Introduction

There are many good reasons--professional, artistic, and commercial--why a mere handful of pianists have recorded the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas more than once. So, when Michael Silver of Audio High invited me to perform and re-record the complete cycle at Le Petit Trianon in San Jose, and a week later, Dave Pay of Vancouver's Music on Main--the city's most edgy concert presenter--asked me to perform them for his organization, the decision to accept both invitations was made neither lightly nor easily.

I had studied many of the sonatas during my student years, and taught virtually all of them over three decades. Nevertheless, when I first undertook to perform the cycle in its entirety, many sonatas--including the Appassionata, Waldstein, Pathetique, Das Lebewohl, the Hammerklavier, and others that have managed to survive without the benefit of a nickname--were new to my fingers, if not my brain. Incorporating them all into my repertoire took a full two years. Then, after performing the complete cycle eight times in Washington, Vancouver, Seattle, Toronto and elsewhere, I recorded them over a period of many months, and a set of 10 CDs was issued in 2000.

This was undoubtedly the musical journey of my life. No project I had ever undertaken had been remotely so exhilarating: my brain was flooded daily with insights about how Beethoven's mind worked, how his music is put together, and how his magnificent, multi-faceted thoughts might be transmogrified from notes on a page into a rich, architecturally-coherent sonic image.

It has since become increasingly obvious that this adventure was not in any sense a culmination, but rather a rejuvenation. To this day, I still find myself studying scores and practicing in ways that I had not previously done. New ideas about interpretation, technique, musical structure, and sound production constantly occur to me whenever I am seated at the keyboard (and often when I am away from it).

After Michael contacted me, I listened to the cycle straight-through for the first time in close to a decade. Several sonatas definitely rank among my list of favourite recordings, and I would gladly sign my name to the set, if it were available. Still, I do hear most of them differently--not necessarily better, definitely not worse, but certainly differently. In retrospect, the first set constitutes a fairly objective record of how I thought they should be played at the time. If all goes as I intend, the forthcoming set will represent a more personal statement of my present feelings about the sonatas.

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There are technical reasons for having another go at them as well: The earlier set was made on a reproducing Boesendorfer 290SE, a technical marvel of its time, so fiendishly expensive that only 32 were made (one for each Beethoven sonata, apparently). It was situated in a large living room with sufficiently good acoustics to be used regularly as a venue for public concerts, but it is a relatively narrow living room nonetheless, and this layout presents notorious challenges for recording engineers. (See Stereophile editor John Atkinson's article at http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/298/ for more information on the instrument, the room, and the recording process.)

The sound on those discs is undeniably intimate -- far closer to the sound of a fortepiano of Beethoven's era in a large drawing room than that of a resonant, modern concert Steinway in a large concert hall. Still, for better or worse, a resonant, modern concert Steinway in a large concert hall is what we have become accustomed to for the past century and a half. Le Petit Trianon has magnificent acoustics, as well as a beautiful Steinway onstage. Having been a Steinway artist by choice for decades, my desire to record the Beethoven sonatas under close to ideal conditions is, I hope, understandable. Fine an instrument as the Boesendorfer is, there are facets to my playing that were not adequately captured in those recordings.

Also, the instrument's internal reproducing mechanism is extraordinarily accurate, however, the sound of the player's fingers physically striking the keys when recordings are played back, is necessarily absent. That noise is an important component of any performer's tonal palate, and varies significantly from pianist to pianist. Many fine pianists know the sound each of their fingers makes when striking a key, and constantly adjust the height and position of their fingers accordingly. (If they don't, they should.)

Finally, hi-resolution recording was a relatively new, seldom used technology a decade ago, whereas by now, it has become commonplace. Moreover, not only are SACDs and Blu-Ray discs capable of playing back digital files with much greater accuracy than standard CDs, but the downloading of hi-res files onto a computer's hard disk allows any listener owning little more than a stereo system and a computer to potentially hear recorded music in exactly as much detail as the engineer at the original sessions.

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I will try my best to keep this blog up to date throughout the year, to create a running record of my work, my thoughts and insights about the music, and my impressions of each concert. The first two recitals will feature nine of the sonatas: four early ones, three from the middle period, including the Waldstein and the Appassionata, and two of the late ones.

September 9, 2010 (San Jose - Le Petite Trianon)

September 27 (Vancouver - the Cellar)

Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1

Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 “Waldstein”

Sonata No. 9 in E Major, Op. 14 No. 1

Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101

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September 16, 2010 (San Jose - Le Petite Trianon)

September 28 (Vancouver - the Cellar)

Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 49, No. 1

Sonata No. 20 in G Major, Op. 49, No. 2

Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109

Sonata No. 22 in F Major, Op. 54

Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata”