Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Favorite complete LvB Sonatas recording?

I’m sure there have been threads about this in the past but I’m interested in what the current crop of posters has to say.

Who’s complete recording of the Sonatas do you like best, and why?

If there is more than one you want to mention, that’s fine.

Easy one for me:
Eric Heidsieck

Why? He sees things in unusual ways, and with a "spark."

I'm biased because I know him and have had some lessons with him. (Met him through the Paris amateur competition -- he's been a judge there.)
But I don't think that's why I love his playing. I think I'd love his playing if I'd discovered him in some other way and didn't know him personally.

I have been very impressed with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's recordings of the Haydn Sonatas I have listened to, and I also have his complete Beethoven Sonatas (recorded on Chandos) which I haven't yet had time to listen to in their entirety, but he brings the same classical clarity to the early Sonatas that he does to the Haydn. It's almost as if he were playing without pedal, yet there is no lack of warmth, line and phrasing. The early Sonatas sound appropriately Haydnesque, not overly Romantic, with good forward drive.

I also like Richard Goode's complete recordings for the middle-of-the-road, no-nonsense approach to the Sonatas. They seem to me to be a benchmark from which others may digress, but I often return to Goode for a solid reading of the works.

Regards,

I find Goode's recordings to "vanilla" for me. IMO, they are correct but uninspiring. I prefer Barenboim but I'm open to finding better recordings.

Gilels. For me, his is the best combination of technical mastery, expressive playing, and structural vision that I've heard.

I do tend to favor the romantic interpretations, though, so take my recommendation FWIW.

I have a few complete sets, and several other single CDs and mini-sets, but my favorite complete one is by Maurizio Pollini, which took him a few decades to finish. The first recording was in 1976, the last was in 2013. He recorded the early sonatas last, in fact.

If I remember rightly, his first Beethoven sonata (3-CD) set plunged straight in at the deep end, with the late sonatas, which won several awards, including the Gramophone Award. His Hammerklavier was the first time I heard him in Beethoven, and it set the benchmark for me in Beethoven: totally uncompromising and fearless, rhythmically grounded but always pliant, a hint of brusqueness and impatience (as befits the famous painting by Joseph Karl Stieler: https://goo.gl/images/251F4E ) but also storming the heavens as well as plumbing the depths of despair. I'd just learnt Op.109 and Op.110 at the time with my last teacher, but his recordings of those were the only ones that tempted me to copy parts of his interpretations, though of course, I could never match his complete control over every aspect of his pianism.

His Op.111 was the only one that made me feel that I was being taken on a journey to heaven and then gently back to Earth (despite the fact that I'm an atheist ) - and the recording was obviously no fluke, because several years later, I saw him play it in concert on two occasions in London's Royal Festival Hall (the first being the culmination of his compete traversal through all the sonatas), and he even surpassed the transcendental pianism he displayed on those CDs - think of those long chains of stratospheric trills, for instance. BTW, Pollini live really is 'live' in every sense - he takes risks with even faster tempi in the fast movements, pushing ahead even more with heightened excitement (often accelerating slightly) towards climaxes etc. A few of the sonatas have been re-recorded by him, taken from live recitals, and they're worth seeking out.

However, one thing that Pollini doesn't really go for is charm, not even in the Op.49 sonatas, which he takes as seriously as he does the others. There is a rigour, and a kind of Beethovenian 'edginess' that runs all the way through his performances, with nothing taken for granted, no 'taking the easy way out', which can be off-putting to those who like their Beethoven with a softer, more cuddly side .

I asked that question a couple of years ago, and got a number of helpful suggestions. I ended up with the Pollini set, and very much enjoy it.

CD recordings of Beethoven piano sonatas

I really love Brendel's--ran into some of them by accident and had to go buy them. I haven't done a lot of comparison with others, though.

I also prefer Gilels for the same reasons.

Sokolov. I don't know how complete his Beethoven is, but the sonatas I've heard have been extraordinary. It's like each work is new. If he had a compete set, that would be my favourite.

For a complete set I love the almost austere Backhaus. His Hammerklavier is the best I've ever heard.

I am not sure if he has done the complete set but my favorite is Brendel.

I have complete 32 LvB sonata CD set of Arrau, Backhaus. And I have most of Giles LvB sonata CDs (he did not have all 32 sonata recorded). Also some Stephen Kovacevich CDs. I bought Barenboim complete sonata DVDs (live recording) that also include one with master class (Lang Lang and Jonathan Biss are on the master class). That's very interesting to watch.

I cannot say which one is my favorite. It depends on the pieces. But those are all great references for me.

Thanks for all the input, folks.