Beethoven Sonatas
Over the summer, i am going to be playing some Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas, probably 5,6, and 8. What is a good complete recording, and complete sheet music edition of these?
Thanks,
Danielle
Replies (29)
Oistrakh's recording is great too. Amy's right, Henle's the best way to go.
Andrew Dawes and Jane Coop. Best recording out there by living musicians.
Preston
Pamela Frank & her dad (both still alive AFAIK) have an excellent recording on Musical Heritage:
http://www.musicalheritage.com/cgi-bin/mhs/record.html?id=M4durhaL&mv_arg=6239&mv_pc=151
I also like Szeryng's. The Oistrakh edition has good bowings and makes few changes to the score.
Perlman & Ashkenazy's recording is another great set to consider.
Hi,
Many good sets. To be heard on top of the above are Grumiaux\Haskil (one of my personal favourite) and Francescatti/Cassadessus. There are great recordings of some sonatas. If #5 is on your list, don't miss Milstein's live recording at the Library of Congress (the second movement is just mind-blowing).
Preston - is the Dawes/Coop version still availabe? They are both such excellent musicians, and with you recommending it, I really would love to hear it.
Cheers!
How do you all like the Schirmer or International Editions?
I haven't played the Beethoven Sonatas, but I may sometime soon so I will probably need to purchase them too, my teacher recommends International. For the Beethoven Sonatas there seems to be editions by Francescatti, Kreisler, Oistrakh, Joachim. The copy of the Beethoven Concerto that I have is edited by Francescatti and has cadenzas by Joachim, so maybe you should get the Francescatti edition. I have never tried urtext, but for the sonatas it seems very expensive, it's over $90 for all ten of the sonatas. But If you didn't want all of the sonatas, urtext sells No. 5 separately, so you could get that and then Sonatas 6-10. I'll ask my teacher about urtext at my lesson.
I also put a pitch in the Dawes/Coop recording! It's my personal favorite.
Christian, it is still available. I got mine at one of their concerts a couple years ago and have seen it in stores since. I think you can get it on Amazon also but here it is on the Skylark page http://www.skylark-music.com/0101.html
Urtext/Henle for a score to learn from.
Hi,
Kelsey, thanks for the link and info. As a comment made above, go for the Urtext. Always a good thing to start with the closest thing to the composer's text. It's way more important than any amount of money.
Cheers!
Christian,
Yup, Kelsey is right. Check out amazon.com.
Brucie, just to confirm your suspicians...Pam Frank is very much alive (just talked to her on the phone last week) and Mr. Frank is very much alive. Saw him last week around campus...he's a wonderful chamber coach. The music Ooooozes out of him.
Preston
Greetings,
I wouldn`t bother with the Francescatti editions of Beethoven (or anything else) unless you want to know what made him tick. If you don`t want to get the Henle then the editions by Oistrakh are among the elast messy practical.
Rostal also had some great ideas and you would be advised to read his book on the Beethoven sonatas anyway,
Cheers,
Buri
I convinced my mom to get me the henle.
This isn't a complete recording, but I'm rather fond of Maxim Vengerov and Itamar Golan's recording of the Spring sonata. :)
Buri,
Rostal's book on the Beethoven Sonatas - any more info about that (title, publisher etc)? I'm doing the Op. 23 sonata and having trouble finding any info about it in my library (hence making it difficult to put together my program notes. Luckily my recital isn't until November), so it looks like the Rostal Book on the sonatas might be just what I need.
Greetings,
BEETHOVEN: THE SONATAS FOR PIANO AND VIOLIN by Max Rostal Foreword by the Amadeus Quartet With a Pianist’s Postscript by Günter Ludwig ...
www.toccatapress.com/books/bookdetail.asp?ID=34 - 14k -
There is a welath of information in `Szigeti on the Violin` and also the Flesch Art of Violin Playing but you would have to shop around a little. The Rostal is just what you need I think,
Cheers,
Buri
What is the old C.F. Peters edition like?
Mine copy is "revidirt und mit Fingersatz versehen von Ferd[inand?] David".
No date, but would guess Edwardian era from the age of the paper (and bindings...).
It has some discreet fingering suggestions, but otherwise seems much the same as other editions.
Greetings,
those editions are very dodgy from the point of view of slurs and phrasing. Also the fingerngs are laughable. On the other hand `Edwardian toilet paper` does have a certain ring to it
Cheers,
Buri
One complete set you might want to consider is Aaron Rosand/Eileen Fliessler put out by Vox. It is excellent and inexpensive. Oistrakh is also excellent. Unfortunately, my favorites, Szymon Goldberg and Lili Kraus, did not record all of them.
http://www.toccatapress.com/books/bookdetail.asp?ID=34
The complete set with Pamela and Claude Frank is very good, and very cheap - Buy that one, and with the money you saved, buy the Henle.
If you buy International now, you'll probably buy Henle anyway in a couple years.
Unavailable now I'm afraid, but the recording of the van Beethoven violin sonatas by Haskil/Grumiaux is excellent, too.
Ronald
i've heard pamela and claude frank, and augustin dumay and maria pires. not sure which i like better or why.
to me, the franks seem more elegant, subtler with the violin and piano very nicely balanced, whereas the dumay/pires interpretations seem more exciting, but also rougher (particularly the violin playing).
ah well! guess i can't really lose if i have both :D
I would immediately say Grumiaux with Clara Haskil as number 1, then Szeryng and Ingrid Haebler, and Szigeti with Arrau.
Szigeti with Arrau and Schneiderhan with Kempff are my favourite recorded set from the ten Beethoven Sonatas. I like Grumiaux/Haskil set too.
But there´s excellent recordings from any Sonatas. For example, 'Spring' Sonata has a few sensational recordings (Milstein/Firkusny, Taschner/Farnadi), as 'Kreutzer' Sonata (Kogan/Gilels, Suk/Panenka, Milstein/Balsam, Szeryng/Rubinstein, Francescatti/Casadesus); Op.30 No.3 (Sonata No.8) has an excellent recording by Michael Rabin, with Lottar Broddack as the pianist; Kreisler/Rupp recording is awesome too; Op.96 has been beautifully played and recorded by Suk/Firkusny, Oistrakh/Oborin or Francescatti/Casadesus; 1st Sonata has a fantastic live recording by Szeryng, with Gary Graffman at the piano.
i am definately in the minority here, but I find that Rostals fingerings are strange. But i still use that edition. Mostly for the set up and ease of reading. I prefer the fingerings from the Oistrakh edition.
As to recordings....there are so many. Grumiaux and Haskil, Francescatti and Casadesus, Oistrakh and Oberin, Szigeti and Arrau,
Greetings,
don`t forget an exquisite but lesser mentioend set- Ferras. He has never bene my favoite player but he actually take shte trouble to egt a lot closer to the dynsaics and articulations Beethoven wrote than many of the recordings mentioned above. aside from one really dumb omisison in number 7 (?) where he doesnt play those outrageous triple stops quitely. Can@t remeber exactly but its one of the weirdest things in the repertoire done well..
Cheer,s
Buri
If you can find them (they may be available through the Berkshire Record Outlet - www.broinc.com), David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin.
Editions, of course - Henle.
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April 23, 2006 at 05:54 AM · Szeryng's recording of the complete sonatas is my favorite. In my opinion, the best edition is the Henle urtext.