Search - Beethoven, Tan :: Piano Sonatas

Acquired taste, fine engineering

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 10/08/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Melvyn Tan recorded these five Beethoven sonatas at Forde Abbey, England, in September 1993, using two slightly different fortepianos. For the two short sonatas numbered 19 and 20 (but which actually originated some time during the 1790's) he played a copy of a fortepiano by Anton Walter, for the 'Moonlight' and the other two longer sonatas he made use of a copy after Nannette Streicher; both copies are by Derek Adlam. The fortepiano sound is something of an acquired taste, being not only softer than today's instruments, but also rather 'wooden' (the instruments are made almost entirely of wood), and there is a certain amount of mechanical noise to be heard. Perhaps this is why one German critic reacted very negatively to this CD, but personally I have enjoyed listening to it very much, especially as the engineering is extremely well done. Perhaps the opening short sonatas and then Sonata No. 11 impressed me most, both from the point of view of sound and of playing. Sonata No. 13 seems a little pale in comparison, whereas the 'Moonlight' is put in a rather different interpretative light by Jeremy Siepmann's comment that the first movement should be understood as a dirge and not as a romantic evocation; Tan meets every requirement, but there is quite a lot of mechanical noise to be heard on this most famous of all Beethoven's piano sonatas."