The death of the CD has been confidently predicted for some
time, so the plethora of integral sets of Beethoven piano sonatas
currently appearing is all the more surprising. Here is one
of them, released, as is becoming the norm, several discs at
a time, from French pianist François-Frédéric
Guy. It was recorded live in the superb concert hall created
out of a nineteenth-century munitions store at Metz. The sound
is beautifully rich and immediate, close enough to hear the
occasional involuntary sound from the pianist, and in front
of a near-silent audience. Curiously, applause is retained only
for the final sonata on each of the three discs. The piano used
is a Steinway, its bass register particularly rich, sonorous
and clearly defined. The presentation is very chic, and some
might resist the imposed juxtaposition of the initials LVB and
FFG. The booklet, in three languages, features an interesting
and wide-ranging essay by Beate Angelika Kraus.
This collection begins with Sonata No. 4, completed in 1797,
and ends with the “Moonlight”, No. 14, composed
in 1801. The set thus takes in all of the sonatas to be found
in the first volume of the Henle Urtext edition, with the exception
of the first three sonatas, Op. 2, which were dedicated to Haydn,
and the lovely Sonata 15 in D major, often known as the “Pastoral”.
Taking them in chronological order of composition, the major
challenge of Op. 7 is the sublime slow movement. The music is
so slow and filled with silence, so empty of incident, that
immense concentration is needed on the part of the performer,
particularly live. Guy succeeds splendidly, just as he does
in the busy first movement, in the scherzo, and in the graceful,
rather anti-climactic finale. This is a very fine performance
indeed of a large-scale early sonata relatively rarely heard
outside of integral cycles. The slow movement of Op. 10/1 is
another fine meditation, and Guy’s concentration is again
palpable. The contrast in the first movement between the dramatic
first subject and the more relaxed, lyrical second subject is
delightfully handled. The set is full of small insights such
as this. Listen to the second movement of Sonata No. 6. What
is it, first of all? It’s not a slow movement, nor is
it a minuet and trio. It’s a sort of cross between the
two, a typical example of the kind of formal and structural
surprise Beethoven reserves for us even as early as this in
the series of thirty-two. Guy’s performance of this movement
is a small miracle of subtlety and insight.
Guy’s magisterial poise is ruffled in only a very few
places. The first movement of the Seventh Sonata never really
settles down, for example. The tempo indication is Presto, but
there is a nervousness to the playing - and a not always tidy
response to some of the broken right hand quavers - that is
rather at odds with the music. The rest of the sonata goes swimmingly,
however, from the deeply felt slow movement - where Guy casts
his habitual spell - through the silly, entertaining scherzo
and the curiously stop-start finale. He is very grave and measured
in the first movement of the Pathétique, prolonging
the silences to daring lengths. Unlike Ingrid Fliter in her
excellent EMI performance, he reverts only to the Allegro
at the repeat of the exposition; in other words, without repeating
the slow introduction, he does what is marked in the score.
The first two movements are very fine, with a particularly inward
slow movement which, once again, makes much use of silence.
Is this what makes the audience slightly restive? For most of
these sonatas you wouldn’t know they were there, but here
you can catch the odd rustle and even a distant cough or two.
This is not enough to detract from the performance, which ends
with a finale in which Guy invents a few discreet expressive
devices, thus injecting some interest into this often denigrated
movement. Deft, understanding performances follow of the two
short, undemanding Op. 14 sonatas, composed at more or less
the same time as the Pathétique.
These are live performances and one is struck by the hold the
pianist has over his audience. This is achieved, at least in
part, by his mastery of the trajectory of each work, and of
its narrative qualities. The listener really feels as if each
sonata is a shared journey. I felt this in particular in respect
of the Op. 22 sonata, again, not one of the most demanding for
the listener, and not one of the most inspired, even rather
a discursive work, but one in which the pianist is so in control
of the direction the music takes that his concentration, and
that of the audience, does not flag.
With the Op . 26 sonata, Beethoven entered into a different
world, and so will those who listen to these discs. Not one
of the four movements of this sonata is in sonata form, and
the whole work is clearly of a transitional nature, as Beethoven
moved into what we have come to call his “middle period”.
Perhaps it is to mark the beginning of this change that Guy
gives this work such robust treatment. From the second movement
onwards piano markings are frequently ignored, and crescendo
is likely to be read as forte or even fortissimo.
Pretty much gone is the smooth legato playing that so beautifully
characterised much of the earlier, classically inclined works,
in favour of a more percussive style. This will have worked
well, no doubt, in concert, but for this listener at least,
it is quite wearying for repeated listening, particularly in
the famous third movement funeral march (“on the death
of a hero”) that was played at Beethoven’s own funeral.
This style of playing spills over into the Op. 27/1 sonata,
though it was only really at a few points in the finale that
I really wished Guy would tone down his response to Beethoven’s
forte and sforzando markings. Otherwise, this
is a deeply perceptive reading of this strange sonata, whose
four movements are played without a break and whose headlong
finale is interrupted, just before the end, by a reprise of
a few bars of the pensive slow movement. In the most famous
of all these sonatas, the Moonlight, the finale is again
very forced, with piano markings once again frequently
ignored. This is a pity, as the earlier movements are very successful,
and the famous first movement in particular, to which Guy manages
to bring his own personal stamp without, it must be said, making
us think we are hearing it for the first time.
There are probably finer performances available of each of these
sonatas, but that takes nothing away from the achievement as
a whole, which is remarkable. As a cycle, I don’t think
these performances have quite the consistency and overall insight
of those I have heard by Paul Lewis on Harmonia Mundi, but they
are live, and this produces many individual moments of greater
excitement and inspiration. The only real question is, can this
particular set of these particular sonatas be recommended on
its own terms? The answer, even allowing for the slight proviso
that some of the playing in the later sonatas is a bit hard
driven for my own taste, is a resounding “yes”.
William Hedley
Track listing
CD 1
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27/2, Moonlight
(1801) [15:00]
Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14/1 (1799) [13:28]
Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14/2 (1799) [16:25]
Piano Sonata No. 1I in B flat major, Op. 22 (1800) [24:14]
CD 2
Piano Sonata No. 8 in minor, Op. 13, Pathétique
(1799) [20:32]
Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10/1 (1798) [17:19]
Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10/2 (1798) [16:02]
Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10/3 (1798) [22:23]
CD 3
Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat major, Op. 27/1 (1801) [14:49]
Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26 (1800) [19:38]
Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, Op. 7 (1797) [31:52]
Masterwork Index: Sonatas 1-8
~~ 9-15
François-Frédéric Guy (piano) 