Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique); Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27/2 (Moonlight); Piano Sonata in C, Op. 53 (Waldstein); Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata); Piano Sonata in F sharp, Op. 78; Piano Sonata in A, Op. 10

Hans Richter-Haaser is one of those under-sung master interpreters who have never quite emerged from the shadows – in his case the shadows of the great German pianists who preceded him by twenty years or so: Edwin Fischer, Walter Gieseking, Wilhelm Kempff and others. Richter-Haaser became best known as a teacher in his lifetime (he died in 1980), but here is ample proof that he was a superb pianist with a deep, sober yet wide-ranging feeling for Beethoven. The one drawback to these recordings is sound quality: it is poor throughout but especially bad in the first movement of Op.

Our rating

4

Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:41 pm

COMPOSERS: Beethoven
LABELS: Philips
WORKS: Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique); Piano Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 27/2 (Moonlight); Piano Sonata in C, Op. 53 (Waldstein); Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata); Piano Sonata in F sharp, Op. 78; Piano Sonata in A, Op. 101
PERFORMER: Hans Richter-Haaser (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 442 747-2 ADD (1956-61)

Hans Richter-Haaser is one of those under-sung master interpreters who have never quite emerged from the shadows – in his case the shadows of the great German pianists who preceded him by twenty years or so: Edwin Fischer, Walter Gieseking, Wilhelm Kempff and others. Richter-Haaser became best known as a teacher in his lifetime (he died in 1980), but here is ample proof that he was a superb pianist with a deep, sober yet wide-ranging feeling for Beethoven. The one drawback to these recordings is sound quality: it is poor throughout but especially bad in the first movement of Op. 78, which descends virtually to honky-tonk level. Jessica Duchen

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