Maria Grinberg Plays Beethoven

Facing an ever decreasing population of unheard complete cycles, I decided to finally try Maria Grinberg’s cycle because, well, just because. HMV Japan has it an affordable price, even with a weak dollar. I don’t recall ever having read an especially glowing review of her recordings (though the HMV star rankings put her at five of five), and have stumbled across some less favorable ones. I can sort of hear why there have been some less favorable reviews.

The problem has mostly to do with the sound. Is the sound quality just poor, Soviet era recording technology exposed, or do the recordings accurately portray what Ms Grinberg sounded like? Louder passages sound metallic and clangy. Quieter passages are less troublesome, but the result doesn’t make me want to hear Ms Grinberg’s Debussy.

Anyway, after one adjusts to the sound, one must confront what is, for me, a mixed cycle. The first four sonatas are all heavy and ponderous, with plodding slow movements and ham-fisted fast movements. The Op 10 sonatas strike me as more successful, with enough drive (the first), pep (the second), and drama (the third) to be enjoyable. But then Op 13 comes along and that metallic, clangy sound comes to the fore, especially in the first movement. It’s a flurry of metal, and sounds uncontrolled. It’s not terrible, but it ain’t my cup of tea. Then follows a series of at least moderately successful sonatas right up to the brink of the late works. The Op 31 trio come off pretty well, even if the first and third don’t quite have a light enough touch where I like a lighter touch. The Op 57 displays some of the same traits that Op 13 does, and it’s a bit heavy and plodding, but it’s okay.

But then the later sonatas disappoint. Starting with Op 81a, things take a turn for the worse. Grinberg never evokes anything approaching late LvB goodness, at least for me. Throw in some more clangy, out of control playing in the Hammerklavier (no surprise, really), and some oddly phrased and decidedly middle period sounding playing in the last three sonatas, and there’s not a lot to love. Nothing is terrible, mind you, but I can think of probably three dozen or more versions of each sonata I prefer.

So a less than successful, but also not entirely disappointing cycle. The early and late works aren’t to my taste, but many of the middle works are pretty good. The sound, again, isn’t the most pleasing, but it’s easily adjusted to. So I’ll say it’s a so-so cycle, and one probably of more interest to people who just want to hear more and more and more Beethoven.



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