Oh, once again this rhythm mistake... I apologize.


It was. I need to do something here. Thank you Monica for the 'artistic license'.

I did not read back through the earlier posts, but I just did now and I see that I said exactly the same things over a year ago. So, ok - the artistic license thing is fine - I won't bug you about that anymore. We also mentioned pedaling before, and I should say that your pedaling is good here. All you need to do is fix that rhythm at the end.

I will fix that in the coming days.
I am going to remove my faulty recording.

Hi Didier,
I´m waiting for your new version, because you removed the old new one.

Hi Monica,
It´s really great, that you´ll have the opportunity to listen to Andras Schiff on 2nd November. I read, that he made a complete recording of the Beethoven-Sonatas in a public concert hall. I meat him in former times several times.

Oh, did he do that too? I knew about Barenboim, but not Schiff.

I am pretty ignorant when it comes to Schiff. I’ve only listened to him play the Bach aria when I was getting ready to record it, and for some reason I thought he was one of those pianists that people say is one of the best Bach players. And when I realized that this concert was coming up, I thought I'd be hearing him play a lot of Bach, but he is playing all Beethoven, so I’m sure he plays everything well. I'm looking forward to the concert. There are two other members going too.

Pianolady wrote:


He is one of the greatest living pianists of today IMO and you really have reason to look forward to this concert. I heard him in many concerts in England and Germany (one times I heard him play the complete "Well Tempered Clavier, Book I" in a little barn, which was renovated as a concert room near my town, called "Museumsinsel Hombroich", this must have been at the end of the 80th and it really made a deep impression on me, he played all by heart and one prelude and fugue after the other, after having done this he played the complete Goldberg-variations for the rest of the people, who waited before the darn, because it was not enough place in it, so, in fact he gave two concerts at this evening, it was incredible!). As soon as I will find an opportunity, I will go to a concert of him again. Schiffs favorites were (may be are) Bartok and Bach, but also Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. (I didn´t hear much Chopin of him, but may be he has played some Chopin until now. I remember a recording of the piano-concerts of Chopin.) He engaged for the Haydn-Festival and recorded his piano-sonatas. In the chamber-music-seminar in Cornwall he played also Beethoven, but I never heard a Beethoven Solo-Sonata of him until now. I think, I will buy the CD as soon as it is available.
Schiff comes from Hungary and his (very near) friend was the famous violinist Sandor Vegh, who died some years ago. He is a fantastic Bartok-interpret and has learned a lot of Sandor Vegh.

Hello Monica and Andreas,

well this is not Schiff, only me...

Andreas, CDs from the new Schiff's recording cycle of the Beethoven sonatas are already available.

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/10/andrs-schiffs-beethoven-cycle-part-1.html

I do not share your enthusiasm for him. (Despite he is a great supporter of the Steingraeber pianos.)

Of course I acknowledge that he plays this very much better than me. But I do not like at all his tempo.

Monica, I know why my rhythm was wrong in both bars that you pointed out: I was just adding two extra quarters at RH...

I think these bars are right now. This new recording is rather different from my first recording, which I will keep anyway in my own records. I can't say which one I prefer but I would like that this new one replaces the previous one on the site if it is OK.

Beethoven - Sonata Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight" I: Adagio Sostenuto

Ok, Didier - that's better. Please check that the link works and that it is this current recording, because I sometimes have problems replacing files and I am sort of confused with all the duplicate files I have in my PS folder right now.

Hi Didier,
a very nice performance of this famous movement. I play it in nearly the same tempo as you BTW.
There are some problems of fluency here and there. Sometimes there are real nice rubati, but sometimes I feel it to be more a rhythmical unsureness than a felt rubato.
I have the Henle-edition and found the following mistakes:
- bar 49: here you play another rhythm than it is in the score
- bar 56: there is one triplet to few in this bar
- bar 61: you play a g sharp in the bass instead of a b sharp.
I have scanned the excerpt for you (see below, please).

In summary it´s a very musical and expressive performance. It´s always a great pleasure to listen to your recordings, because of the sound-quality (which is the best one can hear on this site IMO) and your truly sensitive playing.

And thanks for the advice concerning the CD of Schiff.

Hi Andreas,

I thank you very much for your careful listening. I cannot check what you said now because I am in an airport, but I am pretty sure that you are right. This will be useful to me for my next recording of this sonata movement.

So, have a good flight!

Hi Monica,

there are two links in this post. The one above links to the new version, while the one at page 2 links to the old version like the link on Beethoven sonata page. I'm going to remove the link at page 2 (post on July 17, 2007). Could you make the link on Beethoven sonata page links to the new recording?
Thank you in advance,

Didier

Ok, Didier. I suspected the link would not replace automatically, but I think it is ok now. Please check again and let me know.

Sounds beautiful and I did not hear any obvious wrong notes (though there might have been some). The only thing that bothers me is that you almost consistently shorten the last notes of bars which give a strange limping effect. If you do this on purpose, I say don't do it. If you do it without knowing, try to kick the habit before it's too late. Your tempo is otherwise very steady, and just right for the piece. The last couple of bars are a bit too loud in the LH and in one place the LH dotted note is wrong. Apart from these little things, a good quality recording.

Monica, it's ok now. Thank you again!

Chris, your words are encouraging to me. I know well that I have to control better my rhythm, and what I play with respect to what is written, as pointed out also by Andreas: I acknowledge definitely my mistakes at bars 49, 56 and 61. Hopefully, my next recording will correct these mistakes.