New Beethoven Piano Cycle Launched

Beethoven: Heroic to Hammerklavier

David Korevaar, piano.

Prospero Classical Recordings 111

Disc One: Total Time: 71:17

Disc Two: Total Time: 66:57

Recording:   (*)***/****

Performance: ****/****

Undertaking a project to record all of Beethoven’s sonatas is ambitious.  Pianist David Korevaar embarked on just such an endeavor that began to appear at the end of 2024.  However, the releases are planned to be solely released digitally and can be found on Spotify and Apply Music.  Collections of the “early sonatas” dropped in April and June, respectively.  Additional albums are scheduled to drop in August, October, and December.  This current release appeared in April of this year as the only physical media version.

Daniel Korevaar has recorded a variety of titles across a wide swath of romantic and contemporary literature.  He is noted for his Bach recordings, especially that of the Well-Tempered Klavier.  He teaches at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Korevaar’s decision to explore Beethoven’s sonatas and piano music is another of those COVID-19 era ideas where artists needed to challenge themselves to stay fresh and focused in the midst of the pandemic.  With scheduled performances cancelled, he decided instead to perform, record, and share “virtual” performances of the 32 sonatas through YouTube.  It was a way to continue to make music in a time when live performances had been silenced.  That project was made without any special recording conditions and even regular piano tuning was unavailable. 

This set includes five of the later sonatas with three among the more popular of Beethoven’s oeuvre: the Appassionata, Waldstein, and Hammerklavier.  Of course, there are plenty of reference recordings of these works (with Wilhelm Kempff’s survey being a prime favorite) and these performances will not supplant one’s personal preferences.  Korevaar uses a Kawai piano here which results in an often brighter quality at the high end and less warmth on the lower end of the instrument (this will be less a factor in a brighter streaming sound) and proves to be a bonus for the Appassionata, especially.  The response action also seems a bit delayed in some of the rapid passagework.

Disc one focuses on sonatas 21-23 with the addition of the Andante favori, WoO 57.  The Waldstein, Op. 53 is certainly an impassioned performance that does display solid passagework in the many scalar flourishes.  The rapid harmonic punctuations are shaped as well to add an extra emphasis as the first movement gets underway.  The sustain in the slow movement adds a bit more body to the music.  The third movement has some equally fine dynamic shaping in phrases.  As a palette cleanser, the Andante favori, originally intended for Op. 53, is given a wonderful reading here and it is also great to have it paired here with its original companions.  Next up is the odd, two-movement Piano Sonata No. 22 in F, Op. 54.  This is a more Haydn-esque nod here with a fine minuet and then a more virtuosic and challenging second movement.  That is not to say the first movement is not without its own challenges—especially the octave segments.  There is a playful quality to some of these movements and the way the different motivic ideas are placed across the registers.  From here we move on to the f-minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata”.  There is hefty competition for this sonata.  Again, Korevaar’s interpretation helps guide the listener through the interesting dynamic and textural shifts where the crispness of touch brings out these various threads well.  The final bars seem a bit quirky though in this performance with some interesting tempo shifts.  The primary hallmark of the performances overall are a sense that one is hearing a careful delineation of line that balances well between both hands throughout.  Tempi do often feel on the brisk side at times.  One longs for just a bit more lingering in the chorale of Op. 57, for example.  Overall, though these are all solid performances.

Disc two brings us two of the sonatas from Beethoven’s “final period”.  Both sonatas contain four movements, a sort of “symphony” for the keyboard.  The Op. 101 piece was performed publicly in 1817.  These later sonatas now begin that shift to the incorporation of more “Baroque-period” techniques especially in terms of counterpoint with canons and fugues being explored alongside the new directions of tonality and range of the expanding keyboard itself.  Number 28 opens with a movement that has a variety of interesting ideas related to four-part harmony.  One quirky component is that the tonic chord is never used for cadences and when it does appear is never in root position until the recapitulation (even then missing the third)!  The second movement provides a march that plays with texture, rhythm, and tempo.  The third references the opening movement theme and moves directly into the final movement where Beethoven’s explorations include a fugato segment and the introduction of the lowest key on his piano at the time, a “contra E”. 

The ”Great Sonata”, or Hammerklavier, Op. 106, is perhaps one of the most challenging sonatas in the repertoire and usually runs around 40-45 minutes (Korevaar is on the lengthier side).  The designation of the instrument here in German is a nod to the nationalist fervor of the burgeoning Romantic period.   We also see Beethoven returning to unpacking small motivic ideas, here the interval of a third, as a core integral component of the piece.  He also included metronome markings for the first time—though these have been adjusted, especially since the first movement’s marking is practically unplayable.  The first movement begins assertively, but as we continue onward, things begin to dissipate in the coda until the two ff chords mark its end.  Along the way are further tonal experiments and interesting flirtations with contrapuntal complexity.  The scherzo playfully references both the theme from the opening movement and a bit of the Eroica as well.  It too sort of plays itself out dynamically at the end.  The third movement is one of the longest “Adagios” in the books with Kempff’s interpretation a brisk 16 minutes and Christoph Eschenbach’s running to 25 minutes!  In this respect, Korevaar is closer to the former performance temporally.  The final movement brings us to a monumental demonstration of counterpoint and thematic variations. 

Korevaar provides thoughtful performances here that demonstrate his personal ideas for each of these works.  There is a sense of their place within the entire collection of piano sonatas and that helps as well.  The recording captures the sound with a warm, slight ambient quality.  The instrument itself is not always as cooperative.  It can provide a crisper response in the rapid passage work.  The lower part of the piano just feels a bit thin though.  Some of the pedaling in the performances will also not be to everyone’s taste (mostly in the first disc’s sonatas).  With that said, Korevaar’s previous exploration of the Bach Well-Tempered Klavier in particular brings an equal sense of detail for the contrapuntal aspects of the later two sonatas.  The delineation of these lines contributes to a greater appreciation of Beethoven’s fugal segments, especially.  Minor quibbles aside, these are solid readings of these sonatas.  The interpretations provide Korevaar’s own perspective on this music and if one meets him even halfway, there will be a great deal of pleasure to be had in exploring these familiar repertoire pieces.  Sonatas 28 and 22 come across especially well here.  The Hammerklavier is also quite beautiful, with an exquisite performance of the slow movement.

Now, if we also take a step back there are a few things to keep in mind.  The first is that while this will be an integral sonata cycle, only the current release is scheduled to be released as a physical product.  One must delve onto the internet to get a sense of the earlier performances in the cycle to better listen to Korevaar’s broader conception of how each sonata fits into the grand scheme of things.  Most will not follow I suspect into that realm.  There will be some quibbles in tempo decisions, especially where things are pulled back as part of the broader interpretation.  They fit within Korevaar’s approach, so again, as is the case with these familiar masterpieces it will be a matter of taste.  With all that aside, there is a lot to appreciate within this set overall be drawn into the performances through Korevaar’s conviction for these pieces. These performances will not supplant your favorite versions, nor should they, but as noted above, several will certainly be performances to return to with rich rewards over time.