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Review by JJ January 23, 2013 (6 of 10 found this review helpful)
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The thirty-two sonatas for piano punctuate the famous composer’s whole life. They are, as the pianist Alfred Brendel wrote: “unique for three reasons: 1. They reflect the entire evolution of his genius up to and including the composition of the last quartets. The Diabelli variations and the last series of Bagatelles complete the picture. 2. They contain not a single minor work – which distinguishes them from the works with variations, which are somewhat unequal. 3. Beethoven doesn’t repeat himself in his sonatas. Each work, each movement is a new organism.” On this recording are three sonatas, including the most well-known ones. The Sonata N°8 in C minor, “Pathetic” Op.13 which was first published in 1799 and which acquired, and right away, a real popularity. The Sonata N°23 in F minor, “Appassionata” Op. 57, dating from 1806, which the composer himself considered “his greatest.’ And the Sonata N°26 in E flat major, “Les Adieux” Op. 81a, dedicated to his friend the Archduke Rodolphe of Austria, for which the master from Bonn was outraged by the title used by his editor: “Lebewohl is entirely different from Les Adieux; one says the first only to a single person, with one’s heart, whereas the other to an assembly, to whole cities.” Marie-Josèphe Jude takes hold of these sonatas with rare elegance, turning the musical discourse into an overwhelming pianistic confession, at whose heart poetic fervor vibrates each note, each breath evoked. Magnificently rigorous, her playing seems self-evident. From the first vibration to the last breath it is indeed the soul and thinking of Beethoven we perceive. In a rich sound recording, this SACD is a landmark.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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