Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier"), is one of the most difficult pieces in the repertory, and many players take a go-for-broke approach with extreme tempos whereby they challenge themselves even more. In this beautifully recorded PentaTone release, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard goes the other direction, with a sober, precise reading that takes the music just a shade slower than normal. He gets good support from his annotator, Nigel Simeone, who notes that Liszt, giving one of the ...
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Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 ("Hammerklavier"), is one of the most difficult pieces in the repertory, and many players take a go-for-broke approach with extreme tempos whereby they challenge themselves even more. In this beautifully recorded PentaTone release, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard goes the other direction, with a sober, precise reading that takes the music just a shade slower than normal. He gets good support from his annotator, Nigel Simeone, who notes that Liszt, giving one of the earliest performances of the work in 1836, apparently took the music just this way, observing all markings in the score and neither eliding nor adding anything (probably a novel approach at the time). This may not be what one would expect from Liszt, but he had studied the work with Czerny, who learned it directly from Beethoven, so it may be that what Aimard offers here is a kind of "authentic" performance, although on a modern piano. His playing is not inexpressive, but he is more...
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Add this copy of Piano Sonata No. 29 to cart. $29.05, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Pentatone.
