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Fanfare

This box set is titled Complete 35 Piano Sonatas, which immediately attracts attention because we all learned that Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas. Most pianists have multiple scores and probably one or more complete recordings of arguably the greatest piano music ever written. The three early, fully developed sonatas also included here were published in 1783 and seem a quite logical addition to a complete set. They actually were included in the 35 piano sonatas published in the first anthology of Beethoven’s compositions (supervised by the composer himself). They were written when he was 12 to 13 years old and were dedicated to Prince-Elector (Kurfürst) Maximilian Friedrich, and so have been referred to as the Kurfürstensonaten. The story behind the Andante favori is well known. It was the original middle movement to the “Waldstein” Sonata, but Beethoven dropped it and composed a short transitional movement that works perfectly. At nearly nine minutes, the Andante favori is a beautiful piece on its own and certainly appropriate to include in a full set of the sonatas. 

After many hours of listening to this set, I must say that it is one to savor. The playing is crisp and the voices well delineated. Each time, even in the best-known sonatas, I hear a new detail. Beethoven writes so many quick dynamic changes and accents that Honma’s exceptional abilities here are one of the high points. Not only is her “Appassionata” a prime example of this, it is also one of the most exciting I’ve heard in a long time. There is outstanding piano playing all through this collection, from the simple but always well-shaped Alberti bass lines in the earlier sonatas to the monumental fugue that ends the “Hammerklavier” and the variations in the final movement of Op. 111. Even the best-known first movement of the “Moonlight” is special, mainly in the beauty of the exceptionally quiet triplets and perfectly voiced melody. 

Discovering the sonatas that are not as well known make this an essential set. Honma has significant teaching credentials, and virtually every undergraduate piano student learns a Beethoven sonata (or two or more). I wish I had been fortunate enough to have had a teacher with her insight into all of them. My sonata was the “Tempest,” and after years of playing it, I found Honma’s performance just about perfect. I would have been off to a much better start some 50 years ago had she been my teacher. She handles the recitatives in the recapitulation of the first movement with Beethoven’s pedal markings exactly followed, and a touch that allows for the dissonances created, but she never loses the melodic content. The opening rolled chord of the second movement perfectly ties back to the first. Even though the third movement is continuous 16th notes, the variety of textures and attention to both the little short phrases and the long ones makes this an exceptional musical treat. 

Credit here must also be accorded to Julian Brown. He is listed as the recording engineer, co-producer with Honma, and author of the notes in the detailed 76-page booklet. The recordings were made at Cal Arte Studios in Saratoga, CA from 2019 to 2023. Unlike the variety of recorded piano sound we hear on Pollini’s complete set of sonatas (recorded 1975–2014), the consistency here is quite good. This box set will take a place in my CD library right next to Pollini as a more complete reference with insightful, solid interpretations.