Barenboim's is the definitive Apassionata
11/12/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album carries three of the greatest (except for the Late) sonatas, and Daniel Barenboim's is the only rendition I've heard that is exactly 'as the Master intended it', even if one has heard other performers before one has heard Barenboim.The Apassionata is unquestionably one of Beethoven's greatest works, piano or otherwise, and it requires a resolve to carry it through to the finish that I have seen only in Barenboim. Only Barenboim, of all the performers I've heard, including Ashkenazy, can convey all the nuances there are here. In the 're-awakening', only Barenboim conveys the feeling of the realization of the situation, combined with the manic resolve that the Master intended. And in the finale, what is special about the Apassionata (possibly Beethoven's most primal, orgasmic composition) is statement of the rise to glory that follows. This primal explicitness needs a kind of quiet 'resolve' that only Barenboim fully conveys, where others tend to treat the Apassionata like any other sonata. In the Moonlight and the Waldstein too, Barenboim is outstanding, and his is the definitive version"