Beethoven 250: Piano Sonata No. 5 (Stephen Kovacevich, 1998)

Julius Schmid (1854–1935): Beethoven plays the piano.

Beethoven: The Complete Works (80 CD). Warner Classics / © 2019 Parlophone Records Limited. Also available on Spotify etc. I bought my box set from Fuga at Helsinki Music Centre.
    Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827.
    Beethoven 250 / corona lockdown listening.

From: CD 18/80  Piano Sonatas Nos. 4–7
Der Gräfin Anna Margarete von Browne gewidmet.
Stephen Kovacevich, 1998.

Opus 10 Nr. 1: Klaviersonate Nr. 5 in c-Moll (1798)
Erster Satz: Allegro molto e con brio, c-Moll, 3/4 Takt, 284 Takte
Zweiter Satz: Adagio molto, As-Dur, 2/4 Takt, 112 Takte
Dritter Satz: Finale. Prestissimo, c-Moll, alla breve, 122 Takte

AA: My progress in listening to Beethoven's piano sonatas keeps getting slower, not because I'm listening less, but because I'm listening more and focusing increasingly on a single sonata for several days.

A particularly revelatory source has been the lecture cycle of András Schiff on the sonatas. Schiff performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall in 2004–2006, quoting the Wigmore Hall website:

"to overwhelming critical acclaim, with the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, describing one particular performance as ‘a riveting mixture of erudition, analysis, passion, wit and memory’."

"On the day before each of the eight recitals in the series, the world-renowned pianist, pedagogue and lecturer gave a lecture-recital in which he explored the works to be performed. Deeply engaging and insightful, these thought-provoking lecture-recitals, recorded live at the Hall, are available below as eight audio lecture-recitals." (Wigmore Hall homepage).

As somebody who is not a music connoisseur I recommend these lectures to everybody because of their artistic and cultural value. For instance, the lecture about the fifth piano sonata takes over 50 minutes, while the sonata itself is only 16 minutes long in Kovacevich's recording.

Schiff demonstrates Beethoven's here by now great difference to Mozart and Haydn and describes some general characteristics of him: the generosity, the warmth and the fullness of his approach, his way of writing "for the fist", his very strong sense of rhythm and tempo and yet the capacity of flexibility in performance while always obeying a sense of order. According to Schiff Beethoven was the first composer who was quite meticulous in his notations.

Schiff has a penchant for the humoristic aside. Commenting on the dedications on the piano sonatas he observes that the dedicatees were usually music lovers. "Let's not forget that the amateur, amatore, means somebody who actually loves music – and that is not always the case with professionals".

In the third movement there is an anticipation of the Fifth Symphony and its Schicksals-motive. Also an anticipation of the Tempest sonata is mentioned by Schiff. In the beautiful Adagio I felt an affinity with the Romanze Op. 50, also from 1798.

Besides the Stephen Kovacevich and András Schiff interpretations I listened to several others, admiring the lyrical and tender touches of Claudio Arrau and the profound concentration of Emil Gilels whose slow movement is much slower than Kovacevich's, conveying a sense of endlessness. Schiff in his lecture talks about Beethoven's fondness for a singing quality in slow movements, notes that cannot be long enough. Gilels certainly achieves such a quality.

http://digitalcollections.sjlibrary.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Portraits%20Beethoven%20Full%20figure/mode/exact/page/2

https://www.beethoven.de/en/archive/view/6559862288809984/Beethoven+playing