# Schumann's op 11 piano sonata.



## Mandryka

Do you have a favourite performance? What do you think of the music? I mean, is it top drawer Schumann?

I was prompted to start the thread after being very much impressed by this recording of it


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## YiQue

I thought this sonata is harder than Liszt's piano work. Here is a general rule: listen easily but play hard; listen hard usually play easily.
How do you feel this record?


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## Ukko

Mandryka said:


> Do you have a favourite performance? What do you think of the music? I mean, is it top drawer Schumann?
> 
> I was prompted to start the thread after being very much impressed by this recording of it
> 
> View attachment 28273


That's a good CD. The sonatas are top drawer Schumann, though Op.14 is sort of a conceptual orphan.


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## Mandryka

Ukko said:


> That's a good CD. The sonatas are top drawer Schumann, though Op.14 is sort of a conceptual orphan.


There's a recording of Sokolov playing op 14 which is really remarkable, in Heidelberg in 2010.


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## worov

Claudio Arrau :


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## Mandryka

worov said:


> Claudio Arrau :


This is so different from anything I've ever heard before that I can't make heard nor tail of it. I know I don't like it.


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## quack

Eliso Virsaladze is a new name for me and I like her playing a lot so thanks for that.

For some reason Schumann's piano works have never engaged me, despite the fact he is probably my favourite composer from that era. I'm not sure why that is but even Mendelssohn's _Songs Without Words_ hold my attention. Will definitely have to give Virsaladze's recordings a listen.


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## joen_cph

Checking my collection, I realize that I´ve only got a Lazar Berman and the one in Peter Frankel´s set of the complete piano works on Turnabout. Have also skipped a late recording by Jörg Demus on the Nuova Era label, which was overall just boring.

Needless perhaps to say, Berman is the best and most interesting among those. But I realize that I need more versions, since it´s a fine and "narrative" work. The Arrau above is very varying, at times sketchy, at other times inspired, and overall rather slow, yet episodical it seems. Not uninteresting, to my ears.

Berman:


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## Ukko

Volker Banfield recorded all three of the sonatas, in unusual interpretations that evoke cold, bleak internal 'landscapes' - and are quite effective, maybe dismayingly so. Whether or not this is a recommendation depends on... well, it just depends.


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## worov

> For some reason Schumann's piano works have never engaged me, despite the fact he is probably my favourite composer from that era. I'm not sure why that is but even Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words hold my attention.


Try Schumann's Albumblätter, opus 124. This for instance :






(I love Mendelssohn's Songs without words. They are among my favorite piano pieces).


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## Vesteralen

The Op 11 was my introduction to the piano music of Schumann. I had Arrau's Philips recording from the early 1970's on tape. I've heard a few other versions over the years, but I still like my first best. I will definitely look for the OPs recommendation, though.

Incidentally, Schumann's piano music is the *only *solo piano music that, as a body of work, *does* hold my attention every time I listen. Wonderful how diverse we are!.


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## Ukko

Vesteralen said:


> [...]
> Incidentally, Schumann's piano music is the *only *solo piano music that, as a body of work, *does* hold my attention every time I listen. Wonderful how diverse we are!.


Maybe not wonderful. Schumann's solo piano music holds my attention too, more consistently than any other Romantic composer... but I frequently wonder if that is because his mental frailties resonate with me. Probably a good thing that I am grounded in insensitivity, eh?


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## Mandryka

I also enjoy Schumann's keyboard music very much, even many of the late pieces and the contrapuntal pieces. Over the past couple of years I've become very focussed on four pieces - Davidsbündlertänze, the Noveletten, the Op 11 sonata and the Symphonic Etudes.

Re op 11, I've been enjoying Dino Ciani's warm humane recording today. He's an outstanding Schumannist I think - here and in Noveletten.


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## Ukko

Mandryka said:


> I also enjoy Schumann's keyboard very much, even many of the late pieces and the contrapuntal pieces. Over the past couple of years I've become very focussed on four pieces - Davidsbündlertänze, the Noveletten the Op 11 sonata and the Symphonic Etudes.


Carnaval is related to Davidsbundlertanze. Try listening to the C, than after an hour intermission to the D. Under those circumstances Davidsbundlertanze may emerge as a 'mature' response to Carnaval.


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## ScipioAfricanus

the only person who can play this sonata is Helen Grimaud. No disrespect intended to the other great pianists.


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## Ravndal

I like Perahia's version!


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## Ukko

Ravndal said:


> I like Perahia's version!


There was a time when Perahia performed Schumann well. It ended around thirty years back. After that Perahia performed Perahia.


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## Keith

Personally, the best recording of the Op. 11 Piano Sonata by Schumann, that I've heard (and own), is the one by Murray Perahia. It was recorded in 1997. It's a blistering performance, magnificently recorded, and it's coupled with an equally impressive Kreisleriana.


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## Ukko

Keith said:


> Personally, the best recording of the Op. 11 Piano Sonata by Schumann, that I've heard (and own), is the one by Murray Perahia. It was recorded in 1997. It's a blistering performance, magnificently recorded, and it's coupled with an equally impressive Kreisleriana.


Well there you see. Op. 11 shouldn't blister.


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## moody

Ukko said:


> Volker Banfield recorded all three of the sonatas, in unusual interpretations that evoke cold, bleak internal 'landscapes' - and are quite effective, maybe dismayingly so. Whether or not this is a recommendation depends on... well, it just depends.


Cold,bleak,blistering landscapes.


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