A follow-up re Beethoven on fortepiano...

Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

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Listening to the Melvyn Tan 5 CD ultra-inexpensive set on Virgin...
The set is very well recorded. Tan maintains a high degree of momentum in the sonatas -- and I think that's my "final answer" about the big difference between Beethoven on a fortepiano vs. a modern concert grand (in terms of "performance style" rather than the tone of the instrument). The fortepiano, with its somewhat limited dynamic range and, more importantly, lessened ability to SUSTAIN SOUND when played, causes the musician to "keep moving ahead" without granting much pause. If the player "slows down too much" all of the room vibration would drop dead into an ungainly silence. Compare this with the modern concert grand, where a note can be struck and maintained in such a way as to fill the air for many seconds on end. The former condition of the fortepiano almost forces the player to play faster, and the net effect is a more "clippy", four-square approach that has one foot in the harpsichord and one foot in the broader expression of what was to become the "Romantic" -- and this is what Beethoven was all about, I think...at least until the dreamy fantasia of his late sonatas (not included in the Tan set). One last point about the modern concert grand. In retrospect, it often leads to distortions -- relatively agogic mannerisms -- at least when considered in light of how the music "must" be played on the "period instrument" for which it was composed. As with my point about modern cosmetic surgery, however, it can be considered acceptable if one is willing to forgive the fundamental aspect of artificiality.
The Binns Late Sonatas hasn't yet arrived (and will not be listened to until after Xmas). I'm looking forward to hearing whether the chirpy fortepiano can sustain the wispy energy of these phantasmagorical works.
P.S. -- In thinking about "period instruments and performance practices", diminished volume, number of players and the style that is imposed upon the musicians due to these things, I'm hard pressed as to why, for the Beethoven Symphonies, folks always reference early recordings (Weingartner, Nikisch...even Toscanini) as having some basis in "historical accuracy". Sure, these early RECORDED efforts were "closer in TIME" to the source but...are they not "further away in terms of the TRUTH" based upon historic research?

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Topic - A follow-up re Beethoven on fortepiano... - SE 05:19:33 11/14/06 (2)

I quite like the Binns set - bigi 07:09:55 11/14/06 (1)

Thanks, that's good to hear! n/t - SE 07:15:06 11/14/06 (0)

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