As soon as I heard (thanks to Primephonic) Ronald Brautigam's performance of the Appassionata Sonata on fortepiano I knew that this was the way I wanted to hear it. A performer of this sonata needs to play without any inhibitions, not least in the coda to the last movement, and on a "Steinway-type" piano the heavy chords can be very "bangy". On Brautigam's piano it's easy to believe that this is just the way Beethoven would have wanted to hear it.
The Appassionata was reviewed last week on BBC Record Review by Iain Burnside and he had no hesitation in making this performance his top choice.
BIS Records - Beethoven - The Complete Piano Sonatas
It's sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57.
Tomorrow's review will be of Mozart's Dissonance Quartet. Can Cuarteto Casals be beaten for dissonance, I wonder!?
Tomorrow's review will be of Mozart's Dissonance Quartet. Can Cuarteto Casals be beaten for dissonance, I wonder!?
What a great programme Record Review is!
For a moment there I thought your prediction would be proved right, and Cuarteto Casals would indeed win outright. (Although I do love the way the Emersons play the late-Beethoven-like dissonances)
But no, with all those choices (and perhaps none of them quite perfect?), Quatuor Modigliani came out top:
“Limpid, elegant, charming” and not too much drama 😊
Anyway, sorry for the diversion, back to Appassionata…
Yes, what an interesting review (of the Dissonance Quartet) ... highlighting the difficulty (absurdity?) of choosing a winner. All the excerpts they played sounded worth pursuing (apart from the surprisingly leaden minuet from the Italian Quartet). The Modigliani Quartet is yet another group that is new to me. I look forward to listening to their album.
