Roughly a year ago, BIS released the tenth volume in Ronald Brautigam’s cycle of Beethoven’s
complete piano works. That release met with considerable acclaim
and it is the most recent recording for comparison with this
new Hyperion release from Steven Osborne. Fortunately, Osborne’s
performances, played on a modern Steinway, are fully the equal,
and occasionally more impressive, than Brautigam.
The recital opens with Seven Bagatelles, Op. 33, the
longest of which lasts under four minutes, while the shortest
is a little more than a minute and a half. Yet in every piece,
Beethoven’s brilliance is readily apparent. The music
is by turns elegant (Nos. 1, 4 and 6), rambunctious and cheeky
(No. 2), delicate and gentle (Nos. 3), and a magical fusion
of inward virtuosity (Nos. 5 and 7). Osborne’s playing
is always consistently incisive and responsive, each quicksilver
mood change fully realized. Osborne is certainly never slow,
yet Brautigam is faster in five of the seven movements:-
| Bagatelle |
No. 1 |
No. 2 |
No. 3 |
No. 4 |
No. 5 |
No. 6 |
No. 7 |
| Brautigam |
3.25 |
2.42 |
2.11 |
2.38 |
2.46 |
2.59 |
1.53 |
| Osborne |
3.46 |
3.11 |
1.48 |
3.23 |
3.21 |
2.35 |
1.56 |
Both pianists offer abundant personality and great technical
prowess. Brautigam’s speeds are more overtly showy, while
Osborne’s tease out stronger individual characterizations for each
movement. I find both interpretations convincing.
The timings for the
Eleven Bagatelles are more closely
aligned, Brautigam taking 13.17, whereas Osborne takes 13.39. Interestingly,
Misha Donat’s excellent liner-notes for the Hyperion CD reveal that
Beethoven had trouble getting this set of Bagatelles published. Having sent
six of them to the Peters publishing house, he received a severe reply,
Peters writing that he had had the works played by several different people,
none of whom could identify Beethoven as the composer! Listening to
Osborne’s account, I could only wonder at what pianists Peters had
hired. Surely the touchingly languid melody of
Bagatelle No. 4 in A
Major comes from the same compositional ether as the second movement of
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, the
Pathétique? The
obsession over a small melodic cell, which is the essence of
Bagatelle
No. 6, is clearly relatable to the first movement of Beethoven’s
great fifth symphony. Nevertheless, Osborne’s delightful playing
quickly dispatched these questions from my mind. The salient trait is again
the wonderful character he finds in each movement. Moreover, his playing is
supremely sensitive. Despite playing on a modern grand, Osborne’s
attack, tone and phrasing suggest an awareness of period performance
practice. Climaxes are powerfully telling, yet always remain within
“classical” parameters.
The final set (Op. 126) has the most significant differences in time
and overall approach between Brautigam and Osborne:-
| Bagatelle |
No. 1 |
No. 2 |
No. 3 |
No. 4 |
No. 5 |
No. 6 |
| Brautigam |
2.23 |
2.32 |
1.47 |
3.36 |
1.57 |
2.44 |
| Osborne |
2.48 |
2.52 |
2.24 |
4.11 |
2.44 |
4.14 |
This collection, which was Beethoven’s last published piano
music, contains the most profound writing in any of the Bagatelle sets. In
fact Beethoven, as quoted in the liner-notes, described the music as
“more developed and probably the best pieces of this kind I have
written.” Brautigam again stresses the power and dramatic shifts in
mood. His playing is consistently faster and more propulsive. It is
undeniably thrilling. Yet in No. 3, marked
Andante,
Osborne’s steadier tempo allows him to tease out
a tenderness that is only hinted at by Brautigam. Likewise, in the final
number of the set, Osborne slows more markedly for the second tempo marking
(
Andante amabile e con moto), thereby establishing a more convincing
difference in character for this section. This sets up a wonderful moment of
shock at the end, where the tempo suddenly returns to
Presto,
rejecting the calm mood of the
Andante to end with a disconcerting
abruptness. Brautigam’s
Andante amabile section is played more
quickly, which minimizes the shock of this passage. While I very much enjoy
Brautigam’s performance, I find Osborne’s thoughtful alternative
more convincing.
Both CDs include excellent performances of miscellaneous Bagatelles
that Beethoven never had published, as well as the infamous
Für
Elise. Both men establish the right simple atmosphere for this all too
often hackneyed piece. I thought that Brautigam’s pianoforte would
have an edge in producing a
sotto voce sound, yet Osborne is just as
captivating, with a gentle touch that produces an astonishing inwardness.
Both recordings are excellently engineered (the BIS is SACD), and
include informative notes. You cannot go wrong with either CD, but such is
the genius of Beethoven, that it is perhaps best to own both!
David A. McConnell
Steven Osborne (piano) 