Track Listing

1. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 13: Grave - Allegro di molto e con brio
2. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 13: Andante cantabile
3. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 13: Rondo, Allegro
4. Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ('Moonlight'), Op. 27/2: Adagio sostenuto
5. Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ('Moonlight'), Op. 27/2: Allegretto
6. Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ('Moonlight'), Op. 27/2: Presto agitato
7. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor ('Appassionata'), Op. 57: Allegro assai
8. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor ('Appassionata'), Op. 57: Andante con moto
9. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor ('Appassionata'), Op. 57: Allegro ma non troppo
10. Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major ('Les Adieux'), Op. 81a: Adagio - Allegro
11. Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major ('Les Adieux'), Op. 81a: Andante espressivo
12. Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major ('Les Adieux'), Op. 81a: Vivacissimamente

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29734 in Music
• Brand: RCA
• Released on: 2000-10-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

First Rate Beethoven from Rubinstein
Rubinstein knew all 32 of Beethoven's Sonatas by heart, but in public and on record, limited himself to the most popular half dozen or so. The four Sonatas on this CD--originally recorded at RCA Italiana Studios in the early 1960s--were, with the five Concertos, the core of Rubinstein's Beethoven repertoire.

Rubinstein's approach to the Pathetique is characteristic of his Beethoven playing: Tempos are sensible, avoiding extremes of speed or slowness; phrasing is devoid of artifice; pedalling is sparser than Beethoven's written indications, but many of Beethoven's contemoparies claim Beethoven over-pedalled; repeats are generally taken. Some purists will object to the way Rubinstein plays some of the grace notes and ornaments in the first movement, but there has been no conclusive evidence either way on the "correct" manner to handle them (Beethoven probably didn't care anyway).

This CD contains Rubinstein's only recording of the inescapable Moonlight Sonata. He performed it in public several times during the 1962-1963 season, and then dropped it from his repertoire. The first movement is played simply, even a little dryly, as is the second movement. But Rubinstein lets loose in the Finale, bringing the work to a stunning close. Nobody else could hit a piano that hard and still create such a beautiful sound.

The Appassionata was a favorite of Rubinstein's. He featured it in his earliest concert performances, played it almost to the end of his career, and recorded it three times. This recording is more successful than the previous two (the first was almost comically slapdash). Max Wilcox, the producer of the original recording, has noted that this was one of the few times Rubinstein became hampered in the recording studio, and many takes were required before Rubinstein was satisfied. But one could never guess that from listening to the resulting performance, it is totally organic and betrays no hint of being spliced together.

The Les Adieu Sonata rounds out the album, bringing a joyous conclusion to a wonderful recording.

RCA has remastered the sound, which was pretty good to begin with, with their usual attention to detail.

Shining Beauty From a Legendary Pianist
There are many wonderful recordings of Beethoven's piano sonatas by great virtuoso pianists: Ashkenazy, Brendel, Gilels, Kempff, Perahia, and Pollini, to name but a few. Yet, even more than 40 years after they were recorded, Rubinstein's performance of these four famous sonatas still holds its own against extremely stiff competition in a very crowded field.

Even though the most thrilling, white-hot performance that I have ever heard of the Appassionata is by Pollini, I am not giving this CD anything less than five stars. While there may be individual performances of each of these individual sonatas that are as good as these, or, in the case of Pollini's Appassionata or Gilels' Pathetique, arguably better, I cannot think of any single CD by a single pianist that provides more beautiful performances, taken as a whole, of these four sonatas. As he plays through the allegro and adagio movements of each sonata, Rubinstein brings out vividly both the fiery passion and the poetic grace in these works. He does play some passages with a certain reserve, but I consider it the reserve of a master pianist with more than sixty years of experience, both in music and in life, playing these sonatas with precision as well as passion, not only savoring but serving the music as he plays it, subordinating himself and his ability for pianistic pyrotechnics to its beauty.

Rubinstein's highly polished technique and consummate mastery of the keyboard are stunning; his sense of rhythm, his scintillating runs, trills, and arpeggios, and his joining together of elegance and passion, are a wonder to behold. In addition, his control is an amazing example of power held in reserve: he knows exactly how hard to hit the piano in the louder passages to bring out all of the passion in the music without ever letting the sound degenerate to the level of mere percussive noise. As Hank Drake writes in his review of this CD, "Nobody else could hit a piano that hard and still create such a beautiful sound."

The sound engineering, with 20-bit remastering of the original analog recordings, is excellent.

Not only is this CD a pleasure to listen to, but the essay in the insert is one of the most well-written, interesting, and lengthy (8 pages) that I have encountered in the Rubinstein CD series, with information on Beethoven, these four sonatas, and Rubinstein, including extracts from Rubinstein's "My Young Years." Very highly recommended.

High class
Arthur Rubinstein is immediately associated with Chopin's music, and we all agree on that: he completely changed the way people see Chopin, either as a man and as a composer, and he found a way to get over Cortot's over-romanticism without choosing a "teutonic" approach. But as Rubinstein set a standard for Chopin, a new standard for Beethoven was found by distinguished pianists such as Backhaus and Fischer; Rubinstein didn't probably disagree enough with them to seek a completely different path, and maybe he wasn't as close to Beethoven as he was to Chopin. Nonetheless, he would never play "the German way"... that's why his sonatas sound Rubinstein-like, but they're actually not meant to go down in history.
So here we have four famous works played in an "usual" way, but with a tone quality and a good taste that couldn't be more "unusual": it's Ruby all the way, folks!

The "Pathetique" is a triumph of great sound and proportions, as well as the "Appassionata", but I think they both lack the sparkle of earlier recordings (vol. 10 and 14). The "Moonlight" sounds beautiful in its under-romanticism, and "Les Adieux" is probably the winner of the whole disc, with its lovely and passionate tone and clever use of rubato.