Daisy’s Reviews > Beethoven's Piano Sonatas > Status Update

It appears I have exceeded my quota of 'likes' for the day according to GR's arbitrary limit, but that won't stop me from commenting on the sheer joy it brings me to see you reading/listening about one of my absolute favourite, and most commonly returned to, retreats in Classical Music! I love them all; Waldstein, Appassionata, Hammerklavier and the 3 late sonatas that follow it in particular! What recordings have you been listening to? My fallback has been Daniel Barenboim's complete recordings for so long that it occurs to me I may need to branch out and hear some different interpretations! 😁

Thank you for the comment Jonathan ☺️ I had no idea GR had quota for “ likes “ now 😟
I do love them all but the ones you mentioned are my favourites too, I was just listening to Waldstein, and it seems no matter how many times I have listened to it, I am still so moved by the beginning ( theme) of the last movement. Sonata 12 is a favourite too.
Barenboim is one of the recordings I listen to often too! But currently I am listening to Andras Schiff and really like it, I am also listening to his lectures on the sonatas ( they are all on YouTube), those are great also. Greenberg focuses more on the compositional stuff and Schiff talks more about the interpretations. I love listening to Schiff talking about music, he has a great sense of humour too!
I also LOVE to Mitsuko Uchida’s recordings of the late sonatas!

Daisy wrote: "Thank you for the comment Jonathan ☺️ I had no idea GR had quota for “ likes “ now 😟
I do love them all but the ones you mentioned are my favourites too, I was just listening to Waldstein, and it s..."

Yeah, I don't think I usually give enough likes to trigger it but I was playing catchup and it definitely got to the point that it wasn't letting me like anymore posts 😁
Schiff's a gem, isn't he. I really love his Bach recordings and was watching a video afew weeks back of him discussing the Inventions and Sinfonias. Brilliant stuff. I sort of view his recordings as the "safe standard" (sounds dull but I don't mean it to be) and if I feel like something a little outside the box I'll go to a different source but I think he just interprets Bach so... "Correctly" 😄
I can't remember wat B'hove piece it was but I listened to an Uchida recording of one of his works recently and didn't love it. Which is odd because I usually love her stuff (especially her Mozart sonatas) and I know she's also renowned for her Beethoven. I will listen to her late sonata recordings next time I listen to them :)

Ohhh I know exactly what you meant by “ safe standard”! He probably would appreciate that label too. And I know which video you were referring to as I watched that too ! Haha, that’s the one he is like “ if you don’t like Bach, or Shakespeare or Rembrandt, you keep quiet, it’s nothing to be proud of “🤣, I love how he’s always being so real but also so incredibly generous with his knowledge.
Have you listened / watched his performance of well tempered Clavier in 2017 at BBC Proms? It was interesting to compare that to his 1984 recordings for me!
I like Uchida a lot, I also loved her Schubert piano sonata 21. Maybe she is good at the late works of composers? 😋 or maybe it’s a personal preference thing for me. I do hope you like her later Beethoven when you get to those 🤗