Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas
(Robert Silverman, piano. Orpheum Masters KSP 830 10-CD
set. Jim Turner, prod.; John Atkinson, eng. DDD. TT: 10:16:00)
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 Robert who? Unless you're
an audiophile or a rabid collector of piano recordings, you may not immediately recognize
the name Robert Silverman. That's because he has spent the last quarter century as a
teacher rather than touring continuously. As a result, he's known primarily through his
recordings, and in the audiophile world, particularly for his three CDs on the Stereophile
label.
But among serious students of piano literature, Silverman's
records have been much sought after, long-anticipated, and avidly discussed. For this
discerning world, a Silverman outing is always a major event -- and his infrequent concert
appearances in the US are the cause of profound frustration.
Among the cognoscenti, any new Robert Silverman recording
is a big deal. (For his complete discography, go to www.robert-silverman.com.) But this,
his take on the towering edifice of piano literature, his traversal of the Beethoven piano
sonatas, is a truly major release.
Silverman is an extraordinary pianist, blessed with
phenomenal technique and a huge soul. I'm increasingly of the opinion that sheer
technique is overrated -- oh it's nice to have, but to express a great truth, one needs a
canny mixture of passion and intelligence, and all the technique in the world can't
justify a performance that says nothing.
These performances express great truths in a direct and
singularly conversational way. What you hear, in any given sonata, is Silverman's direct
engagement with Beethoven, tempered by a lifetime of playing and thinking about this
music. There's not a single glib moment in the over ten hours of music that comprise this
set. Nor is there a single flashy note -- that's not Silverman's style. It's as though we
are privy to a conversation between equals.
In the piano sonatas, even more than the quartets,
Beethoven wrestled with his personal demons. The sonatas are as close as we can come to
experiencing his actual thoughts. You can read Beethoven's moving Heiligenstadt
Testament, addressed to his brothers, wherein he laments his progressive deafness and
declares that "it is owing to virtue, and to my art, that I did not end my life by
suicide." But words were not Beethoven's métier -- he expressed the same despair,
and his victory over it, much more forcefully in the Appassionata.
That's the inner compulsion in this set -- to know
the mind of this music's creator. Silverman captures it all, from the ethereal beauty of
the Moonlight to the intensity of the Hammerklavier. And along the way, I
found myself saying, over and over, yes, this must be what he meant. It gave me
goosebumps -- it was like being given a glimpse over the Creator's shoulder as he shaped
the firmament.
I already have the complete sonatas by Arrau, Brendel,
Backhaus, Kempff, Nat and Schnabel -- and all offer wonderful performances, to be sure --
but I suspect that this Silverman set will be my first choice when I wish to hear this
music from now on.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that the set has superb sound.
It was recorded by John Atkinson to 24-bit, 88kHz digital. The sound is dynamic (wow, is
it ever!) and extraordinarily natural. Part of that naturalness is the ruthless way that
the recording reveals that the piano was in a small room -- far smaller than any venue
you've ever heard a nine-foot Bösendorfer in before.
Is that a problem? I can't answer that for you -- I have
quite a few friends with grand pianos and none are in rooms that are scaled
appropriately, so for me the real sound of a concert grand is the sound of a big piano in
a small room. That said, it is less than optimum for developing the sustained ringing tone
that befits a concert-sized instrument.
On the other hand, it delivers a sense of presence and slam
that I've rarely heard from any commercially available recording. I like it -- your
mileage may vary.
But as to the total package, music plus sound, there
can be no doubt: This is a recording that will stand the test of time. It's a window onto
the mind of Beethoven, a performance that rivals any currently available and, to my way of
thinking, stands head and shoulders above most. If you love Beethoven's piano music,
you'll have to have this superb set.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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