Claudio Arrau Plays Mozart Sonata No 7 & Beethoven Sonata No 32
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Actor: Beethoven, Claudio Arrau, MozartBrand: ST Clair ENT GRP INC
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Classical, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 58 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Video Artists Int'l
DVD Reviews of Claudio Arrau Plays Mozart Sonata No 7 & Beethoven Sonata No 32
DVD Review: Arrau overwhelmed by Beethoven.
Summary: 3 Stars
This film leaves the viewer in a somewhat puzzled state - it starts in an unfinished room, as in a basement, with a voice speaking in French in the same manner as in Jean Cocteau's film Orpheus - I am not sure if it was deliberate or not, but it gives an impression of suspense and mystery.
Claudio Arrau appears in the empty basement and silently proceeds to the piano. He starts playing Mozart's Sonata No.7 in A minor, K. 310 - a well-familiar work, and he plays it quite well. I have listened to all three volumes of Claudio Arrau from "The Great Pianists of the 20th Century" series, and he is up to his reputation there - a true virtuoso, with special sensitivity in Liszt and Mozart; he plays them with such a unique expression. I knew that in Liszt's Sonata in B Minor Horowitz still takes a decisive lead, but Arrau is nevertheless formidable. So his playing of Mozart left me in the usual admiration.
But then he starts playing Beethoven's Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. It is the last Beethoven's Piano Sonata, written between 1821 and 1822. Like other "late period" sonatas, it contains fugal elements and is technically very demanding.
Well, unfortunately it shows and hears rather quickly that perhaps it is too technically demanding for Arrau. He makes crude mistakes that are heard very distinctly, alas. At some point I was getting very uncomfortable, as I never heard such clumsy playing by a professional live or on any recording. But since Arrau is a celebrity, and I am a nobody, I decided to check myself and listened to Maurizio Pollini playing of the same Sonata - maybe such badly sounding notes were part of the Beethoven's score??? I knew it was not Schoenberg, but still - maybe certain dissonance was part of Beethoven's game. But no - sadly for Arrau, it turned out that he really played this Sonata with unforgivable mistakes - Pollini's playing is very clear and Beethoven sounds with him flawlessly.
I am really not sure why a master of such caliber as Arrau would release a recital that would expose his heavy difficulties with playing this piece. To his credit, he plays it expressively and with a fine nuance, but the foundation of it is all ruined due to grave technical problems. He was not too old at the time of the performance - about 60 years old, so he should have been in a pretty good shape. It is, nevertheless, sad to hear such poor playing from the admired master.
Also, he gives a curious interview, highlighting once more how fashion rules the world of art and music, and how tastes change. At the time of the recording, in 1964, he speaks of his playing of Bach, and that he thinks that Bach's music was not really made for piano but rather for harpsichord and clavichord; and that overall, Bach's music is medieval. Then he goes on an comments on Debussy, that this composer really brought new sonority to piano music and that he was a true master. Claudio Arrau seems to just stop short from saying that Debussy was a better composer for piano than Bach.
I cannot imagine anyone today would say such things - whether they are true or not, such opinions would be ridiculed today, in the age of Baroque revival and Bach worshiping.
Going back to Beethoven's Sonata, despite of Arrau numerous problems during his performance, one is still astonished with the third variation in the second movement - the third variation, which has a powerful, stomping, dance-like character with falling 32-part notes, comes out much faster than the first two variations and with heavy syncopation. This third variation, to a modern ear, sounds like a great ragtime jazz theme; I was stunned to hear such music written more than a hundred years before jazz appeared in its full glory.
The Beethoven's Sonata No. 32 was very influential: Chopin had greatly admired this sonata. In two of his works - the second piano sonata and the Revolutionary Etude, he alluded to the opening and ending of the sonata's first movement, respectively (compare the opening bars of the two sonatas, and bars 77-81 of Chopin's Etude with bars 150-152 in the first movement of Beethoven's sonata). Prokofiev based the structure of his Symphony No. 2 on this sonata.
Therefore, Arrau could have played it better - especially that he knew that Beethoven really wrote for the piano, not for the harpsichord. It is a great film still, since it is always interesting to watch a Maestro perform, but due to the aforementioned problems, I give it only three stars - expectations are high for giants like Claudio Arrau.
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Description of Claudio Arrau Plays Mozart Sonata No 7 & Beethoven Sonata No 32
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