Bernard Roberts Plays Beethoven
Posted by: Todd A on 22 April 2010
Bernard Roberts’ cycle is a cycle I’ve long been aware of, but I didn’t take the plunge until now. That the cycle is on Nimbus always gave me pause, mostly for sonic reasons. But now, running so low on other options, I figured why not, especially given that the cycle is so cheap. I was in for a big surprise.
The Roberts cycle is possibly the most consistent cycle I’ve heard, and it’s generally excellent, surpassing my expectations. What one gets is
not flashy, willful, showy Beethoven. What one gets is as straightforward a reading of the sonatas as I can imagine. There are no exaggerated dynamics, no extreme tempi. This is Beethoven playing shorn of excesses and eccentricities; nothing detracts from Beethoven. The early sonatas are just right, filled with youthful energy and drive, and delivered with a serious mien. The middle sonatas are more adventurous and more dynamic, and delivered with a serious mien. The late sonatas are transcendent and probing, and delivered with a serious mien. Using Ned Rorem’s classification system, this is smart music played in a smart fashion. With one exception – Op 54 – every sonata was exactly what I wanted to hear, and even that exception was only mildly disappointing. Otherwise nothing really stands out for me. The whole cycle is good. I can’t say that the playing revelatory, but I can say that dropping in a CD and just listening to the whole thing is easy. That’s not always the case.
There is the issue of sound quality. It is too reverberant and distant, resulting in some detail being blurred. But the sound isn’t terrible.
There’s much to admire in this cycle. The no-nonsense playing is refreshing and disarming. Roberts comes across as the polar opposite of a pianist like Russell Sherman. If Roberts can’t deliver playing as elevated as Sherman does at times, he makes up for it in consistency. In many ways the Roberts cycle strikes me as the perfect “middle of the road” cycle, in the best possible sense. Were the sound better, it might very well be the ideal starter cycle for a newcomer. This is an excellent cycle and the best overall cycle for me since Takahiro Sonada’s Denon set.
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Posted on: 22 April 2010 by u5227470736789439
A very good pianist friend of mine was a student of Bernard Roberts. According to my friend he was the most generous and kind teacher, who had a way of getting his pupils to do better than they imagined that they could!
It is no surprise to me to read that his set is characterised by consistent unflashy wisdom, if I may condense what I think you are suggesting, and my friend actually loaned me some of these recordings about ten years ago. I cannot remember them as being remarkable in any way, but as I have grown older I am finding that the artists that most please me these days are the subtle, unflashy ones!
So I'll watch out for these.
Thanks for your words.
ATB from George
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by Dan Carney
I'm very glad you're enjoying the Bernard Roberts.
I own this set too and rate it very highly. There is a very understated quality to them.
Have you heard his Bach? Very worthwhile listening to, IMO. I've heard both Beethoven and Bach in live recitals from Bernard - very impressive stuff!
I can't claim that I've studied with Bernard, but I've played for him on numerous occasions as he taught at the school I attended. Two of my best friends studied with him.
He is an encouraging role model as he only really received fame at a comparatively old age.
Atb,
Dan
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by graham55
I've never heard it, and what's about to come won't endear me to Roberts' admirers.
But a reviewer in Gramophone magazine (when it was a publication of note in the 1980s, not that it is now) did a comparative review of Bernard Roberts with Arthur Schnabel's famous 1930s recordings for EMI.
Commenting on the review, a later contributor said that the comparison was like comparing Michaelangelo's 'David' with a garden gnome!
Have no idea, as I don't have either set.
G
Posted on: 22 April 2010 by Todd A
quote:
Originally posted by graham55:
Commenting on the review, a later contributor said that the comparison was like comparing Michaelangelo's 'David' with a garden gnome!
A rather silly analogy. Schnabel's cycle is better, there is no doubt, though some of his takes are big misses, most notably the rather sloppy Op 106. No one's set is perfect. Well, maybe St Annie's.
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Posted on: 23 April 2010 by u5227470736789439
quote:
No one's set is perfect. Well, maybe St Annie's.
Which set I bought more than a year ago, and am enjoying immensely - as a result of following your writings, dear Todd!
For general information the Saint Annie we are talking of is Annie Fischer, and the recordings are issued by Hungaraton on a large CD set, which is worth every penny of its quite expensive price!
ATB from George
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by pe-zulu
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
I cannot remember them as being remarkable in any way, but as I have grown older I am finding that the artists that most please me these days are the subtle, unflashy ones!
So I'll watch out for these.
Even if Todd´s post has made me begin to relisten to Roberts´ Beethoven set, I must confess that I not (yet) have accumulated sufficient patience to study the set so close as to find the hidden subtleties in his rather non-interventionalist style. Considering the fact, that your preferred version is one of the most interventionalist I know, I do not know if Roberts set will appeal to you, but one can never know, and the unsensational air about his playing is essentially appealing IMO.
Posted on: 23 April 2010 by u5227470736789439
Dear Poul,
There is a difference between dull performance and the artistry that conceals itself in seeming to be non-interventionist, in my view I suppose.
Sir Adrian Boult often strikes people as a dull conductor for example, but he was revered by soloists from Gedda to Oistrach, Hess, ... well the list goes on!
I find Boult immensely illuminating! I think my favourite conductor is Otto Klemperer, and the two could hardly seem more contrasted, and I doubt if people would say he was non-interventionist. His response to great music always seems to be a natural one to me. [Boult and Klemperer, strange as it might seem now, were good friends while both were active on the London music scene of the fifties, sixties, and early seventies]. Annie Fischer is not a player to ever be called either dull or non-interventionist, but her response to the music never seems to me at cross-purposes with it. I definately should say thanks to you for the chance to first listen to some of her Beethoven recordings!
I like any performance, calm or lively, that seems at one with the music. But you know what I think of Glenn Gould, in terms of being at one with the purpose of the music!
I dare say I might enjoy Robert's Apollo to Fischer's Dionisus in Beethoven!
Best wishes from George
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by naim_nymph
Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) said, "Who's that playing the piano with 'is elbows?"
I used to own a copy of this very Bernard Roberts’ 11 cd set. I thought it good enough sell off quick on eBay.
His playing may or may not be so bad, i'm really not qualified to say but the relentless harshness to that clanky piano recording is truly awful. Killed it for me : (
If only he'd used a 'grand' in Abbey Road Studio's instead of an 'Upright' in the Queen Vic.
Debs
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by Oldnslow
I felt the urge for some new Beethoven sonata recordings(not that I didn't have enough, mind you), so I recently ordered the bargain set by Eric Heidsieck on EMI, also based on Todd's recommendation. I look forward to listening to another set of these great pieces.
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by u5227470736789439
I have this Heidsiek set, on a big Beethoven EMI France set. Not musch explored yet. Not like Annie though! Nor Schnabel, nor Solomon ...
The recordings from this set [at least of Beethoven piano music] that really excited me were from Laval, and Solchany.
Solchany's recording of the Diabelli Variations is a minter! IMHO, of course.
ATB from George
Posted on: 24 April 2010 by Oldnslow
There is a youtube concert by Heidsieck from Japan, probably recorded in the last decade, where he plays Op.78, Pathetique, and Opus 111. He obviously is a fine player. I have not heard of either Laval or Solchany.
Posted on: 25 April 2010 by pe-zulu
quote:
Originally posted by GFFJ:
I have this Heidsiek set, on a big Beethoven EMI France set. Not musch explored yet. Not like Annie though! Nor Schnabel, nor Solomon ...
Dear George
Heidsieck´s Beethoven Sonata set is very fine IMO. His touch and tonal balance is crystal clear, almost analytical, but at the same time his interpretation is very individual with a rather free relation to tempo and dynamics, without being contrieved. And there are lots of joy and also much poetry in his playing.
Roberts is more foreseeable, and this may be the reason, why I have not investigated him that much so far.
As to Solchany, whom I did not know, until I got the EMI set, I agree, that he is impressive. The Ungarians have got some natural talent for piano plying.
