Pianophilia

Tonight I take the liberty to follow in the footsteps of our dear esteemed moderator Fred in posting an example of the forerunner (in time and manner) of the Schnabel Beethoven edition:

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
Sonate op. 111 ed. Hans Guido von Bülow Apart from being a cuckold and suffering from severe head and nerve pain for quite a period of his life, Bülow must have been a remarkable pianist and musician. Clara Schumann described his playing as dry and academic and Oscar Bie pictured it as fine pencil drawing. We should however keep in mind that a pianist who had the honour to premiere Liszt's sonata and Tchaikovsky's concerto op. 23 must have had some skills! And it must have been an extraordinary concert experience to listen to Brahms and Bülow alternately conducting and playing the solo part in Brahms op. 83.

Bülow was a committed teacher, who even kept a sort of journal for each of his pupils. But he also had a typical german (?) educational attitude towards his audience. He was one of the first pianists to perform the late Beethoven sonatas in public and you better kept stock-still during the performance, otherwise you were "punished" with the repetition of the fugue of op. 106!

Bülow's approach in his Beethoven edition (Sonatas op. 53-111, Bagatelles, Rondo op. 129, Diabelli Variations*) is at least as intellectual as that of Schnabel, he even out-Schnabels Artur in the number and length of his footnotes!!! It is nothing less than an Urtext edition, but some remarks and hints for fingering and pedaling remain valid to the present day imho.

Bülow was known as a man of considerable wit: Once he was criticized for conducting from memory. He retorted: "Ich habe die Partitur im Kopf, andere Dirigenten haben den Kopf in der Partitur". (I have the score in my head, while other conductors have their head sticking in the score.)

*I will post this as a further example of B. as an editor. Especially this edition was held in high esteem by Edwin Fischer.

alfor wrote:Bülow's approach in his Beethoven edition (Sonatas op. 53-111, Bagatelles, Rondo op. 129, Diabelli Variations*) is at least as intellectual as that of Schnabel, he even out-Schnabels Artur in the number and length of his footnotes!!! It is nothing less than an Urtext edition, but some remarks and hints for fingering and pedaling remain valid to the present day imho.

The Bulow-Lebert editions of Beethoven as published (for example) by Schirmer have certainly been a staple for many years but in my view and others I have spoken to are very much an evolutionary dead-end when it comes to interpretation. As you say, scholarly but certainly not urtext, one only has to look at the opening of the op27no2 and the C-minor variations to realise just how many 'additions' Bulow made to Beethoven's original score. Other than looking at the first editions (http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de) my own favourite edition has been the Associated Board edition as edited by Tovey.

Regards
Fred

Alfor, I finally got around to playing through the Migot etudes for the right hand today and what a delightful surprise these pieces are. It is rather rare to have etudes (or for that matter ANY compositions) written for the right hand alone and these are exceptionally well written and original. It's a wonderful addition; thanks for posting, Alfor.

fredbucket wrote:

alfor wrote:Bülow's approach in his Beethoven edition (Sonatas op. 53-111, Bagatelles, Rondo op. 129, Diabelli Variations*) is at least as intellectual as that of Schnabel, he even out-Schnabels Artur in the number and length of his footnotes!!! It is nothing less than an Urtext edition, but some remarks and hints for fingering and pedaling remain valid to the present day imho.

The Bulow-Lebert editions of Beethoven as published (for example) by Schirmer have certainly been a staple for many years but in my view and others I have spoken to are very much an evolutionary dead-end when it comes to interpretation. As you say, scholarly but certainly not urtext, one only has to look at the opening of the op27no2 and the C-minor variations to realise just how many 'additions' Bulow made to Beethoven's original score. Other than looking at the first editions (http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de) my own favourite edition has been the Associated Board edition as edited by Tovey.

Regards
Fred

Dear Fred,

I agree, that the Bülow edition today is mainly of historic value. In the 19th century most pianists were also composers and the score was not taken as "sacrosanct". (Bülow also edited Chopin's etudes with a lot of "corrections").
For non-historic Beethoven editions, the Tovey edition (fingering by Harold Craxton!) surely is a fine one. - In the sonatas I very much appreciate the fingering by Conrad Hansen (Henle) and that by a certain Mr. Kuhlmann in the Diabelli variations (Ed. Peters).

Best regards

Al(l)-fred

fleubis wrote:Alfor, I finally got around to playing through the Migot etudes for the right hand today and what a delightful surprise these pieces are. It is rather rare to have etudes (or for that matter ANY compositions) written for the right hand alone and these are exceptionally well written and original. It's a wonderful addition; thanks for posting, Alfor.

Dear fleubis,

the Migot etudes have been posted by

lito valle!!!

best regards

al(l)-for (but not for the Migot etudes...)

Frank for Frank:

Frank LA FORGE (American pianist, accompanist, composer, and teacher, 1879-1953; http://www.allmusic.com/artist/frank-la-forge-q3519)
RomanceNice Drawing-Room trifle!

Sorry, my mistake, Alfor. My appreciation to "lito valle" for the Migot Etudes and to you for the nice Migot Sonata. Things are a little hectic around here lately, but want to give credit where credit due, so I will try and be more careful.

I agree that the von Bulow edition of the 32 is mainly historical interest, and I rarely look at it, but the comments he makes are most interesting. My staple Beethoven 32 has always been Tovey since that's what we used in music school, but I often look to Schnabel for interpretative guidance (in my old age). And maybe one of these years I'll get the fugue in the Hammerklavier the way I want it.

Dear Alfred,

Many thanks for the Frank La Forge! This composer was familiar to me only through the Ampico piano roll recordings which were issued under his name. I had never seen a score...and this one is a very nice parlor piano piece indeed. This type of music was extremely popular on "reproducing" piano rolls during the teens and twenties, in fact I think in this case it is much easier to locate the Ampico piano rolls (Ebay, etc.) for these pieces than the actual scores. It's a lovely sentimental piece....vielen Dank!!

As Always,

Frank (not La Forge)

fhimpsl wrote:...I had never seen a score...

Apparently la Forge composed quite a number of songs. The Romance is the only piano piece I have come across so far (it was also published in a simplified version!).

Henri SAUGUET
Romance en ut (Souvenir des bords du Rhin)