Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
The Complete Violin Sonatas (Nos.1-10) (1798-1810)
Shunske Sato (violin)
Shaunn Chai (fortepiano)
rec. 2023/2024, Westvest90, Schiedam, The Netherlands
Cobra 0094 [3 CDs: 235]
Described in its publicity notes as ‘boundary-challenging’, this set of Beethoven’s complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin is a good one for jaundiced old hands such as myself who increasingly fail to see the point of churning out new recordings of old repertoire played in much the same way as many of the old recordings. This is something a bit different and, while it might take getting used to, is ultimately none the worse for that.
Violinist Shunske Sato and pianist Shuann Chai have played all of these sonatas before as a mini-marathon, and they have a special connection with the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata, the very first piece they played together. Aside from years of performing these works, this recording is also based on a good deal of research into historical sources and old recordings. Both musicians are early-music specialists, and with the sprightly tang of two nicely restored fortepianos to represent changes in instrument making between the earlier and later sonatas we know we are in the presence of thoughtful and well-prepared playing. In the booklet Shaunn Chai states that “‘copying’ Beethoven is never the goal. Anyway, from what we know about his edgy and near-scandalous performances, I get the feeling that nothing we do now would be far enough!” Regarding their recording philosophy, Shunske Sato adds: “we’re often confronted with choosing between a technically clean but uninteresting take, and a musically captivating take that contains some imperfections.”
All of this adds up to a different approach to listening when it comes to this set. My first impressions were raised eyebrows and the occasional confused frown, but having talked about this with people who know these musicians and have challenged them on their approach I am more inclined to hear these performances with open and empathetic ears. While accepting that a recording needs to stand up to repeated listening, neither of these musicians see these as ‘the version’, and what we have is more of a concert experience in which elements of surprise and spontaneity play an important part. This might be seen as an excuse for those aforementioned imperfections but once you’ve taken the time to inhabit this stylistic world for a while then you start to appreciate the virtuosity on display rather than focussing on the occasional note with only 95% accuracy of intonation.
I am not going to go into each sonata in detail but will point out one stylistic detail that is likely to scandalise some listeners. As others have pointed out, we cannot really know exactly how music sounded in the days before recording, but Shunske Sato argues that portamenti between notes on the violin are more likely than not to have been ‘a thing’, and a feature of accepted performance style that was dropped or fell out of fashion relatively late in musical history, and even then not in all genres of music. Just taking Adagio con molto espressione second movement of Op. 12 No. 3 as an example, listeners will have to adjust into finding mental agreement with any kind of sliding between notes in this music if they are to avoid running into the street to exclaim their horror to whoever will listen. Once you align yourself with the thought that this is what Beethoven might have expected to hear, then you realise that this ‘question of taste’ is in fact very skilfully executed and by no means something that need discount this set of recordings as a realistic consideration. This is also a feature not entirely absent from other recordings, I will admit, but for some reason they seem to stand out more here than with other violinists. Compare Yehudi Menuhin from 1947 in the Adagio espressivo second movement of the Op. 96 sonata (Naxos Historical 8.110988) with the same movement by Shunske Sato and you may initially fall off your seat. These recordings encourage us to make new discoveries: “We don’t pretend to speak for Beethoven here, but we hope that hearing this performance makes you feel that you have come to know him – and us – a bit better.”
What you get here is a set of superbly recorded works, with an excellent balance between the fortepiano and violin. Beethoven throws his melodic invention liberally between each instrument, and with plenty of positive energy in articulation and dynamic give and take there is an equality of status between each instrument in these performances that is really stimulating. The fortepiano sound from both instrumentst, by Michael Rosenberger of Vienna from 1800 and ca. 1820, is excellent, and each with an attractive richness of resonance and colour that stands on its own. The violin is set up with gut strings which gives the sound a ringing clarity and a gruff directness that suits Beethoven’s extremes of contrast very well indeed. The venue for the recording us a well-known location for chamber music recordings with a pleasantly resonant church acoustic that is nicely captured here without sacrificing any detail.
Having started with this recording by wondering how on earth to write about performances that diverge in many ways from expected convention, I have embarked on a learning curve and now appreciate and admire them for their individuality and wealth of personality. You probably will not want to try these recordings as your first encounter with Beethoven’s violin sonatas, nor will it be likely to be anyone’s only recording of these works in a collection of any substance, but I would certainly recommend this to anyone looking to explore more deeply into undiscovered gems in the “treasure maps” that are Beethoven’s scores. This recording and these musicians’ concert performances have certainly started plenty of conversations on these works and the possibilities around their interpretation. There aren’t so many recordings of these sonatas with fortepiano around, though Elizabeth Wallfisch and David Breitman on the Nimbus label (review vol. 1 and review vol. 2) are leading exponents with a vibrant and lively approach to this repertoire, and Wallfisch throws in the occasional portamento so wherever this takes us we are in good company.
Dominy Clements
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