2/15 Hammerklavier Orchestrated & w Score / H.J. plays H-K

hammer

Segueing from yesterday's "Hammer-guitarre" post, I recently I found out that Felix Weingartner (the 1st conductor to record B.'s 9 symphonies) did an orchestral arrangement of Beethoven's Opus 106!   I knew of orchestral arrangements of some of the string quartets by Mahler - but this one by Weingartner was one I'd never heard of before. Why is this not more popular?  I'll let you decide....

Piano Sonata #29 In Bb, Op.106, "Hammerklavier" (1818) (Weingartner Orchestral Arrangement)
1. Allegro ("virtually impossible")
2. Scherzo: Assai vivace ("a dark interlude")
3. Adagio sostenuto ("the apotheosis of pain")
4. Introduzione: Largo - Fuga: Allegro risoluto ("dramatic fury and dissonance...terrifying... strangely unstable")
(from wikipedia)

Linklist

I also recently found one of those "score-following" videos - and with a work as monumental as the "Hammerklavier" - that can be really handy....(sequenced by snicolosi85)

Linklist

Finally, here's Hyun-Jung Lim (H.J. Lim) doing the ending fugue of the Hammerklavier.  I only just discovered her playing on Youtube and frankly her interpretations are astounding and fresh!  It's always good to hear new approaches to Beethoven and her's is very modern to my ears.  Apparently she adheres very closely to Beethoven's original metronome markings - much more so than most "traditional" pianists.  Certainly a new favorite of mine and I hope she records all of Beethoven's piano works at some point....Brendel's done it 3 times already...

Ms. Lim performs the 1st movement here.

Of course there's always the classic Brendel performance...