# Schnabel or Barenoboim on Beethoven?



## manueelster (Feb 7, 2013)

I want to purchase the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Which recording do you suggest, Barenboim or Schnabel?


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Not being funny here, but Brendel on Brilliant Classics is worth it, if you're not tied into those two...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

manueelster said:


> I want to purchase the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Which recording do you suggest, Barenboim or Schnabel?


Schnabel is the one to get but I'm sure you realise that these are not new recordings.
I don't much like Barenboim but you need more than one version for sure,


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

moody said:


> Schnabel is the one to get but I'm sure you realise that these are not new recordings.


One could go so far as to say they are _old_ recordings.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Nereffid said:


> One could go so far as to say they are _old_ recordings.


I will go so far as to say they are indispensable recordings.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Nereffid said:


> One could go so far as to say they are _old_ recordings.


Yes,but he was known as the man who invented Beethoven.
Do you realise that until Schnabel it was unknown to give a recital of only Beethoven piano music.
Also there have been excellent refurbishments done including by our own Bigshot.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

There's one languishing in the recordings section of this forum right now!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

You can get Schnabel as a very inexpensive download. Never less than interesting. Often inspired.

But also Kempff - the superior 1950 vintage. Also inexpensive download. That's my choice.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

bigshot said:


> There's one languishing in the recordings section of this forum right now!


Doesn't appear to be downloadable.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Right click and save it to your hard drive. Mac users option click and select save as.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

bigshot said:


> Right click and save it to your hard drive. Mac users option click and select save as.


Ah, so. Thanks, big.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

moody said:


> Yes,but he was known as the man who invented Beethoven.
> Do you realise that until Schnabel it was unknown to give a recital of only Beethoven piano music.
> Also there have been excellent refurbishments done including by our own Bigshot.


Didn't Beethoven invent Beethoven?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Didn't Beethoven invent Beethoven?


I suppose you couldn't resist that one !


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

moody said:


> I suppose you couldn't resist that one !


Yes! I know what you meant.

Actually, wasn't Liszt the person who amazed by including Beethoven in his recitals? Until he championed them I don't think they were played in public at all? I'm asking the question, BTW. Anyone enlighten us?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Hah! All this because we have to interpret this usage of 'invent'.

I am impressed by the extent of my ignorance about how often Beethoven's piano sonatas were performed in recitals during the Romantic era. I have retained a lot of useless information over the decades, but managed to avoid that factoid. Now the damage is done; I am envisioning Liszt playing the final notes of B's Op. 13, then sitting there listening to mutterings of "What the eff was _that_?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Why do people on TC lvne to go after red herrings ?
Somebody said that Schnabel was the man who invented Beethoven---that's all ! How tedious !!


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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

This may be helpful:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/music/0309/classical/beethoven.htm

It is a very good review and opinion of the Schnabel Beethoven Cycle. Reviewed by Phil Gold. I think it will help you make up your mind.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

moody said:


> Why do people on TC lvne to go after red herrings ?
> Somebody said that Schnabel was the man who invented Beethoven---that's all ! How tedious !!


Probably. _DavidA_ inspired a 'scene' for me; I appreciate it, even if it isn't what he intended.



Yep, still smiling.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

NightHawk said:


> This may be helpful:
> 
> http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/music/0309/classical/beethoven.htm
> 
> It is a very good review and opinion of the Schnabel Beethoven Cycle. Reviewed by Phil Gold. I think it will help you make up your mind.


This sums it all up and is what I've been saying here since I joined.
I would only question the deteriorating technique remark---does it go downhill in one's 50's ?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Kieran said:


> Not being funny here, but Brendel on Brilliant Classics is worth it, if you're not tied into those two...


I don't believe his Beethoven in in the top rank at all.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

moody said:


> This sums it all up and is what I've been saying here since I joined.
> I would only question the deteriorating technique remark---does it go downhill in one's 50's ?


It can - or even before if the thinking behind it gets calcified - reference Perahia and or Brendel.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> It can - or even before if the thinking behind it gets calcified - reference Perahia and or Brendel.


I don't think you could accuse Schnabel of that.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

The generalization I feel I can make, and it applies to conductors as well as instrumentalists, is that today's performers have great technical facility, but much less originality or expression than performers from the golden age. There are exceptions here and there, but music making used to be a much more personal thing. No one had to crack a history book to figure out the proper way to play Haydn. They just looked at the music and performed it the way it made them feel. That approach could result in duds, but it just as often resulted in revelatory reinventions. Appropriate and technically sterile performances will ring the death knell for classical music.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

bigshot said:


> [...]
> Appropriate and technically sterile performances will ring the death knell for classical music.


I'd change the 'will' to 'could'. I believe there are enough free thinkers out there to save the music. For piano music there may be nobody out there listening who appreciates Sokolov _and_ Mustonen _and_ Rangel _and_ Say, but maybe we can agree that they ain't copycats.


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