Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas—Igor Levit
These complete recordings of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are always welcome, especially this year during the 250th anniversary of the great composer’s birth.
Although listening and reviewing a nine disc set may seem daunting or even onerous, when it’s the greatest set of music in the Western canon, no problem. And when executed by one of the world’s leading and most interesting pianists, the task less so.
I spent a fortnight with this set, listening casually while writing Audiophilia reviews, cooking and eating meals, listening on the SONOS lifestyle system on the main floor, and ‘serious’ sessions via Roon on my reference system in the music room. Whether as background music (in the very best and pure sense) or my ears totally immersed in the fabulous sound replication of the recently reviewed MBL N31 CD/DAC, Levit’s brilliant musical mind never failed to engage and intrigue me. No matter the time or place, I always wanted more. Even after four traversals.
Streamers, the complete set is on both Qobuz and Tidal. And it sounds splendid on both services.
Unsurprisingly, I would start at the beginning of Disc 1 and listen over time through to the mind boggling genius of Op. 111, never cherrypicking a particular sonata as mood and time allowed. This listening pattern allowed me to experience Levit’s overall feelings for the magnitude of the task. And though the set was recorded over a period of 6 years, his wonderful technique, sound, and myriad of musical ideas gives a satisfying whole to the 32. I’ve not felt such an architectural hold on a set since Kempff’s DG benchmark.
The freshness of the Haydn-dedicated Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (1795) starts us off superbly. I love this youthful sonata, full of vim and vigour, portent of what’s to come. Like all great pianists who have begun this recorded journey—Kempff and Pollini, my particular favourites—the technique is flawless. Beethoven’s very specific marks of expression (never separate a man from his sfp and sfz) ensure in the hands of a master colourist like Levit the musical line never falters. You enjoy the melodic and harmonic scenery, but Levit’s phrasing always leads your ear to something fascinating just beyond the horizon. No matter fast or slow, his imagination is consistently interesting. Indeed, the pianist’s ‘touch’ in the ‘Adagio’ of the first sonata and in the numerous examples after is nothing less than silky, ringing and tactile.
And when things get popularly famous, as in the ‘Adagio Cantabile’ of the Sonata Pathétique (1798), Levit sings not only with grace, but, to paraphrase Schumann, we hear in his playing ‘cannons behind the flowers’. What seems simple and folksong-like, is, but listen carefully, there’s way more below. The same goes for the whole set. Granted, Beethoven’s later sonatas have a gravitas all their own that may seem architecturally easier to convey their majesty and power, but to hear those qualities all the way through from Op. 2 to the late masterpieces is rare.
When passages get technically challenging (where do they not in Beethoven?), Levit brings a quicksilver clarity to the running passages— octaves are clean and his voicings in general are very beautiful. And he can turn it on and off on a dime. Listen to the faster and slower sections of the fourth movement ‘Allegro Assai’ of the Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2, No. 3 (1795). Levit dispatches this fiendishly difficult movement as if a Czerny-like technical exercise and then switches to a dreamy, fluid state helped by a superb left hand before setting back on Beethoven’s glorious 6/8 journey.
This performance style imbues all the sonatas. And his adherence to Beethoven’s markings make for thrilling listening. Whether crescendos to a subito piano, the aforementioned loud/soft accents, staccato and staccatissimo differentiated (Les Adieux Sonata), expression markings and dynamics are invariably in service to the music. Nothing sounds silly or affected, even when Beethoven gets a little too grandiloquent for his britches—I’m looking at you Op. 111 ‘Allegro con brio ed appassionato’ triplet statement. The notes flow, 10 hours worth, and you wonder where the time has gone?
Tempos? I appreciated all of them. Levit’s Andantes walked, his Vivaces sparkled and his Allegro Assais shifted. Check out the brilliance of the Hammerklavier Sonata opening for a taste of his clean as a whistle technique and thunderous power.
Some may find the sound a little too resonant, at least in the earlier sonatas. But the performances are so engrossing, I remained focussed on Levit not his acoustic.
Does this brilliant set supplant my favourites? I would still gravitate to Pollini and Kempf, both on DG and both so different. Yet, Levit strikes a wonderful middle ground; much of the poetry of Kempff and the power and brilliance of Pollini. Very highly recommended.
Sony 19075843182
9 Discs (10 hours, 5 minutes)
Release Date: 13 September 2019
