Beethoven's Last Piano Sonatas

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

 

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The last three solo keyboard sonatas composed by Ludwig Beethoven -- Opus 109: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major (1820), Opus 110: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major (1821), Opus 111: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor (1822) -- rank, in my never-entirely humble opinion, as the most sublime music of their genre, sharing the apex of beauty with Beethoven's late string quartets. No recording of them has ever seemed to my ears unworthy of hearing attentively. Among the more recent conventional interpretations, played on a modern concert grand piano, my personal choice is that of Andras Schiff, which I have reviewed. However, if I were permitted to take only one recording of the three sonatas to a Tea Party Forced Labor Camp in West Texas, it would be this performance by Penelope Crawford. Here are three reasons why:

1) The pianist! Penelope Crawford is as eloquent/elegant at the keyboard as Schiff or Maurizio Pollini, despite the fact that she is not a full-time on-the-road concertizer. She has important teaching positions at the University of Michigan and at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. These works require a touch that is al least as 'sensitive' as it is agile, and that is Crawford's 'forte'.

2) The piano! Crawford plays a genuine historical fortepiano, built by Conrad Graf of Vienna in 1835. That choice will deter many die-hard musical conservatives from giving the CD a chance, of course. They will declare that the fortepiano was merely an inadequate precursor of the piano forte of today, and that it sounds like 'a toy piano'. My own ears tell me that it was a distinct instrument, with its own timbre and its own playing qualities, very well suited to the music of its era, including Beethoven's. In modern evolutionary theory, the hadrosaurs -- the most numerous and wide-ranging of dinosaurs -- were not inadequate precursors of the giant ground sloths; they were finely adapted to their environment, and just so, the fortepiano was finely adapted to keyboard music composed for salons rather than huge auditoriums.

3) The tuning! The temperament of the keyboard. No mention of temperament is made on the jacket or in the notes of this CD, but tuning-sensitive ears will readily hear that something is different in this soundscape. The cadences and many other chords are more consonant and tranquil, more resolved, while the modulations to distant keys are more piquant and unsettling. That's not by chance. This fortepiano is NOT tuned to the equal temperament of our contemporary concert pianos. Instead, it has been tuned to a modified 1/6 comma meantone, a tuning very close to the Valotti temperament that was 'normal' in Beethoven's lifetime. Actually, Penelope Crawford has acknowledged to me, personally, that the specific temperament she used is what musicologist Bradley Lehman purports to have deciphered from the original edition of JS Bach's "Well-Tempered Klavier." In other words, this forte piano is well tempered rather than equal tempered. Does that make a difference in the soundscape? In the affect? In the pleasure of listening? To my ears, yes, it makes a huge difference. Perhaps you won't hear it -- not consciously anyway -- but don't worry! This is a precious treasure of a performance on whatever terms you choose.

I have never been fond of Beethoven on the fortepiano. I have been able to take some pleasure listening to such light things as the bagatelles with Melvyn Tan, but the instruments (and generally the soloists) have generally seemed to me unworthy of the late sonatas--sonatas I do not wish to experience merely for historical reasons. So when someone persuaded me to give this CD a try, I was quite skeptical that I would like it. On the first listening, however, my skepticism was totally overcome as I found both the instrument and the performance quite wonderful. The instrument has a rich and powerful sound (but still is clearly a fortepiano)and the interpretations hold their own with those I regard as the very best--e.g. Mitsuko Uchida and Myra Hess. (I have no gender biases in music, and it is purely a coincidence that the two I remembered first and Crawford all happen to be women. I am also very fond of the late sonatas played by Backhaus, Gilels, and Kempff.) Crawford allowed me to see some things in these sonatas that I had not before seen--always a valuable experience. I never thought that I would want to hear the Hammerklavier played on a fortepiano, but I very much hope that Crawford will record that sonata on this instrument. Although I can ignore poor sound quality in recordings for a great interpretation, the sound recording on this one could not be better.

Need I say more?
As a pianist, out of all the Beethoven Sonatas I have heard in my lifetime, these are the most artistic and beautiful.

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