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The Last Recording of Wilhelm Backhaus

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/11/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unless some other 1969 recording comes to light I'm pretty sure this April 18, 1969 recital is the last recording made by the great piano master, Wilhelm Backhaus (March 26, 1884 - July 5, 1969). He was 85 at the time of it was recorded by RIAS Berlin. It consists of four Beethoven sonatas that Backhaus had recorded before. And even though there are some occasional finger bobbles, some rare tempo irregularities and some smudged harmonies these performances are very much like those he had recorded earlier; he was one of those artists whose interpretations did not tend to change over the years. Backhaus, in his early days, was considered rather too restrained, too 'mechanical', but this was in the context of the early 20th-century penchant for highly idiosyncratic performances -- think of de Pachmann or Cortot, for instance -- but in fact what he was doing back in the 1910s was ushering in the modern manner of pianists whose impetus was to adhere strictly to the written scores they played. Consequently Backhaus tended to play without much fussiness and yet he was able to imbue his performances with the spirit of the music.



What is remarkable about the present performances is that, in spite of the minor bobbles, his playing only three months before his death remains what it had always been. The performance of Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28, 'Pastoral', is well-night identical with a recording he made twenty years earlier, but in better sound, stereo vs. mono. This is a lovely performance. The more virtuosic Sonata No. 18 in E Flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3, comes in for its share of minor fluffs but one can still detect the amazing technical ability of yore, albeit a little rusty. He does not make allowances for age in his lickety-split finale, the bane of many a less secure artist. The 'Waldstein' Sonata, No. 53 in C Major, is Olympian. I was particularly moved by the Adagio middle movement, often more of less skated through by lesser pianists.



This is a two CD set but the second CD contains only the fourth of the sonatas, the No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109, one of Beethoven's final masterpieces and unlike anything else he had written before. The whole thing takes only about seventeen minutes of which the uniquely innig finale takes almost thirteen of them. Backhaus not only handles the virtuosic demands of the whirlwind Prestissimo middle movement, he makes time stand still in the Finale. This is a great reading of a great sonata.



Sound, as noted above, is pretty good, particularly for 1969. It is in real stereo (not always common for radio broadcasts at that time). The piano is a particularly lovely Bechstein, beautifully regulated.



Probably for those who have studio recordings of the Beethoven sonatas by Backhaus, this issue is not must-have, but for those, like me, who love Backhaus's playing this is a necessary addition to our collections.



Scott Morrison"