COMPOSERS: Beethoven
LABELS: The Divine Art
ALBUM TITLE: Beethoven - Piano Sonatas
WORKS: Piano Sonatas Op. 13, 27/2, 57
PERFORMER: Anthony Goldstone
CATALOGUE NO: 25029
It was shrewd of Anthony Goldstone
to throw in a curiosity among the
ubiquitous Moonlight, Pathétique and
Appassionata Sonatas. Ignaz Moscheles
was just 20 when he made the piano
arrangement of Fidelio under
Beethoven’s watchful eye. Goldstone
gives an accomplished account of the
Overture, though it’s no real substitute
for the orchestral score. In the
Pathétique he follows Rudolf Serkin
on Sony (and, more recently, András
Schiff on Decca, though currently
deleted) by incorporating the slow
introduction into the exposition repeat.
Musically, there’s much to be said for
it, but for those who aren’t convinced
Goldstone also offers an alternative version of the first movement, with the
repeat conventionally placed at the start
of the Allegro. The performance itself is
a little hurried, and lacking in tension.
There’s more that could be drawn out
of the slow movement. Stephen
Kovacevich, for instance, plays it as a
genuine Adagio rather than a flowing
Andante, and finds considerably
more depth in the music.
Goldstone is impatient in the
opening movement of the Moonlight,
too, and his touch is distinctly heavy
for a piece Beethoven wanted played
very delicately. Maria João Pires
responds more readily to the music’s
atmosphere and poetry, making it
into something truly memorable.
Goldstone is more at home in the
turbulent outer movements of the
Appassionata, and there’s much to
enjoy in his performance, though in
the last resort it doesn’t have quite
the sense of subdued tension that a
pianist such as Alfred Brendel is able
to convey. Misha Donat