""Doesn't it always begin with Für Elise? I thought that was the unwritten rule...my parents were certainly driven close to madness by hearing that gently rocking opening punched out like a guitar riff by their stiff-fingered seven-year-old son. Then came those simple Sonatinas; but by then the violin was taking precedence, and being forced more-or-less at gunpoint to play the G major Romance with the school orchestra helped forge a new relationship with my adrenal gland. Beethoven was a staple of the school orchestras, and by the time I left school, only the Ninth remained to be conquered. That was finally bagged at a scratch performance in Oxford ...and while you're welcome to love the choral finale to death, as a fiddle player it's the astonishing and sometimes terrifying soundscape that precedes it that still haunts me.
At university, it was chamber music - cutting lectures on Thursday mornings to sight-read Beethoven piano trios with one of the piano teachers and my Venezuelan cellist flatmate. Any money I made from gigs was spent on second-hand LPs...on the way back from violin lessons in London, Roger at Gramex would let me borrow things, knowing I'd buy most of them when I came back the following week - and I still have my treasured sets of the Quartetto Italiano's complete Beethoven, and Stephen Kovacevich's recordings of the Piano Concertos. And Bernstein's Missa Solemnis, Pollini's late Beethoven Sonatas...and David Oistrakh's recordings of the Violin Concerto, the Sonatas with Lev Oborin, and the Triple Concerto; a violin sound and musicianship to stir the soul.
It all seems a long time ago. Cut to today, and it's fascinating talking to my guests on CD Review about their Beethoven recordings: Stephen Kovacevich on finishing his recent cycle of the sonatas, and wanting to begin again; Richard Goode's quiet passion, the Takacs Quartet taking a collective deep breath before beginning their Beethoven cycle, and just recently Dietrich Henschel on the greatness of Beethoven's songs. And perhaps most memorably, Frans Brüggen calling Beethoven the great 'upsetter' while we were discussing Brüggen's revelatory account of the Violin Concerto with Thomas Zehetmair; if Beethoven's greatest music isn't disturbing you emotionally at some deep level, if you're able to find it comfortably familiar, then somewhere along the line we've lost the plot. It's one of the great privileges of this job I'm allowed to do for Radio 3 that I'm able to hear so many vital Beethoven recordings, old and new, that prove time and again that he's absolutely right."
Here are some of Andrew's favourite recordings:
1. played by Livia Rev, on her lovely recital 'For Children'
Hyperion CDH55194 (budget)
2. and Romances: Thomas Zehetmair's revelatory account with the Orchestra of the 18th Century on period instruments conducted by Frans Brüggen.
Philips 462 123-2
...alongside one of David Oistrakh's recordings, of course!
3. : the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Thrilling and refreshing...
Teldec 2292-46452-2 (5CDs)
...or at budget price: Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by David Zinman (using the new del Mar Edition). An absolute bargain.
Arte Nova 74321 64510-2 (5CDs)
4. played by the Takacs Quartet, supplanting the Quartetto Italiano for me as the benchmark Beethoven series for the 21st century.
Decca 470 8492 (3CDs)
5. : David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, deservedly reissued as one of EMI's Great Recordings of the Century (and coupled with a pretty awesome Brahms Double Concerto as well)...
EMI 5669022 (mid-price)
And then there's the Florestan Trio's recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Trios for Hyperion, Oistrakh and Lev Oborin playing the Violin Sonatas, Pollini in the late Piano Sonatas, and Richard Goode in the whole cycle. The Diabelli's with Piotr Anderszewski or Stephen Kovacevich...
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