I think Schnabel would agree with Algernon in Importance of Being Earnest when he says about his piano playing "I don't play accurately. Anyone can play accurately. But I play with tremendous feeling." Be honest, just about any more modern recording is almost certainly truer to the strict notes on the page. But I can't help feeling that Schnabel gets closer than anyone to what Beethoven had in mind.
This is a masterpiece. There is so much complexity here that I simply cannot understand the the full language or meaning of this piece. Kudos to Beethoven!
Of all the Opus 106 recordings out there, Schnabel comes closest to honoring Beethoven's original tempos corroborated by Czerny and Liszt. (Glenn Gould has to be the slowest but he has plenty of company) One evening Liszt said to us: “Boys, there’s a young man coming here tomorrow who says he can play Beethoven’s ‘Sonata in B Flat, Op. 106.’ I want you all three to be here.” We were there at the appointed hour. The pianist proved to be a Hungarian, whose name I have forgotten. He sat down and began to play in a conveniently slow tempo the bold chords with which the sonata opens. He had not progressed more than half a page when Liszt stopped him, and seating himself at the piano, played in the correct tempo, which was much faster, to show him how the work should be interpreted. “It’s nonsense for you to go through this sonata in that fashion,” said Liszt, as he rose from the piano and left the room. The pianist, of course, was very much disconcerted. Finally he said, as if to console himself: “Well, he can’t play it through like that, and that’s why he stopped after half a page.” This sonata is the only one which the composer himself metronomized, and his direction is half note = 138. WILLIAM MASON
History and truth, Amen. It is a little humorous to read these bold criticisms of Schnabel. Next thing you know, they'll blame Ludwig for not writing it correctly.
Do you want to know WHAT is a Beethovian Beauty Storm ? Take 38:15 and just figure out what Arthur is doing here at this speed ....... how many notes .... follow on the score , if you can .....
I understand, I believe, the negative response to this video. However, I assure you that this is due to misconceptions about this Opus, spawned by the popularity of more recently recorded and very popular approaches to this piece, such as Barenboim's versions. This Opus was a rarity in that Beethoven was insistent about including a metronome setting in the original folio. There is also a comment by him to the effect that it would be 50 years before Opus 106 would be played properly, probably referring to the brutal roller-coaster ride of the final movement. Indeed, it was about that 50 years before the great piano virtuoso and composer Franz Lizst first performed it in a public performance at this infamous metronome setting. So if it sounds like Schnabel is going way too fast, it is because Mr. Barenboim's Opus 106 takes over 10 minutes longer than Schnabel's!! And if it sounds like Schnabel misses a note early on in the first movement, fuhget about it. When the theme is repeated many measures later, he plays the same revolutionary note. What better way to signify power and speed (when you are already flying) than to scrunch one note against the other? Schanbel's performance (which wasn't so very old, the first time I heard it) is one of the closest things we will find to the Great One himself holding forth. That reminds me of a hilarious post for the video of Schnabel's Opus 7, which reads, "Nice cover!" To which I wrote, "Right! It's like, 'Well, we tried like hell to get Ludwig for this sesssion, but in the end we were lucky just to get Artur!" It is to laugh.
He misses more than one note; to me he makes the piece sound incomprehensible and confusing in a lot of places. He glosses over the drama of this piece with the speed of a freight train. This is baffling because Schnabel is otherwise a great pianist! And it's not only this Beethoven sonata; he does it in all of them. As far as Barenboim, he is certainly not a model of playing Beethoven's sonatas.
My own professor in college studied under Schnabel (he's 88 years old ^_^), and whenever we work on a Beethoven sonata he complains that Schnabel's recordings were doctored after the fact to sound faster. I'm not sure if it's the case with the Hammerklavier (some of it does sound smushed together, I don't know if that would happen from speeding it up), but the Tempest he says that he never, ever played as fast as his recordings. It's truly bizarre.
It would be less puzzling if you keep in mind the fact that Beethoven almost never used a metronome setting, he did with this one, and it is obviously brutal in places. The idea that Schnabel would repeatedly make a mistake is laughable to me, but there is something of the possessed in this sonata, controlled madness. I have had grudges against many pieces of music because I misunderstood what was being said, only to finally get it one day. I also have grudges that are justified, like Paul Rodgers wasting his incredible voice on the ultimate "Song with a Message", "I Can't Get Enough of Your Love" while with Bad Company. The message is that I can't get enough of your love, and I counted once to find that he sings that phrase 23 times in a 2:50 song. And then it was played relentlessly. Now that, my friend, is a musical error!!
You asked about who is the master of Beethoven Sonatas, and of course you are listening to him. There is madness in this work, that is how it is meant to be played.
Behzod Abduraimov said he wants to learn this piece. Schnabel’s perfomance is the best I’ve heard so far because as you say he does not HAMMER the klavier plus he plays with a wonderfully fluid touch. I have to think this is what Beethoven wanted. It’s hard to believe he wanted people to bang away on the notes like so many do. Abduraimov, as you may know, is the wonderful young Uzbek pianist who now calls Kansas city home. He performed the Emperor concerto in Houston recently - masterful.
Almost ten minutes shorter than Barenboim's version. That is because he doesn't ignore the metronome setting that Ludwig included with the folio for this piece, which he rarely did. Why argue with the composer? Because most pianists can't hack it at the proper tempo. Fact.
There is a Gould recording: the answer is he does "very slow" with it, which is very sad because he could have played it at the right tempo. For all the wrong notes the Schnabel recording insists that Beethoven was right after all. Half-note=138 IS "playable"--alas not by Schnabel but by someone--and the piece is SO crowded, compressed, modern, radical at that tempo that it does not speak well for the piano community that nobody, so far as I know, besides Schnabel students Beveridge Webster and Webster Aitken ever tried to play it at Beethoven's tempo indications.
Beethoven made it for Liszt , his "future" musician. After having heard young racket tiger Horowitz, Scriabin´s sonatas op. 68 and 70 sound exaggerated brilliant.
Get educated. Read my posts. I am trying not to be insulting, but it is hard, so dripping with arrogance and ignorance (frequently seen together) are the comments here. This is the good stuff, and one needs to develop a taste for it.
my piano teacher would always Schnabel was the best interpreter of Beethoven. His recordings are extremely old, it seems all pianists revere them. But no, I don't agree at all. playing faster is not more impressive, ESPECIALLY if you are missing and smearing notes all over the place like this guy... give me Barenboim over this any day.
You need education. And to listen more carefully. He misses...nothing. It is you who are missing something. Think...why would the name Schnabel be synonymous with Beethoven Sonatas the world over? Because he can't play them? What a stupid presupposition to run with! The very stupidity of your presupposition would indicate you need to look into the matter further, wouldn't it? Study, study, study, and then post, then speak. Read my other posts here. It is you and your pals here whom I cannot believe.
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I think Schnabel would agree with Algernon in Importance of Being Earnest when he says about his piano playing "I don't play accurately. Anyone can play accurately. But I play with tremendous feeling."
Be honest, just about any more modern recording is almost certainly truer to the strict notes on the page. But I can't help feeling that Schnabel gets closer than anyone to what Beethoven had in mind.
This is a masterpiece. There is so much complexity here that I simply cannot understand the the full language or meaning of this piece. Kudos to Beethoven!
Of all the Opus 106 recordings out there, Schnabel comes closest to honoring Beethoven's original tempos corroborated by Czerny and Liszt. (Glenn Gould has to be the slowest but he has plenty of company)
One evening Liszt said to us: “Boys, there’s a young man coming here tomorrow who says he can play Beethoven’s ‘Sonata in B Flat, Op. 106.’ I want you all three to be here.” We were there at the appointed hour. The pianist proved to be a Hungarian, whose name I have forgotten. He sat down and began to play in a conveniently slow tempo the bold chords with which the sonata opens. He had not progressed more than half a page when Liszt stopped him, and seating himself at the piano, played in the correct tempo, which was much faster, to show him how the work should be interpreted. “It’s nonsense for you to go through this sonata in that fashion,” said Liszt, as he rose from the piano and left the room. The pianist, of course, was very much disconcerted. Finally he said, as if to console himself:
“Well, he can’t play it through like that, and that’s why he stopped after half a page.”
This sonata is the only one which the composer himself metronomized, and his direction is half note = 138. WILLIAM MASON
History and truth, Amen. It is a little humorous to read these bold criticisms of Schnabel. Next thing you know, they'll blame Ludwig for not writing it correctly.
Alongside the Grosso Fugue, Beethoven's true masterpiece and greatest accomplishment.
Do you want to know WHAT is a Beethovian Beauty Storm ?
Take 38:15 and just figure out what Arthur is doing here at this speed ....... how many notes .... follow on the score , if you can .....
I understand, I believe, the negative response to this video. However, I assure you that this is due to misconceptions about this Opus, spawned by the popularity of more recently recorded and very popular approaches to this piece, such as Barenboim's versions. This Opus was a rarity in that Beethoven was insistent about including a metronome setting in the original folio. There is also a comment by him to the effect that it would be 50 years before Opus 106 would be played properly, probably referring to the brutal roller-coaster ride of the final movement. Indeed, it was about that 50 years before the great piano virtuoso and composer Franz Lizst first performed it in a public performance at this infamous metronome setting. So if it sounds like Schnabel is going way too fast, it is because Mr. Barenboim's Opus 106 takes over 10 minutes longer than Schnabel's!! And if it sounds like Schnabel misses a note early on in the first movement, fuhget about it. When the theme is repeated many measures later, he plays the same revolutionary note. What better way to signify power and speed (when you are already flying) than to scrunch one note against the other? Schanbel's performance (which wasn't so very old, the first time I heard it) is one of the closest things we will find to the Great One himself holding forth. That reminds me of a hilarious post for the video of Schnabel's Opus 7, which reads, "Nice cover!" To which I wrote, "Right! It's like, 'Well, we tried like hell to get Ludwig for this sesssion, but in the end we were lucky just to get Artur!" It is to laugh.
He misses more than one note; to me he makes the piece sound incomprehensible and confusing in a lot of places. He glosses over the drama of this piece with the speed of a freight train. This is baffling because Schnabel is otherwise a great pianist! And it's not only this Beethoven sonata; he does it in all of them. As far as Barenboim, he is certainly not a model of playing Beethoven's sonatas.
My own professor in college studied under Schnabel (he's 88 years old ^_^), and whenever we work on a Beethoven sonata he complains that Schnabel's recordings were doctored after the fact to sound faster. I'm not sure if it's the case with the Hammerklavier (some of it does sound smushed together, I don't know if that would happen from speeding it up), but the Tempest he says that he never, ever played as fast as his recordings. It's truly bizarre.
It would be less puzzling if you keep in mind the fact that Beethoven almost never used a metronome setting, he did with this one, and it is obviously brutal in places. The idea that Schnabel would repeatedly make a mistake is laughable to me, but there is something of the possessed in this sonata, controlled madness. I have had grudges against many pieces of music because I misunderstood what was being said, only to finally get it one day. I also have grudges that are justified, like Paul Rodgers wasting his incredible voice on the ultimate "Song with a Message", "I Can't Get Enough of Your Love" while with Bad Company. The message is that I can't get enough of your love, and I counted once to find that he sings that phrase 23 times in a 2:50 song. And then it was played relentlessly. Now that, my friend, is a musical error!!
Curatica C who do you think is the beso pianist playing Bethoveen's sonatas?
You asked about who is the master of Beethoven Sonatas, and of course you are listening to him. There is madness in this work, that is how it is meant to be played.
beethoven is a monster genius
GRANDE, TALVEZ INSUPERÁVEL INTERPRETAÇÃO
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for posting this, Jacky Tran.
Some other stars think the name means you have to HAMMER the klavier. Artur takes his time and plays an entirely different op. 106.
Behzod Abduraimov said he wants to learn this piece.
Schnabel’s perfomance is the best I’ve heard so far because as you say he does not HAMMER the klavier plus he plays with a wonderfully fluid touch. I have to think this is what Beethoven wanted. It’s hard to believe he wanted people to bang away on the notes like so many do.
Abduraimov, as you may know, is the wonderful young Uzbek pianist who now calls Kansas city home. He performed the Emperor concerto in Houston recently - masterful.
It doesn't. Hammerklavier was the name for the common fortepiano during Beethoven's time.
The fastest version ever?
You don't need the ?. It is. Just shy of 41 minutes.
Almost ten minutes shorter than Barenboim's version. That is because he doesn't ignore the metronome setting that Ludwig included with the folio for this piece, which he rarely did. Why argue with the composer? Because most pianists can't hack it at the proper tempo. Fact.
What would Glenn Gould have done with op. 106?
He actually recorded it. It's just way slower.
There is a Gould recording: the answer is he does "very slow" with it, which is very sad because he could have played it at the right tempo. For all the wrong notes the Schnabel recording insists that Beethoven was right after all. Half-note=138 IS "playable"--alas not by Schnabel but by someone--and the piece is SO crowded, compressed, modern, radical at that tempo that it does not speak well for the piano community that nobody, so far as I know, besides Schnabel students Beveridge Webster and Webster Aitken ever tried to play it at Beethoven's tempo indications.
He would have gone to sleep in the 3rd movement. Just joking. To each his own. Except when there is a metronome setting!
Beethoven made it for Liszt , his "future" musician. After
having heard young racket tiger Horowitz, Scriabin´s sonatas
op. 68 and 70 sound exaggerated brilliant.
Wow -- sloppy as hell, especially in the denser contrapuntal sections. Ouch. The maestro was not in his element here, that's for sure.
Hilarious. Read my posts. Get educated first, when something doesn't make sense, then post.
One of the most silly comment on YT
That fugue fell apart.
Not.
Thank you for uploading. I can't believe how sloppily it is played though :(.
Get educated. Read my posts. I am trying not to be insulting, but it is hard, so dripping with arrogance and ignorance (frequently seen together) are the comments here. This is the good stuff, and one needs to develop a taste for it.
One soothing tune frfr
If this tune soothes you, you are not listening.
no patience
my piano teacher would always Schnabel was the best interpreter of Beethoven. His recordings are extremely old, it seems all pianists revere them. But no, I don't agree at all. playing faster is not more impressive, ESPECIALLY if you are missing and smearing notes all over the place like this guy... give me Barenboim over this any day.
I can't believe Schnabel ever released this! There are entire fortissimo chords completely missed.
You need education. And to listen more carefully. He misses...nothing. It is you who are missing something. Think...why would the name Schnabel be synonymous with Beethoven Sonatas the world over? Because he can't play them? What a stupid presupposition to run with! The very stupidity of your presupposition would indicate you need to look into the matter further, wouldn't it? Study, study, study, and then post, then speak. Read my other posts here. It is you and your pals here whom I cannot believe.
Go back to the clowns who miss no chords but miss the music . Moron .
It's too fast, but nice work.
The tempo is the exact one that Beethoven indicated.
Yes, of course, Beethoven wrote a sonata that was, "Too fast". Brilliant. Read some of the posts here, you might learn why it was, "Too fast".
Another moron .
Bad versiom
version