Search - Biret :: Idil Biret Beethoven Edition 1: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1

Idil Biret Plays Beethoven Sonatas -- 1

Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 03/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas span his entire creative life and are among the greatest treasures of music. For most of my life, I have listened to the sonatas and attempted several of them myself on the piano. I hope to use this new cycle of the sonatas by Idil Biret to rehear the sonatas for myself and to introduce them to new listeners. Many listeners hear the sonatas either in a complete set, which generally is too much to handle, or in a single CD recording of a sort which tends to concentrate on the handful of the most famous sonatas. By working through the cycle sonata-by-sonata, one CD at a time, it will be easier to appreciate their beauty, depth, and variety.



Idil Biret is a Turkish pianist who studied with Alfred Corot and Wilhelm Kempff. She is best-known for her complete recording of Chopin's piano music on Naxos in the 1990s. Her new Beethoven sonata cycle is part of an even larger recording of Beethoven piano music, which includes the five piano concertos and the nine symphonies in Liszt's transcriptions. Judging from this initial CD, Biret approaches the sonatas in a restrained, subdued manner without the banging or exageration of some pianists or of some still prevalent stereotypes of Beethoven. This set, especially for new listeners, will be an excellent way to approach to sonatas. It will allow the listener to concentrate more on Beethoven than on the idiosyncracies of the performer. In my own listening to this series, I will be using the scores for the sonatas, usually in the Tovey-Craxton edition. I will also be using Charles Rosen's invaluable "A Short Introduction to Beethoven's Piano Sonatas" together with Lewis Lockwood's biography of Beethoven as guides. The literature on Beethoven's piano sonatas is immense. The new listener may well simply concentrate on and enjoy the music.



This first CD in the series includes the first four piano sonatas Beethoven composed. Of these, the first two bear the misleadingly high opus number 49. The works were published in 1805, allegedly without Beethoven's permission; but they were composed at least ten years earlier. These works are sometimes referred to as "easy" teaching sonatas, and they are frequently given to young students.



Both of the opus 49 sonatas are short and in two movements. Interestingly enough, the first of Beethoven's sonatas, opus 49 no 1 is in a minor key, G minor, with a substantial degree of tragedy. Charles Rosen describes it as a "deeply affecting and distinguished work". The first movement is an andante with a dark opening theme and a quicker-paced secondary theme. In the finale, Beethoven moves to G major in a lively and surprisingly expansive rondo which is not entirely easy to play.



The second sonata, opus 49, no. 2 in G major, is a much lighter and simpler work. The opening allegro ma non troppo begins with a large chord and lively theme followed by an endearing, swinging march like second theme. The second movement is a minuet. Beethoven used the theme of this movement a few years after composing this sonata in what during his lifetime became one of his most famous works. The theme of the closing movement of this sonata appears as the third movement of Beethoven's beautiful septet, opus 20.



In 1796, Beethoven published three piano sonatas dedicated to Haydn as his opus 2. Although they are early, each of these sonatas is large and has its own musical personality. The sonatas are in four movements rather than in the more customary three. Of the three opus 2 sonatas, Idel Biret plays the first two on this CD. Broadly speaking, in the first sonata, Beethoven writes in the style of Mozart while in the second sonata he writes in the style of Haydn.



As with opus 49, opus 2 is unusual at the outset in opening with a minor-key work, the sonata in F minor. Lewis Lockwood describes this sonata aptly as an "intense tightly-woven masterpiece." Each of the four movements of this work are in the key of F, and all but the slow movement are in F minor, giving the work an angry, tragic character. The opening music uses a rising phrase called the "Mannheim Rocket" which Mozart had used in the finale of his symphony no. 40 in G minor and which Beethoven had himself used in a work of his youth. The second movement of the F minor sonata is a singing, highly ornamented adagio in two parts. The minuet is a spare and rhythmical movement in F minor with a major-key lyrically contrasting trio. The finale of this sonata, marked prestissimo, is a romantically angry movement with large blocked chords which alternate with long minor-key runs down the keyboard. There is a contrastingly gentle middle setion. Rosen describes this outburst of the young Beethoven as a "work of youthful violence".



The sonata in A major opus 2 no 2 is a formally more complex work that shows Haydn's influence on his young student. The opening allegro vivace is a rough-hewn movement with instances of humor in music of wide skips of intervals and frequent changes of mood. This movement features many virtuoso passages in which the young Beethoven displayed his formidable pianistic ability. The second movement, Largo appassionato, is likewise an extended work with a particularly long coda. Beethoven contrasts a slow-moving hymn-like theme in this movement with a stacatto accompaniment in the bass, almost like a pizzicato figure for the cello. The third movement of the A major sonata is marked scherzo rather than minuet. This is still a gracious movement with light filigree. But the movement is longer and on a larger scale than a customary minuet. The finale is a lengthy, gracious and relaxed rondo with a contrastingly jagged middle section. In addition to its leisurely flow, this finale features flashy arpeggio passages

and runs which extend the entire length of the keyboard of Beethoven's day.



This CD makes an excellent introduction to the earliest Beethoven piano sonatas and to the sonata cycle. I am looking forward to hearing the remaining volumes of the series and to discussing them here on Amazon.



Robin Friedman





"