Ludwig van Beethoven
    In the Temperaments

* Piano Sonata, op. 13 in c, "Pathetique"
* Piano Sonata, op. 14/1 in Eb
* Piano Sonata, op. 27/2 in c#, "Moonlight"
* Piano Sonata, op. 53 in C, "Waldstein"

Enid Katahn, piano
Gasparo GSCD-332 Total time: 73:28

Summary for the Busy Executive: Well-tempered.

On the CD jewel case, you can see a sticker:  "WARNING:  This CD
contains pure intervals which may be habit forming!" In other words,
this is Beethoven in contemporary tunings, known as "well-tempered." As
you may know, our scale divides into twelve basic pitches.  However, you
may not know that slight adjustments have to be made to this arrangement
in order to have chords and intervals sound "in tune." As far as I know,
this is true of every tuning system.  Our present system of "equal
temperament" (the octave divided into twelve equal segments) represents
a compromise that allows us to play in all keys with the same degree of
"out-of-tune-ness." Yet, even here, the tuner must make small deviations
from the purely mathematical increase by the 12th root of 2 for the scales
to sound good to our ears, particularly as pitch rises.  You might say
that, in equal temperament, nothing is truly in tune or that everything
sounds equally out of tune.  The older system also represents a compromise,
however.  Here, some keys will sound more "in tune" than others.  The keys
will differ, of course, depending not only on the tuning chosen, but on the
selected base.  In any case, this limits a composer's ability to modulate
on the piano, where players can't adjust intonation, except crudely and
awkwardly, while they perform.  Of course, most composers used difficult,
left-field modulations, just not, usually, with keyboard music.  String
players, for example, can adjust pitch simply by moving their fingers
slightly, wind and brass players by controlling the pressure from their
lips and lungs.  We blame a singer for bad pitch.  We blame the
piano-tuner, rather than the pianist, for an out-of-tune Steinway.

I must say that most advocates of old tuning tend to sound to me
like cranks.  Music has changed.  We can't deny the musical history
that has passed since Liszt.  It's not a grand conspiracy that has kept
down historical tunings, but sheer convenience.  Maurizio Pollini probably
will not halt his recital for the tuner to change a Beethoven tuning
into a Debussy one.  Nevertheless, one can make a very strong case for
historical tunings on something like the Broadwood fortepiano - for
historically-informed performance.

This isn't really the situation here:  a well-tempered tuning on a modern
Steinway.  The defense, proposed by Edward Foote in his extensive liner
notes on tuning (most of which I admit I don't understand), is that:

   1.  "Today's modern concert grand is a wonderful instrument for the
   tonal music of 1800's Vienna.  It provides a wider range of expression
   and power than any of its predecessors";

   2.  Composers of the period went for certain modulatory effects simply
   lost in equal temperament.  Perhaps recorded music in general provides
   the key to real compromise here, allowing retunings unacceptable in
   most live modern recitals.

One can pick at either or both of these propositions, but such niggling
strikes me as beside the point.  I will say that Foote, while enthusiastic,
is hardly a crank or a pedant.  He invites you to hear something you may
not have heard before.  "It's neat" seems the main appeal.  I confess that
when I first listened to the CD, I immediately thought of a well-cared-for
boarding house piano - perhaps not quite ready for the tuner's ministering
hand.  The opening to the "Pathetique" in particular cut through with
rather an acid bite, nonetheless effective.  Unfortunately, I got used
to the strangeness of the sound rather quickly and began to focus on the
performance as performance.  Within a movement, I never did get a contrast
in the sound-character of the different keys.  In short, whatever magical
effects the historical tuning was supposed to work were lost on me.

That said, however, an overwhelming reason to buy this disc sticks around:
the playing of Enid Katahn, a pianist previously unknown to me.  The
tunings I regard as little more than gravy.  The meat is Katahn's fabulous
musicianship.  She plays Beethoven at the level of Schnabel and Serkin.
She makes you feel you're inside the composer's mind.  Again and again, I
caught myself thinking, "This is how the music should go." I put it down
to a momentary lapse, since Beethoven's music can "go" a lot of different
ways.  Still nothing seems over- or underdone.  The sheer weight of the
sound she gets impressed me.  Of course, Beethoven has his lighter moments,
and she handles these as well, but she always leaves behind a fundamental
seriousness, without pomposity.  The "Pastoral" sequence from Disney's
Fantasia, silly as it was, nevertheless reflected a pretty valid idea about
Beethoven's music:  a Goethean idea of classical Greece and classical drama
-- the marmoreal "objectivity" of Beethoven's tragedy and comedy.  That's
what Katahn gives you.  I was disappointed only by the finale of the
"Waldstein," too much on the tame side for my taste.

Nevertheless, a grand recording and a bit of a surprise.  The sound is
excellent and entirely appropriate:  a private room.

Steve Schwartz