewhere around 130, and then raise the tempo to 144, But Not faster!... Except for the ending. Play that as fast as you can." to a rather steady tempo, but not slower than 155.
 
What do you think will happen in the future? I mean, obviously every new generation has taken away one part of the last generations playing, and added a new one. First, you could play a quite free tempo, even inside a piece movement. (No, wait, first you didn't even have to play the whole sonata. I saw a few legendary pianists' concert programs, and they played a few movements from bach suites, mixin movements from sonatas...). Then, the tempo got more strict, and you should keep morme tempo, though wrong notes didn't really matter. Now, wrong notes are the worst thing that can happen, and you better don't change the tempo in a movement, and you have to play full sets, or else people will kind of laugh at you, even if it's a full set of Chopin etudes.
..

Is it only me who finds this interesting?!

[pianoman53]

Not sure that would be said in the English-speaking piano world, where for many years the  Tovey/Craxton edition from the Associated Board (now ABRSM) has dominated, as much as anything because of Tovey's magisterial commentaries, which I remember devouring in my teens as if they were holy writ. However, its recent replacement in the ABRSM catalogue, the completely new edition by Barry Cooper, has had a very mixed reception - heavily criticised by, among others, Paul Lewis. I've been working with it for about three years now, and I'm still reserving judgement. It does, incidentally, include three early sonatas without opus numbers, so 35 in all.

I also have that edition. I like the text in the beginning of every sonata, but that's basically everything I like about it. They edit stuff, but it's way too little to make it interesting, but way too much to make it into a reliable source.

An other interesting thing I found about the Schnabel vs von Bürlow, is that vin Bürlow constantly tries to variate repeates. Dynamics, and sometimes even articulation, are never the same in two similar places. So, aparently, his generation never played repeates the same way.
Wonder what will be different in 50 years...