Album

Several Beethoven piano sonata cycles are currently in progress and roughly in tandem with one another, giving listeners a great opportunity to compare pianists' approaches to the early sonatas. Perhaps the strength of Gerhard Oppitz's performances of these early sonatas is that he approaches each sonata as an individual, with less of a personal "style" than some of his competitors. The Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, Op. 7, is one of the longest of the entire cycle, with large structures filled by what would later be called pianism. Oppitz delivers a rip-roaring performance (sample the final stretches of the opening movement) that catches the relationship of this sonata to the public-virtuoso, "Emperor"-concerto aspect of Beethoven's musical personality. His somber yet magnetic reading of the slow movement shows the music's hints of the deeper melancholy to come in Beethoven's career. In the smaller sonatas of Op. 14, Oppitz tries more unorthodox interpretations. Hear the opening movement of the Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, for example. Played, as it often is, at a moderate tempo it has a languid, Schubertian feel. But it is marked Allegro, and Oppitz takes it at nearly the same speed as the opening movement of the Op. 14, No. 2 sonata, marked the same way. The music comes off as restless and spirited, and the relationship between the movements of the sonata, which seems homogeneous in the usual reading, is substantially altered. And in the still smaller sonatas of Op. 49, which are contemporaneous with the other works on the album despite the higher opus number, Oppitz backs off, with elegant but basically neutral versions of Beethoven works that have often served as teaching pieces. These Beethoven sonatas from one of Germany's leading contemporary pianists have an admirable way of compelling close listening without placing the pianist front and center.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.4 in Eb ('Grand Sonata'), Op.7 Work 31:21 Gerhard Oppitz Piano
1	1.Allegro molto e con brio	8:29			$1.49
2	2.Largo con gran espressione	9:18			$1.49
3	3.Allegro	5:52			$0.99
4	4.Rondo: Poco allegretto e grazioso	7:42			$1.49
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.9 in E, Op.14, No.1 Work 14:07 Gerhard Oppitz Piano
5	1.Allegro	6:22			$0.99
6	2.Allegretto	4:23			$0.99
7	3.Rondo: Allegro comodo	3:22			$0.99
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.10 in G, Op.14, No.2 Work 16:47 Gerhard Oppitz Piano
8	1.Allegro	8:06			$1.49
9	2.Andante	5:15			$0.99
10	3.Scherzo: Allegro assai	3:26			$0.99
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.19 in G-, Op.49, No.1 Work 7:39 Gerhard Oppitz Piano
11	1.Andante	4:24			$0.99
12	2.Rondo: Allegro	3:15			$0.99
Ludwig van Beethoven Composer Piano Sonata No.20 in G, Op.49, No.2 Work 8:16 Gerhard Oppitz Piano
13	1.Allegro ma non troppo	4:34			$0.99
14	2.Tempo di menuetto	3:42			$0.99