Score! Beethoven par Gieseking
Posted by: Todd A on 24 April 2002
(I'm a little tired as I write this, so please forgive any errors.)
I just scored another great purchase from my increasingly favorite CD source, Berkshire Record Outlet. Among other discs, I picked up a seven disc set of Walter Gieseking playing 27 of Beethoven's 32 sonatas on Tahra. These are all early magnetic tape recordings made by Saarbrucken Radio in 1949 and 1950. (The missing works are Opp 7, 10/1, 10/3, 49/2, and 54.) I've been eyeing the set for a while at my local CD haunt, but at $82 I usually went for something else. At $42, I had to buy it. (I believe some are still available.)
How are they? Well, they are variable. Gieseking is of course well known in French repertoire, but his German music gets short-shrift. This set proves that is just plain wrong. He does not convince across the board the way Annie Fisher does, but he has his strengths. The early sonatas are superb, with only Ms. Fischer being clearly better. The Opp 14 and 27 works are extremely fine, as I expected from his slightly later EMI recordings of the same works. Perhaps the high point of the set are the Op 31 sonatas. All three are simply tremendous, easily rivalling any other versions and surpassing most; Gieseking's approach fits these works well. The Op 78 and 79 sonatas are also particularly fine. He suffers somewhat in the most famous works - the Pathetique and Appassionata are better played by other pianists, and the Waldstein has been better served too (not least by Gieseking in his EMI set). His is not a fiery Beethoven and so does not seem a perfect fit.
The late sonatas offer an interesting survey of the works. The Opp 90 and 101 are well played but somewhat lacking in the requisite insight. The Op 106 is somewhat odd, coming in at under 37 minutes it is by far the fastest version I have heard, and though the final fugue is fine, the rest of the work does not live up to the best available from, say, Pollini or Serkin. The last three sonatas are all very well done. The Op 109 and 110 were obviously in Gieseking repertoire for a long time and these earlier recordings pretty much match his later EMI recordings. (The EMI Great Recordings set of four sonatas is a great place to start with Gieseking's Beethoven.) There is dazzling fingerwork, a fine sense of structure, and the variations are dashed off splendidly. The 111, the the 106, is the fastest version I have heard at under 20 minutes. Here it works on its own terms. The opening is taken con brio, if without the depth of other pianists. The second movement variations are superb if also lacking in profundity.
The relative lack of fire and depth may lead some to question the value of this set. It should not. Where Annie Fischer's Beethoven is truly fiery and intense, and Kempff's is almost mystical and transcendental, and Schnabel's terse and clear, and John O'Conor's poetic and dramatic, Gieseking's Beethoven is fleet and superficial. I mean this in the best sense. On no other versions have I heard such concise, clear, and consistently clear fingerwork. And rarely have I heard so much attention to just the notes on the page rather than the mystique assigned to them. Gieseking does not "search" for ultimate meaning that much, but nor does he struggle to make the notes fit. He does relish the more humorous elements of the early sonatas and the quirkiness of some of the later works without storming the heavens. A light Beethoven, then, but a surprisingly effective Beethoven. Perhaps the liner notes said it best (I'm paraphrasing here): Gieseking's Beethoven is played as seen through the prism of impressionism. What a view. Invaluable.
A note on the recordings. Many of the movements are clearly single takes - replete with some misses and extraneous noise - so this set does seem to display how Gieseking actually played live rather than in the studio. Enlightening, to say the least. The sound is variable and often somewhat dull, but overall it is acceptable. For fans of these works and this pianist, I do suggest trying to hear these recordings.
I just scored another great purchase from my increasingly favorite CD source, Berkshire Record Outlet. Among other discs, I picked up a seven disc set of Walter Gieseking playing 27 of Beethoven's 32 sonatas on Tahra. These are all early magnetic tape recordings made by Saarbrucken Radio in 1949 and 1950. (The missing works are Opp 7, 10/1, 10/3, 49/2, and 54.) I've been eyeing the set for a while at my local CD haunt, but at $82 I usually went for something else. At $42, I had to buy it. (I believe some are still available.)
How are they? Well, they are variable. Gieseking is of course well known in French repertoire, but his German music gets short-shrift. This set proves that is just plain wrong. He does not convince across the board the way Annie Fisher does, but he has his strengths. The early sonatas are superb, with only Ms. Fischer being clearly better. The Opp 14 and 27 works are extremely fine, as I expected from his slightly later EMI recordings of the same works. Perhaps the high point of the set are the Op 31 sonatas. All three are simply tremendous, easily rivalling any other versions and surpassing most; Gieseking's approach fits these works well. The Op 78 and 79 sonatas are also particularly fine. He suffers somewhat in the most famous works - the Pathetique and Appassionata are better played by other pianists, and the Waldstein has been better served too (not least by Gieseking in his EMI set). His is not a fiery Beethoven and so does not seem a perfect fit.
The late sonatas offer an interesting survey of the works. The Opp 90 and 101 are well played but somewhat lacking in the requisite insight. The Op 106 is somewhat odd, coming in at under 37 minutes it is by far the fastest version I have heard, and though the final fugue is fine, the rest of the work does not live up to the best available from, say, Pollini or Serkin. The last three sonatas are all very well done. The Op 109 and 110 were obviously in Gieseking repertoire for a long time and these earlier recordings pretty much match his later EMI recordings. (The EMI Great Recordings set of four sonatas is a great place to start with Gieseking's Beethoven.) There is dazzling fingerwork, a fine sense of structure, and the variations are dashed off splendidly. The 111, the the 106, is the fastest version I have heard at under 20 minutes. Here it works on its own terms. The opening is taken con brio, if without the depth of other pianists. The second movement variations are superb if also lacking in profundity.
The relative lack of fire and depth may lead some to question the value of this set. It should not. Where Annie Fischer's Beethoven is truly fiery and intense, and Kempff's is almost mystical and transcendental, and Schnabel's terse and clear, and John O'Conor's poetic and dramatic, Gieseking's Beethoven is fleet and superficial. I mean this in the best sense. On no other versions have I heard such concise, clear, and consistently clear fingerwork. And rarely have I heard so much attention to just the notes on the page rather than the mystique assigned to them. Gieseking does not "search" for ultimate meaning that much, but nor does he struggle to make the notes fit. He does relish the more humorous elements of the early sonatas and the quirkiness of some of the later works without storming the heavens. A light Beethoven, then, but a surprisingly effective Beethoven. Perhaps the liner notes said it best (I'm paraphrasing here): Gieseking's Beethoven is played as seen through the prism of impressionism. What a view. Invaluable.
A note on the recordings. Many of the movements are clearly single takes - replete with some misses and extraneous noise - so this set does seem to display how Gieseking actually played live rather than in the studio. Enlightening, to say the least. The sound is variable and often somewhat dull, but overall it is acceptable. For fans of these works and this pianist, I do suggest trying to hear these recordings.