Who is your favorite interpreter of complete Beethoven piano sonatas?

[sadalcoholicdevil]

Mine is Schiff. After listening his recital(beethoven's last three piano sonatas) he became my favorite.
How do you guys think?

[vsrinivasa]

I like Perahia. I have a recording of his complete sonatas and like it very much.

[indianajo]

The one man whose work I can afford. Alfred Brendel whose complete Beethoven piano works on mono LP showed up at Goodwill for $.50 a disk.  The fact that he was self taught is a bonus.  Ultra cool, he recorded variations on Rule Britannia and God Bless the King that are never played on the FM radio. Plus a lot Bagatelles and things.

[kitty on the keys]

I am not a fan of Brendel. We do get to hear the Variations on the radio here. I like various pianists with certain Sonatas...just not the complete set.

Kitty on the keys

[schubert_21]

What do you think of HJ Lim?  She recently released a complete set.  Personally, my favorite is Artur Schnabel.

[cmg]

I am not a fan of Brendel. We do get to hear the Variations on the radio here. I like various pianists with certain Sonatas...just not the complete set.

Kitty on the keys

I'm with you here -- not everyone has a complete set that pleases me, but taking one from here, and one from there, well, that's the ticket.  

I do like Ashkenazy and Gilels, though he died before he finished the cycle.

Schnabel is a titan, but after slaving the best years of my pianistic life over his damned Beethoven Edition, I've come to the conclusion, as most pianists have, that following his fingerings are a recipe for performance disaster.  I swear most of his flubs and rushing in recordings are because he insisted on fingering passages purely for their musical integrity instead of what the hand could actually do.

Schnabel Edition:  a No-Fun Zone for people who want to play the right notes.

P.S.  I heard that Valentina Lisitsa is preparing to record all 32.  What a girl!! 

[j_menz]

For the complete set, my vote would go to Barenboim.

[nocturnetr]

İdil Biret I think.

[thesixthsensemusic]

Daniel Barenboim. He is one of the very few pianists of today who believes that personal expression is more important than mindlessly following the score, or abiding by the laws of so-called 'historically accurate performance' (for anyone not playing them on Fortepiano I think that is a useless goal anyways)

I think his way of dealing with music has much in common with my true pianistic examples, like Alfred Cortot and Robert Casadesus, who preferred an individual approach above being a servant of the score (and a self-perceived servant of the composer).

However, one thing I do not like about his sonata cycle: like most pianists he plays the first movement of op. 27 no. 2 in 4/4 time instead of 2/2 (which it clearly is written in, according to the score). The lack of emphasis on every 2nd beat per measure, is just a missed opportunity to add depth to the piece (often the notes there are echoed the measure afterwards,  in the main melody, and vice versa). Andras Schliff gets this right but he gets the pedal use totally wrong, because his insistence on using it without interruptions makes his rendition a blurry dissonant mess.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Barenboim? 

But Valentina Lisitsa does a VERY kickass Appasionata.  So does Lang Lang.  I wouldn't be surprised if Lang Lang one day surpasses Barenboim in the sonatas.  But I think Lang Lang's Appasionata is the only Beethoven sonata played by him up on YouTube, so I can't say much yet.  Lisitsa also does a pretty kickass hammerklavier and Op. 10 no. 3 as well.


And for those of you diehard Lang Lang haters out there, I dare you to come at me.  BRING IT ON!!!

[allthumbs]

I like the great pianist Wilhelm Kempff for his Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle. Wonderful interpretation and execution.

[p2u_]

I do like Ashkenazy and Gilels, though he died before he finished the cycle.

I agree with you, certainly about the latter. I mean, listen to this: Emil GILELS plays BEETHOVEN Presto agitato 1968 live /SU record
Can or could anyone actually outdo this in all respects?

Paul

[bronnestam]

I say Per Tengstrand (have already written that elsewhere  )  However, his has not published the whole cycle yet, album No. 5, out of 8 totally, is on its way. But he has performed the whole cycle many times, next upcoming in Uppsala, Sweden. I cried to his Moonlight Sonata once, it was pure magic.

[cmg]

I agree with you, certainly about the latter. I mean, listen to this: Emil GILELS plays BEETHOVEN Presto agitato 1968 live /SU record
Can or could anyone actually outdo this in all respects?

Paul

Holy cow!  That's fabulous.  Yes.  As good as it gets.

[worov]

Claudio Arrau.

[edwardweiss]

Wilhelm Backhaus and Yves Nat. Both great, both different from most.

[zezhyrule]

Barenboim, Ashkenazy, Schiff, Brendel, it all depends on my mood

I also like Gilels's Op 101