Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 12 in A-flat Major - 4th movement

[glennross]

Hi everyone,

In two weeks, I'm gonna perform Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto and his sonatas 11 and 12. Right now I'm polishing up a little bit on the 12th's last movement. Can you please tell me what you think of it?

By the way, I'm sorry for bad audio. I played on an old Steinway D model and some of my more professional recording equipment is currently beeing used by someone else, so I had to play on this dreadful Steinway in a big hall. 

Thanks,
Glenn

[cbreemer]

Not a good combination, a cavernous, distant and boomy recording and a breakneck tempo. Personally I think this is much too fast though I suppose you have some worthy precedents.
All the notes seem to be there, no mean feat in itself. Terrific virtuosity, musically I would not
know what to say about it. If the main aim was to propel a whirling perpetuum mobile, mission accomplished.

[philolog]

At first the speed is a bit of a shock and the musical sense is submerged, but as it goes on I feel that you slowed down just enough to clarify things---phrasing, line, etc. fall more into place. I'm guessing your instincts took over. Maybe you were a bit over-eager at the start? In any case, I ended up enjoying it.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

this is way too fast, but other than that, this is a very good performance

[torandrekongelf]

Dont see why the negativity in the above posts.

I loved the speed and the sound quite alot. Aggressive use of dynamics. Really like it. These are the hardest sonatas of the first 15 as well.

Many people seem to think piano playing should be so clean and polished. I like this rough sound produced here

[cbreemer]

These are the hardest sonatas of the first 15 as well.

Actually this one is not especially hard, unless the choice of speed makes it so. It falls very nicely under the fingers. There are far greater challenges in some of the earlier sonatas.

Dont see why the negativity in the above posts.

There's no negativity in these posts. It's just that the sheer speed is not to everybody's taste. The playing is very fine.