The LEAST Important Recording Projects Ever (No. 6: Buchbinder's 3rd (!) Beethoven Sonata Cycle)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ก.ค. 2023
- Three Beethoven piano sonata cycles on three different labels from the same pianist who, while a fine artist, is hardly one of the biggest names in the business. Who on earth needs this? What were those labels thinking?
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I've been enjoying the "most important" projects, but this "least important" one has me puzzled. Buchbinder performed the complete cycle in a series of recitals at the Salzburg Festival, which is quite a feat. This recording is a document of those performances. I don't read into it any proclamation that he has necessarily developed new insights from his previous cycle. Assuming it was Buchbinder's idea to record them, he may have simply wanted to capture the energy of a live performance, as many artists have over the years. Or maybe DG or the Festival was behind the unique project. At any rate, I'm thankful that it was recorded and enjoyed the performances ... and I have both the earlier cycles as well.
One notable aspect of this release is that the entire live performance was released on blu-ray! This might offer some sort of justification for the third release. There are more visually dynamic, high-quality performers on youtube (Giltburg, Lisitsa), but sadly they haven't released a physical copy of those for my collection
Should people collect all three Marie-Claire Alain complete Bach organ music cycles?
Yes, and you can mix and match them and create as many more as you'd like.
They are all good, economically priced, and they aren't interchangeable in sonics (different organs) or interpretation--she was an energetic and evolving artist, one of the best organists of the 20th century. There are worse things to immerse yourself in.
Organ music is a special case, because each instrument can be wildly different from the others
What do you think of Buchbinder's DG remake of the Diabelli Variations by Beethoven, this time under the catchy title "Diabelli Project" and with additional variations by contemporary composers?
Thought provoking as always: I like Buchbinder, have the RCA and DG sets and enjoy them both - so I’m in the category of being interested in his “insights” - I plan on finding his Teldec cycle as well; that being said, I find Brendel’s three cycles a better candidate for this intriguing series - wonderful talk as usual…
No, Brendel was a much bigger "name." So he had an excuse (a bad one, but still an excuse).
@@DavesClassicalGuide I see, I didn’t consider that…
Do NOT get the Teldec if you must get that cycle, get the new Warner Complete Beethoven Solo pIano music which includes that cycle and is more complete than the Teldec version of that box; Teldec accidentally left out some stuff. All these boxes are inexpensive. That said, the 3 Buchbinder sonata cycles are not very different from one another. I prefer the RCA (now Sony), fwiw. Enjoy.
Thank you for the guidance! I put the Warner 16-cd set in my Amazon shopping cart but didn’t get it yet…
I noticed that Buchbinder owns the recording rights to this cycle which DG has issued under license. That means a best-case scenario of this cycle existing on DG for maybe five years, tops. So, a good investment for collectors and those who sell oop recordings for ridiculous prices.
Although I do agree that most remakes and re-remakes are not needed, it also depends on the artist. The most obvious example, of course, is Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations versus his 1981 remake, which are deliberately different. And Arthur Rubinstein's three Chopin Mazurka cycles are so artistically and pianistically different from one another that they seem to be representing three distinct pianists.
Yes, but it's not just about a single artist's changing ideas. Those ideas compete with all of the other artists already available, so while it may be interesting that Artist A offers very different interpretations over time, that may not make them meaningful or important in the grand scheme of things, especially in the standard repertoire.
@@DavesClassicalGuide That's true, your point is well taken. I'd also add the word "influential" to your last sentence. And maybe that could lead to another mini-series of videos about recordings that had enormous impact and influence in their day, yet may not seem so meaningful or important in the context of today's market.
@@jdistler2 Something to chat about...
Are these recordings the same as those in the dvd/blue Ray released by Unitel Classica some years ago?
Yes.
What about Barenboim's FOURTH released just after lockdown.......? Which was slower and clumsier than the others...
What about it?
@@DavesClassicalGuide Surely even less important!
It’s fun to imagine an executive at Deutsche Grammophon demanding to know why all those OTHER labels have a Buchbinder Beethoven cycle, “…but vee do not!!”
Buchbinder owns the tapes. DG issued them under license.
Dave:
Don't know if you shop Amazon since you have little good to say about them. I've just come back from their Buchbinder listings. Under "Frequently bought together " was a display of his RCA sonata cycle and the DG Beethoven cycle.
The price is good, but....frequently?
Really?
I try to shop at Amazon. Sometimes they make it very difficult when it comes to classical music. They're much better at selling mosquito repellent.
@@DavesClassicalGuideAnd sometimes a recording one specifically, unmistakably, searches for comes up as mosquito repellant!
I've never really understood why pianists do multiple cycles of things. For example, Brendel would've been fine with just one Beethoven cycle (for both the sonatas and the concertos), and now Barenboim's on his fourth!?
I have been enjoying this series. It is interesting how such a small corner of the music industry manages to vomit out so many different recordings of the same cycles of music. What is the business case for it? Does every collector of classical music want to have twenty different Beethoven piano sonata cycles? And if so, how do these collectors ever find time to listen to all of them, especially if they have twenty different cycles of many other things? I have two, and I'm not actively searching for more. There are already Beethoven piano sonata cycles by numerous pianists out there, and even this would seem like more than the market can bear. They are all competing with each other for a small number of music collectors, most of whom will be satisfied at having one or two good ones. Having multiple performances by the same pianist seems rather absurd in this context. I suppose the audience for this would be people who are interested in a particular pianist and want to see how his interpretations have changed over time. This has some degree of value, but the market must be tiny. I suppose these artists will perform and record what they like, but if they are looking to do something important, why not dig deeper into the piano repertoire to find the hidden gems that are worth hearing but haven't been recorded a few hundred times?
I wish Perahia recorded a Beethoven sonata cycle instead of this guy. Or Sokolov. Do record labels ever check with their audiences what people actually wish for?
The interesting thing about Dave's "Least Important" list is that--at least in most cases--these are by no means useless or valueless recordings. In the case of Buchbinder's DG Beethoven cycle, it could be valuable if the collector had no other of Buchbinder cycles. As Dave agrees, Buchbinder is a fine and important Beethoven pianist. Jed rates it the best or most interesting interpretively of the 3, though he has a soft spot for the RCA cycle's sonics. But the RCA cycle is now hard to find at a reasonable price. Previously, Dave listed the complete orchestral works of Siegfried Wagner--but these could be valuable as an introduction to an interesting, if not essential composer, who becomes more interesting in light of the toxic Nazism fostered by his mother and wife in the Bayreuth circle, which treated a talented and competent composer as a complete reject. So, I see "least important" as a kind of rhetorical challenge. I hope Dave agrees .
I do. What is least important in the universe at large my be essential to an individual collector.
How does this compare to Gunter Wand's multitudinous Bruckner cycles?
He only made one. There are a zillion subsequent duplicates, but no complete cycles.
Then my hat off to him for not just making cycles for the sake of making cycles. And in all fairness, a lot of them must have been, first & foremost, that night's gig, and not necessarily done with a mind to future CD release.
@@DavesClassicalGuide
I agree with you. 3 cycles are too much. But, this said, would you consider his old complete Beethoven's piano works as one of the most important recording projects?
Didn't Brendel's set come first?
@@brianthomas2434 , I didn't know Brendel recorded the complete piano works by Beethoven, so I can't tell you.
@josecarmona9168 wow. It was one of the records that got me into Classical nearly fifty years ago. An outfit called Murray Hill records repackaged Vox Turnabout product at a price that got my attention, so inexpensive I felt what can I lose?
Among the sets offered were Krips Beethoven Symphonies, Fine Arts Quartet doing Beethoven, the Barchet doing Mozart Quartets...and a young Brendel doing ALL of Beethoven's solo piano works. Sonatas, variations, bagatelles, and to top it off, the five concerti with low rent orchestras. I don't remember if the Choral Fantasy was included. I'm pretty sure this was before he signed to Phillips.
Sorry for the verbiage, but I was under the impression this was a famous ( if not important!) set of discs. I discovered them as on outsider and assumed everyone had known about them since the very early Sixties.
@@brianthomas2434 , thanks for all that information. I will search for these recordings. I'm afraid I'm not a piano guy and only recently I have begun to really dig in solo piano music, so this is quite interesting in order to add to my collection.
@@brianthomas2434 Ah yes… Murray Hill and the Surface Noise from Hell! I had the FAQ Beethoven and Walter Kraft doing the complete Bach organ music. The performances were good, assuming the stylus could track those terribly warped LP’s. The upside was that they were so cheap, at least you found out if you enjoyed the compositions, then you could start saving up for better editions!
there are two ''important'' recording projects that you could comment on.....vivaldi edition at naive (please don't talk about the awful record covers....!) and the liszt cycle with leslie howard at hyperion .... or the same liszt cycle at naxos
I would be shocked if they were not already on his list.
I’d argue that both the DG Barenboim Beethoven Cycles are less important than Buchbinder.
Barenboim’s first DG cycle was shortly after his EMI cycle and both of them were in the studio.
I’ll argue that the 3rd cycle on Decca is significant because it came after he recorded his only studio symphony cycle and gave it some different insights into the entirety that is Beethoven, AND it was live. It’s a different thing all together.
And the last DG cycle?!?!! Where i sit, thèse two are infinitely more insignificant than Buchbinder.
Quite agree. The first EMI cycle is my favorite Beethoven sonatas cycle; the 80's DG is OK but never quite did it for me; the third, EMI/Decca live recordings I value almost as much as the first one. But the fourth one was an overkill; no one needed that and Barenboim himself wasn't even anymore able to do it at least as well as before (age takes its toll I guess). It's in my opinion an embodiment of unnecessary remake: he did something great before, why bothyer do it again when there's no way it's gonna be in any way better than the last time?