Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Malcolm Bilson :: Beethoven: Four Piano Sonatas on Period Instruments

Big Disappointment

Paul Claerhout | Dallas, TX | 01/03/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I hate to say this because I think Malcolm Bilson is an excellent pianist and I thoroughly enjoy and recommend his recording of the Mozart concertos with John Eliot Gardiner, but this CD was a big disappointment. Not because of Bilson's playing (which is very good) but for the awful recording quality of the CD. Sounds like they put the piano in a public restroom to record some of these sonatas. It has a very harsh "small room" reverberation that is very unappealing and uncomplimentary to the fortepiano (or any instrument!). Bilson deserves better enginneering than this. This would be a good CD if it were better recorded. Bilson's performance is fine , but the recording quality is unbearable. I recommend Melvyn Tan if you are looking for a good recording and performance of Beethoven sonatas on fortepiano."

Good work but lost in a crowded field

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 08/14/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this when it was new in 2002 thinking it may be the beginning of a cycle, similar to Bilson's Mozart cycles of piano sonatas and piano concertos.



Now, a few years afterward, in can be seen for what is was in 2002: an initial stab at recording a Beethoven piano sonata from each of the composer's early, middle and late periods.



The contents of the CD are the Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2/1, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ("Moonlight"), Op. 27/2, Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor ("Tempest"), Op. 31/2 and Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101. The first is early Beethoven, still under the influence of Mozart and Haydn; the middle pair are from Beethoven's productive middle period of the Razumovsky quartets and Symphonies 3 and 5; the last is one of his all is dust end of life late sonatas.



I think Bilson is a creditable period pianist with no particular point of view in the music. He plays the Op. 101 sonata in a manner siimlar to the first sonata. There are few, if any, telling trademarks the pianist uses to define each period or the particular eccentricities inherent in each sonata.



A few critics were taken by the hazy sound of his instrument in the opening sostenuto of the "Moonlight" sonata, as if the sound mimicked the moonlit aura of the composition. I heard that but wasn't much taken by it.



Bilson is clearly a talented player and his work here is always thoughtful and meaningful. It did not displace any of my favorites in this music, whether they played on modern or period instruments, and I would not count this as one of the great CDs of Beethoven piano sonatas.



It's a good reading in a somewhat clangy atmosphere of four sonatas representing Beethoven's march through time.



"

Wonderful

Ryan McNabb | Ooltewah, TN USA | 04/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I agree and disagree with other reviews here. I truly enjoyed this disc and consider it one of my favorites, but the sound quality is a little unusual. I won't say bad. Firstly, Bilson's musicianship is absolutely top drawer. His playing is fluid and fluent - he has to me a perfect grasp of the material, neither too mechanical and dry, nor too romantic and overwrought. He hits the nail on the head, and I think makes Beethoven sound like Beethoven. Much modern Beethoven performance is overdone - players try to one-up each other in the "emotion" department. Everyone knows Beethoven's poignant personal history - but it is as though many modern players scream at the audience "PATHOS!! TRAGEDY!!" until everyone passes around the Kleenex box. Secondly, the recording sounds as though you're in a concert hall, not in a recording studio. We are used to super clean, crisp recordings made with the microphone 3" away from the soundboard, and for all I know that's how this recording was made. But it doesn't sound like it. Expect a live, slightly distant sound, and you won't be disappointed too badly. It certainly isn't bad in my opinion, just different from what I'm used to.



Highly recommended with that proviso."