Post by nucaleena September 29, 2003 (1 of 12)
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Linn are shortly to announce a new SACD release: Artur Pizzaro playing the last three Beethoven sonatas (op. 109, 110 & 111). Since the best (personal opinion only) recordings are unlikely to surface on SACD for some time, if ever (Gilels is on DG and their remasterings have been dreadful and Kovacevich is on EMI, whose attitude towards SACD was negative and is now just ambivalent) the Pizzaro may be the best SACD bet for some time to come. His Liszt and Bach/Busoni have been terrific: it'll be interesting to see what he makes of the much deeper waters of late ludwig. I've got hold of an advance promotional release, due to arrive on my player later this week, and will leave a review asap.
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Post by zeus September 29, 2003 (2 of 12)
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nucaleena said:
Linn are shortly to announce a new SACD release: Artur Pizzaro playing the last three Beethoven sonatas (op. 109, 110 & 111).
I added this a few days ago:
http://www.sacdinfo.com/showtitle.php?title=1472
I'd be interested to read what you think about it. I'm not familiar with Pizzaro. My Goode set is showing its age in terms of sonics. I have a few of the Kovacevich's but found his playing variable. Anyway, it's great to have more choices. Apart from the Kodama, there's another just out of Jonathan Gilad (on Lyrinx) playing earlier sonatas.
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zeus said:
I added this a few days ago:
http://www.sacdinfo.com/showtitle.php?title=1472
I'd be interested to read what you think about it. I'm not familiar with Pizzaro. My Goode set is showing its age in terms of sonics. I have a few of the Kovacevich's but found his playing variable. Anyway, it's great to have more choices. Apart from the Kodama, there's another just out of Jonathan Gilad (on Lyrinx) playing earlier sonatas.
Stephen, have played this once, but won't venture a review yet as the heart of my system is down at the moment. However, playing is generally very romantic, almost chopinesque, very songful, on a piano specially chosen by AP for those qualities (though without the bass of a Bosendorfer or clarity and edge of a Steinway). The op. 111 gets a sort of Lisztian reading. Drawback is that there isn't perhaps the internal logic and momentum of Gilels or Kovacevich, but will need a few more listens. Sound seems very good, crytalline even, but also softly metallic, - but that could be my backup amp failing to make the sound bloom. Very wide ranging, zero harshness or distortion. By the way, - talk about speedy production! - the performances were only recorded two or three months ago (late july 03).
Pizzaro's first disc of Beethoven for Linn met with outstandingly good reviews everywhere (refer Gramophone Feb 03 but also the Linn website). It was only released a short while ago, as an HDCD. I contacted Linn to ask if it would be released as a SACD, but, sadly, the DSD recorder malfunctioned at that session and they haven't decided whether to remaster the PCM recording for SACD yet. Can I ask anyone who's interested to lend their e-voice to mine and ask Linn to consider remastering and re-releasing.
There's some potential for a series as Pizzaro is in the process of giving concert performances of all 32 Beet. sonatas in london this year and next. Fingers crossed that Linn are pleased enough with sales on the first two discs to cut some more. I see from stephen's note that Kodama and Gilad are releasing Beet SACDs, but i havent been tempted as their other discs have been received fairly critically. Reviews have been pretty grudging of Kodama's beet. concertos and Mr. Gilad has been praised by some but panned by even more. So my guess is that Pizzaro remains our best bet.
For those of you who don't know Pizzaro's playing, he won the Leeds competition back in 1990 and went on to record extensively for Collins Classics, mainly unusual repertoire like Vorrisek but also a few Busoni/Bach recordings and some very good Liszt. My overall impression is that he can be quite wayward but he does "recreate" and make you listen afresh, even if you then reject some of his ideas. A pianist who makes you think is a good thing, even if his playing may not always plumb the depths of a Gilels or let the music speak as directly as Kovacevich.
Amusingly, the photo on this cd has him looking like a double of Man United captain Roy Keane and the photo was taken by a Michael Owen! (sorry US readers, a soccer joke).
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Post by zeus October 3, 2003 (4 of 12)
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Thanks for that. I'll definitely give it a try. The latest Linn SACDs (single inventory) are fairly reasonably priced as well ... which is hopefully an indicator that we can expect lots more from this label.
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zeus said:
Thanks for that. I'll definitely give it a try. The latest Linn SACDs (single inventory) are fairly reasonably priced as well ... which is hopefully an indicator that we can expect lots more from this label.
another encouraging thing about Linn's pricing is that they have reduced their "older" classical SACDs to £15 from the £18 they were just a month or so ago. Presumably they will equalise again and they'll all be £12 (as their new release SACDS are) all the time. I'd like to be able to claim some input as I contacted them several times about the price differential (and the fact that retailers could sell both their £12 and their £18 titles for £11.50) but suspect from their replies that they were thinking of it anyway. Whatever the reason, the drop in price is another good sign of their commmitment.
By the way, I've ordered their new release of the Palladian playing Rebel's "les elemens" and pieces by Marais. It'll be interesting to hear the Rebel in a "chamber" style reading to see if Chaos still makes the kind of impact it does on Mark Minkowski's amazing recording, - which is a sonically superb redbook cd. Will let you know.
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nucaleena said:
another encouraging thing about Linn's pricing is that they have reduced their "older" classical SACDs to £15 from the £18 they were just a month or so ago. Presumably they will equalise again and they'll all be £12 (as their new release SACDS are) all the time. I'd like to be able to claim some input as I contacted them several times about the price differential (and the fact that retailers could sell both their £12 and their £18 titles for £11.50) but suspect from their replies that they were thinking of it anyway. Whatever the reason, the drop in price is another good sign of their commmitment.
By the way, I've ordered their new release of the Palladian playing Rebel's "les elemens" and pieces by Marais. It'll be interesting to hear the Rebel in a "chamber" style reading to see if Chaos still makes the kind of impact it does on Mark Minkowski's amazing recording, - which is a sonically superb redbook cd. Will let you know.
sadly, there's news this week that Pizzaro will not be continuing his Beethoven "series" for Linn, but is leaving it at just the two discs, the earlier PCM frelease and this sole SACD.
Another note, that the SACD has been favourably reviewed in Scotland's "Herald" newspaper. I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as the Herald reviewer but I'll re-consider when my system is up and running again.
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Post by Johnno November 3, 2003 (7 of 12)
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nucaleena said:
Linn are shortly to announce a new SACD release: Artur Pizzaro playing the last three Beethoven sonatas (op. 109, 110 & 111). Since the best (personal opinion only) recordings are unlikely to surface on SACD for some time, if ever (Gilels is on DG and their remasterings have been dreadful and Kovacevich is on EMI, whose attitude towards SACD was negative and is now just ambivalent) the Pizzaro may be the best SACD bet for some time to come. His Liszt and Bach/Busoni have been terrific: it'll be interesting to see what he makes of the much deeper waters of late ludwig. I've got hold of an advance promotional release, due to arrive on my player later this week, and will leave a review asap.
I wonder if Philips (Universal) might consider releasing some of Alfred Brendel's performances on SACD. I've always admired this pianist and there is an honesty about his Beethoven that I really like. I also have Stephen Kovacevich's EMIs too on CD but it seems, sadly as you have already stated, that EMI has no intention of getting involved in SACD.
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Johnno said:
I wonder if Philips (Universal) might consider releasing some of Alfred Brendel's performances on SACD. I've always admired this pianist and there is an honesty about his Beethoven that I really like. I also have Stephen Kovacevich's EMIs too on CD but it seems, sadly as you have already stated, that EMI has no intention of getting involved in SACD.
haven't heard of any plans from Philips for Brendel re-releases, but he does like to re-vist his repertoire, especially via live performances, so maybe we'll see a few new (DSD) recordings from him. I note that DG have recently given Gilels 9 disc Beethoven (slightly incomplete) set another re-mastering and refurbishment, - and if they were DSD re-mastered in a couple of years time, by which DG may have learnt about remastering for SACD, then I'd be thrilled. The Kovacevich set has just been re-issued as a 10 disc complete set by the way, at about £6 per disc, - a great bargain, especially as some of the earlier "clangy" sounding discs in that series have apparently been broadened out.
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Post by beardawgs November 18, 2003 (9 of 12)
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nucaleena said:
The op. 111 gets a sort of Lisztian reading. Drawback is that there isn't perhaps the internal logic and momentum of Gilels or Kovacevich, but will need a few more listens. Sound seems very good, crytalline even, but also softly metallic, - but that could be my backup amp failing to make the sound bloom. Very wide ranging, zero harshness or distortion.
Just got it and heard only op. 111. Didn't like it at all! No logic, rushed, bland, monotone, boring... Need to hear it few more times for a deffinate verdict, but the first impression is a very bad one. And the sound is too metalic for my taste, actually it sounds better when I'm listening it from the side than in the 'hot seat'. What a disappointment!
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Post by nucaleena November 19, 2003 (10 of 12)
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beardawgs said:
Just got it and heard only op. 111. Didn't like it at all! No logic, rushed, bland, monotone, boring... Need to hear it few more times for a deffinate verdict, but the first impression is a very bad one. And the sound is too metalic for my taste, actually it sounds better when I'm listening it from the side than in the 'hot seat'. What a dissapointment!
after living with this for a while now, i'm afraid i have to agree. I've got no more from subsequent listens than i did from the first. What i have got is more irritated with Pizzaro's waywardness. I still think he sings his beethoven, which can be pleasant, but that's all it is. There's no depth. It's like he's gone down a revisionist route of saying, "look, ludwig gets the grave, depth treatment because of our reverence for him, whereas the music is simpler than that". It would be a legitimate approach but for the fact that there is ample depth, complexity and logic in these pieces, or greats like Gilels, Schnabel, Brendel, Kempff and Kovacevich wouldn't be able to find it. Its just not there with Pizzaro. So his revisionism becomes just posturing, - that's certainly how it sounds after a few listens. Once I've tried once more, with my quads back and running again, I'm pretty sure i'll be selling it.
You're right, beardawgs, to find fault with op. 111, but I was even more disappointed in 109. That's a sonata which really can sing and should be ripe/ideal for Pizzaro's approach but it just sounds like Chopin on an off-day. Listen to any of the pianists mentioned above and you'll hear the singing but so, so much more as well. I remember being absolutely entranced by Kovacevich's reading in concert (in Sydney a few years ago) in which the singing qualities were like Schubert at his best, not like salon music as per Pizzaro.
As for the tone of the recording, I've not wanted to leave a review until i was sure my system was doing it justice, but i do find it a bit characterless and focus-less. I think thats got a lot to do with the piano, which does have a quite soft tone and a bloom that can easily sound like (a slightly metallic) fuzz, but it could also be the recording venue. Its not a characteristic of Linn's DSD recordings, so i tend to attribute it to an unfortunate combination of artist/instrument/venue.
By the way, whereas Gramophone raved about his first Beethoven disc for Linn, this one got panned in the most recent issue. The reviewer there liked the same things i quite liked first time around, but like us, couldn't live with it's superficiality. As you say, a disappointment. Thank god for ebay.
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