 "Kempff at his best" | 2008-10-03 |
| - Reviewed By cstotlar2 |
How wonderful to hear Herr Kempff doing Beethoven again! I don't know how many recordings he's made of the complete piano sonatas - "not enough" comes to mind. He's in no hurry and the "virtuoso" element is thankfully nowhere in sight so we're left with the music itself and it never sounded better. The earlier sonatas in particular are clear and to the point without frills or too much soul searching. The music stars here and the vehicle, Wilhelm Kempff, is completely in tune with it.
The way the line is treated is magnificent. Kempff has a narrative quality in his playing like no one else. He can spin a yarn and we're almost afraid to look away for fear of missing a key ingredient.
Curtis Stotlar
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| "Kempff's unique style" | 2008-04-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1FQR15M2TXFFZ |
| Like all of the music he recorded, Wilhelm Kempff has a way of applying his own unique interpretive style to these sonatas and making them his own, without taking away from the composer's intention. Unlike some of the recordings by today's artists, who play at speeds that tend to blur the notes, Kempff articulates each line clearly, cleanly and accurately. Now, I'm not saying that each one of these sonatas is my favorite interpretation, but several are. Two that I'm not particularly fond of are his readings of Nos. 21 & 23, both of which I prefer Gilels. He takes the Hammerklavier at a much slower tempo than any other I've heard, but he pulls it off remarkably. To my ears, of the more conventional approach to No.29, Serkin and Soloman do it a little better. As for the rest of the late sonatas, which I feel is the weakest part of this set (if I had to pick a weakness), my personal taste leans more towards Pollini, Arrau or Richter. Of the complete sets of 32 that I own (this one, Arrau, Schnabel, Barenboim [EMI], Annie Fischer and Gilels [nearly complete]), this one is my all around favorite. The sound is also very good. |
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| "First class." | 2008-01-17 |
| - Reviewed By dickcarr |
These are my favourite interpretations of the thirty two piano sonatas although Brendel's collection of the same mid '60s period comes a very close second.
I have heard many of the other sonata sets and own a few, but musical gravity invariably pulls me back to Kempff. For me, he provides the most satisfying interpretations and performances of one of Beethoven's two most significant non-symphonic contributions to music; the other contribution being the string quartets.
Kempff's playing, along with that of several of his contemporaries like Gieseking and Wührer, has a refinement inherited from the 19th century; a refinement I find sadly lacking in some modern performances, aspects of which can be unpleasantly brash by comparison. He was 70 years old when he made these recordings which may account for a more contemplative approach to some works but age has not dimmed the sparkle of bravura passages. I have lived with this collection of the "32" for a long time and love it.
The recording is fine with a bright treble but the lower registers occasionally seem a trifle short of punch. But this is to quibble . .
The choosing of which set/artist to purchase is a serious matter and price should be an irrelevance but it is difficult not to have one's judgment influenced by these nine discs being available in 3-disc jewel cases for as little as $42, brand spanking new! Extraordinary performances at extraordinary value.
I have no reservation in my recommendation - I think it's simply the best.
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| "Master of masters!" | 2008-01-08 |
| - Reviewed By higopa |
These works are true state of art performances are like the great masterworks, they seem to change before us, but not they are, but us what we experience its infinite grandness every time we used to watch or even to approximate them.
This is the case of Wilhelm Kempff, regarded by many as the most authentic "voice of Beethoven."
His cantabile line was so natural, that flew organically, effortless with that peerless refinement and unique fingering, that really shaped every single musical idea contained in the score.
Although is easy to notice the tempos in general are slower respect the set of the Fifties (mono), there are Sonatas (like Moonlight or The tempest) that are played with cosmic approach. As a matter of fact, the main difference between him and the rest of the pianists is that he depicted the spirit of every work, through a smart dissection and then expressed all those pieces gathered systematically and then expressed with a symphonic lexicon, without affection and theatrical pose
A fundamental set that under no pretext must be in your priceless collection.
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| "The Set to Own" | 2007-11-30 |
| - Reviewed By hbj200 |
| This is the Beethoven piano sonata set to own, hands down. While Kempff was not perfect in interpreting all of Beethoven's piano works -- for instance, I never liked his playing of B's piano concertos -- he did an absolutely marvelous job with pretty every work in this set. (Note: the "complete" here means all of B's "regular" piano sonatas with opus numbers, e.g., op.6 is left out, as are WoO ones). Kempff's interpretation is both highly technical and enormously emotional. His most brilliance comes through in the more difficult late works, such as the Hammerklavier -- a piece I never liked as a young person but have come to appreciate as I approach middle age. The recording quality is also excellent, making this a pleasure to listen to anytime. |
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 "Love or hate with little in between" | 2007-09-16 |
| - Reviewed By omjuly2 |
| I have owned this Kempff set for fifteen years. I will not part with it and yet despise it. I read the many glowing reviews and approve of their opinions while still believing them the product of a complete misunderstanding. Why the conflicted point of view? Sure, the brittle sound is not endearing. In fact, you could argue that it highlights Kempff's faults or, rather, his particular bias. My dislike of Kempff has very little do with his playing, which is unfailingly brilliant, and everything to do with his conception of Beethoven. There are a number of masters, a smaller company than can be assumed, who by virtue of their transitional position between styles (say, Scriabin, a composer straddled between late Romanticism and Modernism, and of course Beethoven, between Classicism and Romanticism), or because they come to stand for a particular national temperament (think of Ravel and of the peculiar notion that France is somehow better connoted by Descartes and Racine than Rabelais and Montaigne), can become imprisoned by the stylistic prejudices of their interpreters. Which leads me to ask: just how much do you love Mozart? or Classicism for that matter? You know the precious wit, that desperate need to contain excitement within tonal boundaries that borders on the neurotic? Me, not so much and that's why I dislike Kempff: he has Beethoven in a Classicist stronghold and will not let go. Accordingly, you would expect Kempff to be at his fleet fingered best in the first twenty, the so called early period sonatas, and he is: light, airy, full of fresh air. In his hands, unsurprisingly, the Moonlight sounds less like a Romantic dawn than a brilliant return to Papa Haydn. But listen to his Appassionata: he is so eager, so forced and rushed that he betrays the nervousness of one who has entered a world he is not very comfortable in. And by disposition, he shouldn't be. He is only slightly more convincing in the late sonatas which, as Rosen has shown, mark indeed a fascinating return to Classicism but even here Kempff is so hungry for the light that he misses the shadows and fails to achieve the required gravitas. For this I cannot forgive him and nor should I. Because, for me as for others, the Beethoven of the middle to late periods, of the Rasumovsky quartets and the Grosse Fugue, of the Waldstein and the Hammerklavier, a Beethoven very much of the nineteenth century in other words, is Beethoven in full caps. So if while listening to Beethoven you're somehow led to wonder about Schubert or Schumann, avoid this set like the plague. Buy the remarkable Arrau instead, or Pollini for the late pieces. If instead you dream of Mozart, Kempff will not fail you. |
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| "Different Class" | 2007-09-05 |
| - Reviewed By s-rhim |
The best of Beethove Sonata.
I like Backhaus, Barenboim, etc...
Kempff's are the BEST. |
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| "KEMPFF CONVEYS THE GENIUS OF BEETHOVEN" | 2007-08-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: AX8JRFMSPBYXD |
It could be said that Schanbel was the archetype of the modern German pianist. In our day his school is represented by such pianists as Backhaus, Serkin and predominantely by Wilhelm Kempff. In all groupings of the Beethoven sonatas, Kempff defines the German school of piano playing through his scrupulous musicianship, severity, strength rather than charm, solidity rather than sensuosity, intellect rather than instinct, sobriety rather than brilliance. It is an approach that stresses planning and leaves nothing to chance. Beethoven's piano sonatas are unique in three respects. First, they represent the whole development of a genius, from his beginnings to the threshold of the late quartets. Secondly, there is not an inferior work among them-in contrast to many of the sets of variations, for example, which tend to be uneven. Thirdly, Beethoven does not repeat himself in his sonatas, each work, each movement is a new organism. In Kempff's performances of the sonatas, he defines the drama of Beethoven's sonata form more precisely, we are bound to notice that it is drama in which the character of the principal theme predominates. In the hands of Kempff, we never lose our bearings, we always know where we are. Kempff performs like an architect draws. We learn more about the architecture of Beethoven through his treatment of harmony. In Beethoven a new movement or theme in a chromatic neighbouring key is unthinkable. (Before him, however, that tireless adventurer Haydn had in his great Sonata in E flat major a slow movement in E major. When Beethoven does make his way to a distant key-which happens only rarely, and then with logical preparation-there are far-reaching consequences for the whole work. It is not Kempff's duty to give or teach the history of Beethoven's music, history and style can be taught from reproductions; masterpieces such the performances given by Kempff have something quite different to say....In a museum only artistic incomparability counts; this has nothing to do with artistic style, for works of art are thoroughly comparable in style, independent of their quality. In Beethoven's sonata Op.54, Kempff's performance particularily resembles all other works, great and small, late, middle and early. If Beethoven uses an old convention, Kempff shows how it fits the use he makes of it, instead of imagining that its origin elsewhere explains its presence here. If Beethoven writes in a form and style which cannot be found elsewhere, we must, as Hans Sachs says, find its own rules without worrying because it does not fit ours.
What makes Kempff a pianistic leader in the performances of Beethoven's sonatas from my point of view, is his use of cantabile, emphasis on one or several notes, usually in a lyrical context as shown in the slow movements of Sonatas Op.7, Op.10, No. 2, and Op.10, No.3. Pianissimo and dolce; Kempff uses the dynamic degrees between p and ff to serve a wide range of expressive purposes, according to the character of the passage, Beethoven's pianissimo is what Rudolf Kolisch called a 'pianissimo misterioso'. Kempff enters into a sphere distinctly removed from piano, a sphere of awe and wonder. His dolce, too, has its own emotional climate: my translation is 'tenderly committed'.
Dolce tells the listener: 'Identify yourself with this phrase; do not control it from outside.' Kempff's playing begs for loving attention, and flinches from mechanical coldness. The projection of simplicity can be a very complex business, but in the hands of Kempff, it becomes apart of his being, as does his exceptional reservoir of nuances-even though they may remain unused-and a considerable degree of sensitivity and inner freedom are always present if the result is not to be, instead of simplicity, emptiness and boredom. As well, Kempff will always give the 'psychological' listener the impression that he is 'staying in tempo.'
Those who are more at ease when they can use their own discretion will now feel relieved. I share their feelings. But the free elements-fire, water and air- will not carry us unless we have first practised our steps on firm ground. We follow rules in order to make the exceptions more impressive.From the letter we distil our vision, and on turning back observe the letters with new eyes. The growing precision of our understanding should enhance, and not diminish, our sense of wonder.
Author:Raymond Vacchino M.Mus. A.Mus. Licentiate, L.R.S.M. |
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| "KEMPFF EXEMPLIFIES THE GENIUS OF BEETHOVEN" | 2007-08-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: AX8JRFMSPBYXD |
It could be said that Schanbel was the archetype of the modern German pianist. In our day his school is represented by such pianists as Backhaus, Serkin and predominantely by Wilhelm Kempff. In all groupings of the Beethoven sonatas, Kempff defines the German school of piano playing through his scrupulous musicianship, severity, strength rather than charm, solidity rather than sensuosity, intellect rather than instinct, sobriety rather than brilliance. It is an approach that stresses planning and leaves nothing to chance. Beethoven's piano sonatas are unique in three respects. First, they represent the whole development of a genius, from his beginnings to the threshold of the late quartets. Secondly, there is not an inferior work among them-in contrast to many of the sets of variations, for example, which tend to be uneven. Thirdly, Beethoven does not repeat himself in his sonatas, each work, each movement is a new organism. In Kempff's performances of the sonatas, he defines the drama of Beethoven's sonata form more precisely, we are bound to notice that it is drama in which the character of the principal theme predominates. In the hands of Kempff, we never lose our bearings, we always know where we are. Kempff performs like an architect draws. We learn more about the architecture of Beethoven through his treatment of harmony. In Beethoven a new movement or theme in a chromatic neighbouring key is unthinkable. (Before him, however, that tireless adventurer Haydn had in his great Sonata in E flat major a slow movement in E major.) When Beethoven does make his way to a distant key-which happens only rarely, and then with logical preparation-there are far-reaching consequences for the whole work. It is not Kempff's duty to give or teach the history of Beethoven's music, history and style can be taught from reproductions; masterpieces such as the performances given by Kempff have something quite different to say....In a museum only artistic incomparability counts; this has nothing to do with artistic style, for works of art are thoroughly comparable in style, independent of their quality. In Beethoven's sonata Op.54, Kempff's performance particularily resembles all other works, great and small, late, middle and early. If Beethoven uses an old convention, Kempff shows how it fits the use he makes of it, instead of imagining that its origin elsewhere explains its presence here. If Beethoven writes in a form and style which cannot be found elsewhere, we must, as Hans Sachs says, find its own rules without worrying because it does not fit ours.
What makes Kempff a pianistic leader in the performances of Beethoven's sonatas from my point of view, is his use of cantabile, emphasis on one or several notes, usually in a lyrical context as shown in the slow movements of Sonatas Op.7, Op.10, No. 2, and Op.10, No.3. Pianissimo and dolce; Kempff uses the dynamic degrees between p and ff to serve a wide range of expressive purposes, according to the character of the passage, Beethoven's pianissimo is what Rudolf Kolisch called a 'pianissimo misterioso'. Kempff enters into a sphere distinctly removed from piano, a sphere of awe and wonder. His dolce, too, has its own emotional climate: my translation is 'tenderly committed'.
Dolce tells the listener: 'Identify yourself with this phrase; do not control it from outside.' Kempff's playing begs for loving attention, and flinches from mechanical coldness. The projection of simplicity can be a very complex business, but in the hands of Kempff, it becomes apart of his being, as does his exceptional reservoir of nuances-even though they may remain unused-and a considerable degree of sensitivity and inner freedom are always present, if the result is not to be one of simplicity, emptiness and boredom. As well, Kempff will always give the 'psychological' listener the impression that he is 'staying in tempo.'
Those who are more at ease when they can use their own discretion will now feel relieved. I share their feelings. But the free elements-fire, water and air- will not carry us unless we have first practised our steps on firm ground. We follow rules in order to make the exceptions more impressive.From the letter we distil our vision, and on turning back observe the letters with new eyes. The growing precision of our understanding should enhance, and not diminish, our sense of wonder.
Author:Raymond Vacchino M.Mus.(Per) M.Mus. (MT) A.Mus. Licentiate, L.R.S.M. |
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| "Beethoven's Complete Piano Sonatas" | 2007-08-05 |
| - Reviewed By moonlightsonatac |
This 9 disc set brings all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas into one great box set. Wilhelm Kempff's reserved mannerism of the way he plays highlights Beethoven's music perfectly. Beethoven composed sonatas continuously throughout his lifetime, and you can trace the development of each era in Beethoven's creative writing. The earlier sonatas, No. 1-7, illustrate the early Classical side of Beethoven's life. You can hear the strong influence Mozart and Haydn had on him. 5 of these first 7 sonatas are arranged in 4 movements almost like resembling a symphony structure. Sonata No, 8, Op. 13, Pathetique, marks Beethoven's movement towards a more Romantic sound. The sonatas from this period No. 8-26 are typically in 3 movements, and often represent some extra musical idea. Then there is my favorite sonata No. 14 Moonlight Sonata in C#.Beethoven composed the famous Moonlight Sonata in 1801 and dedicated it to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, who was a pupil of Beethoven. Shortly after their first few lessons, the two fell in love. After dedicating the Moonlight Sonata to her, the story goes that Beethoven proposed to her, but was forbidden to marry by her parents because of Beethoven's temper and he was not wealthy since he refused to ever give concerts. Unknown to Giulietta and everyone else who knew him Beethoven never preformed in public because of his growing deafness, not his disliking of people as they all thought. Sonata No. 17, Op. 31, No.2, The Tempest, musically depicts Shakespeare's play by the same name. Beethoven also began to stretch classical harmonic melodies in this period. In the first movement of the Waldstein Sonata No. 21, Op. 53, the first theme plays in C major only to be followed by a secondary theme in E major. In his later period sonatas No. 27-32, Beethoven grew more experimental with his sonatas. Some of these sonatas contain only 2 movements No. 27, 3, but are still very lengthy. By the time the last three sonatas arrived in the 1820s, the word innovation seems inadequate to describe what Beethoven had accomplished. He had transformed piano music forever despite the cruel and unfair fate of his deafness.
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