After Haydn and Mozart’s
complete solo keyboard music (spread
over 11 and 10 volumes respectively),
Ronald Brautigam here embarks on the
greatest exploration of them all: the
complete Beethoven works for solo piano.
This is the first of a planned series
of seventeen discs. Typically for BIS,
the art-work is slightly off-the-wall
and certainly more appealing for it
- better than yet another portrait repro
of Ludwig, anyway. And Beethoven Street,
W10 really does exist (just near Queen’s
Park tube:
).
Quite why Volume 1
begins with Op. 13 and yet seems to
present the chosen sonatas in chronological
order is unclear. Perhaps BIS wanted
to start with a famous one and the Op.
2 set will appear as Volume 2 - probably
with Op. 7 attached? Certainly the opening
shows off the fortepiano to superb effect.
This is aided by the spacious and crystal-clear
recording. The closely-spaced C minor
chord is remarkably dark, sforzandi
are sharper than on a piano and appoggiaturas
take on great Affekt. Brautigam gives
the epoch-making introduction space,
as if to point out its import for music
generally, and the piano sonata in particular;
things would never really be the same
again after this. The Allegro di
molto e con brio has plenty of momentum
and comes equipped with repeat, back
to the beginning of the allegro. Brautigam’s
is an animated reading, with textures
always carefully considered and fully
clarified; again, the instrument helps.
The famous A flat slow
movement feels more on the surface as
an interpretation. It flows well enough,
but here voicing is not all it surely
could be, and the bass-line’s import
is surely under-represented here. Nice
shadings in the middle section cannot
rescue it. A graceful finale includes
much cheeky counterpoint and great finger
strength.
The fortepiano allows
superb definition in the lower registers.
Rapid triplets low down in this finale
of the ‘Pathétique’, for example,
come over with remarkable clarity (and
take on an extra buzz of excitement
because of it).
The two Sonatas Op.
14 have both provided plenty of teachers
with material, and have become hackneyed
because of it. Brautigam plays the E
major (No. 1) freshly and intelligently.
There is much four-part writing here,
and Brautigam teases out the voices
intelligently. His ornaments are clean,
the whole eminently Haydnesque. There
is no slow movement in this sonata,
just a shifting Allegretto with a simple,
reposeful Trio. A pity, and a surprise,
that left-hand triplets are muddied
in the finale, because this is a committed
reading with more drama than is often
accorded it.
The G major is given
a fluent reading, again more violent
in places than expected. The up-front
recording helps this impression. The
Andante is brisk and charming, with
nice textural contrasts towards the
end. The playful 3/8 finale is pure
Haydn with a brutish ouch, rumbustious
to the end. The final bass three-note
figure emerges as a gruff comment from
the composer himself!.
The Op. 22 Sonata –
a great Richter favourite – is notoriously
tricky, particularly the first movement.
Brautigam has no problems in that department.
For some reason, though, the sound seems
more echoey here. By emphasising the
Haydnesque here again, Brautigam makes
the rugged development work persuasively.
If one is aware of the increased difficult
in legato with this instrument in the
Adagio con molto espressione, one is
also more aware of the exploratory nature
of some of Beethoven’s more advanced
writing, both in sonority and in harmonies
chosen.
Maybe I will warm to
Brautigam’s clipped approach to the
Minuetto; certainly the resolute left-hand
in the Trio is far more notable and
convincing. More charm easing in to
the finale would not have gone amiss,
but this seems to reflect Brautigam’s
viw of this movement as a whole, as
an outwardly approachable statement
that nevertheless houses momentous things
at work.
There is never any
doubt as to either the time Brautigam
has spent considering these texts, nor
of his fresh viewpoint and its careful
realisation. Indeed, there is much to
enjoy and I eagerly await the next volume.
My previous reviewing
experience of Beethoven Sonatas on the
fortepiano comes in the form of Malcolm
Bilson on Claves, that I reviewed in
December
2002 . Bilson used four different
instruments so the much later Op. 101
is clearly on a more developed instrument,
for example. Brautigam, in contrast,
plays four sonatas linked in time so
of course plays them all on the same
instrument – as I have reported, with
exemplary conviction. It will be fascinating
to see how Brautigam progresses.
Colin Clarke
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano by Paul McNulty,
after Walther & Sohn c1802). 
BIS SACD 1362 [69’52] 
