Rita Bouboulidi and Mari Kodama Play Beethoven

[Todd]

Guess what? I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell Beethoven! 

My admitted obsession with Beethoven piano sonatas knows no bounds.  Well, it may, one day, if ever I end up hearing all complete or just about complete cycles ever recorded, but for now there's still more to hear, though the pickings are getting slimmer all the time.  But, due to a fortuitous discovery of a heretofore unknown cycle by the unknown, to me, pianist Rita Bouboulidi, and the recent release of the complete cycle by the known pianist Mari Kodama, I found myself in the fun position of being able to hear two new cycles at once, bringing my total number of cycles heard up to a not especially magic eighty.  I knew nothing of Bouboulidi, and still know only what is on her website, namely that she's a Greek pianist in her 70s who has been performing and occasionally recording for decades.  This cycle, purportedly recorded in 2010 in three locations in Belgium and New York, looks to be a privately funded vanity project, as no record company name, big or small, is cited, and the packaging is cheap and flimsy.  It also appears to be the only recording available from this artist at the moment.  Many moons ago, when the disc of the Op 31 sonatas was still brand new, I sampled Kodama's cycle.  While decidedly well played, I found the whole thing a bit faceless and superficial, and decided to wait for the box before listening to more.  Well, after almost a decade, here it is.  The cycle was recorded between 2003 and 2013 by Pentatone, and this box is a relatively lavish affair, with a luxurious box, robust individual disc sleeves featuring professional glamour shots of the artist, a handsome booklet complete with interview, and even a thin insert congratulating the buyer on the purchase.  Ah, what a thoughtful touch!  Anyway, to the music.

Bouboulidi starts off with a slow, stodgy Op 54.  Yes, the contrasting themes contrast in the opening movement, and yes, the second movement is faster, but there is a serious lack of dynamic contrast throughout, a distinct lack of coloristic effects, and Bouboulidi seems to be playing near the limit of her digital capacity even at the stodgy tempi she selects.  At least one can hear her vocalizing, if one is into that type of thing.  Op 2/3 follows, and it offers more of the same, and introduces something I can't recall hearing before, or at least not in a good long while: she basically plays straight through without registering pauses.  She also plays with about as little rubato as I can recall hearing.  More new stuff appears in the Adagio – some mechanical (?), unknown source generates some warbly noises.  Rather like Idil Biret, this very recent cycle is not engineered well.  Even for the stodginess, limited dynamics, warble, and lack of rubato, and perhaps partly due to the (nearly) full speed ahead approach, the movement does take on an intense mien, and Bouboulidi does manage to eke a few loud passages.  The Scherzo manages to sound twitchy and irritable.  The Allegro assai opens at the slowest, most deliberate tempo I've heard, and it remains stodgy, the largely undifferentiated playing of the different voices leads to a sound that offers the aural equivalent of spray paint jetting out of a nozzle, with everything pushed at the listener at once.  Bouboulidi's approach to Op 10/2 actually manages to suck all of the fun and joy out of the work, to the point that she makes Maurizio Pollini seem almost frivolous, except, of course, she lacks his technique and insight.  The slow, stodgy style drags down the sonata, and the over five minute final movement is really long.  The disc closes with Op 101, thus offering the intrepid listener the chance to hear early, middle, and late LvB all in one disc.  The opening movement sounds flat, and just sort of there, not at all establishing a transcendent soundworld, or much of any sort of soundworld.  The march sounds slightly more distantly miked and muted, and it has a bit of a march-like sound, and almost shakes off the customary stodginess, at least in the outer sections.  The Adagio starts to establish the late LvB soundworld to an extent, though Bouboulidi's vocalizing sounds almost like strained pronouncements of sorts, and the concluding fugal Allegro – here more an Andante – is slow and labored and played with reduced dynamic range and seems to be a bit of a struggle.  Strange audio artifacts reappear, as well.  A not so auspicious opening disc.

Kodama's cycle starts off with the Waldstein, and everything sounds very well thought out, very well practiced, and very well planned to elicit specific effects.  While clarity of voices is not up there with the very best, partly due to the slightly distant recording, it is still excellent.  Dynamics are even better.  Tempo choices are essentially spot on.  Scale is exemplary.  Likewise, the second movement benefits from excellent tempo choices, including some deliberate but not stodgy playing, and the third movement continues on in the same way, with the large dynamic range adding a nice degree of heft.  Op 57 follows, and Kodama does it again, with every i dotted, and every t crossed, and with Pentatone's perfectly judged recording, she delivers a thundering opening movement, with exciting crescendos riddled with palpable bass notes (if played at the right, or at least loud enough, volume), and plenty of energy.   The second movement is taut, perfectly executed, if perhaps a bit cool, and builds up to a powerhouse Allegro ma non troppo.  The tempo might be just a tad on the slower than normal side, but that helps with the ominous sounding power of Kodama's playing.  Pity she omits the repeat.  81/a closes out the opening disc, and Kodama plays much the same, which here results in an opening movement that at times may be just a smidge too intense, and which in the slow movement definitely is a bit too intense, as well as a bit detached.  The closing movement is more clinical than joyous or celebratory, but the playing is meticulous and marvelous.  Overall, this strikes me as textbook Beethoven.  A very good opener.

Bouboulidi's second disc opens with the vibrant Op 22, except that it's not vibrant here.  Stiff, lumbering, and slow, yet still seemingly near the edge of Bouboulidi's command, the opening movement is tough to listen to.  The close sound only serves to illustrate that both melody and accompaniment are sub-par.  The slow movement is likewise stiff and lumbering, but curiously, it's not that slow.  It is also unnuanced, with the outer sections and middle section all displaying a muted intensity and flat dynamics.  And spurious noise, vocalizing, and engineering artifacts of some sort.  The last two movements are much the same, and the final movement has an uncomfortably strained middle section.  Op 31/1 follows, and the stiff, slow, stodgy (¡SSS!?) formula does no one any favors in the opening movement.  But, perhaps not entirely unexpectedly, the slow movement doesn't sound terrible.  This joke of a slow movement can withstand the stiff and slow treatment – indeed, it can thrive on it – and so it proves here, though perhaps not by design.  The last movement also fares pretty well, for the same reasons.  The disc closes with Op 110, and the opening movement is actually quite good, and Bouboulidi's playing adopts a more cantabile sound than I expected.  The Allegro molto displays hints of stiffness, but not enough to detract from listening enjoyment, and the Adagio offers solid late LvB playing – clear, direct, yet quasi-transcendent.  The fugue, too, comes off surprisingly well, and there is no sense of strain.  The repeated chords build up nicely, and the inverted fugue seems as well done as the original iteration, though some engineering artifacts do detract.  (What is it, poor edits and/or poor recordings for this session?)  The coda is not quite as secure as what came before, and sound quality deteriorates during the last minute or two of playing time.  Even with this, in Op 110, Bouboulidi almost sounds like a different pianist than the one playing the other sonatas.  Maybe this is one of her favorites or one of her specialties.  Anyway, a definite mixed bag of a second disc, ranging from blech to pretty good.

Kodama's second disc opens with the Mondschein, and the Adagio sostenuto is ever so slightly tense, perhaps not ideally moody, and certainly not colored by enough the sustain – I tend to agree with Sir András Schiff that the entire opening should basically have the sustain held down good and firm.  The Allegretto sounds a bit too gentle, and seems to maintain the same basic tempo as the Adagio, but the Presto is rumbly, swift, and displays the immaculate precision and swelling dynamics of the first disc.  Op 7 follows, and out of the gate it is swift, with a sure dotted rhythm, broad dynamics, and a generally bubbly feel.  Kodama plays the Largo at a sensible pace, with nicely judged pauses, and superb dynamic control, but where's the gran espressione?  The last pages of the movement, played with, what, forlorn resignation, or perhaps just gentleness, comes close, but there's not enough of this type of playing.  The Allegro is also generally bubbly, but the middle section benefits from some propulsive energy and growling bass.  The Rondo is swift and energetic, and Kodama opts to play some of the right hand passages with a bit of bite.  Overall, not one of the greats, but good.  The disc closes with Op 22, allowing me, if not a proper A/B with Bouboulidi, at least a same-day comparison of the same work.  Make no mistake, Kodama is much, much, much better.  The sonata plays to her strengths as displayed thus far.  Kodama has no difficulty dispatching the opening movement, nor does she seem to sweat the dynamic fluctuations; no, she cruises along, all high-energy, purposeful virtuosity.  The Adagio is quite quick and noticeably tense most of the time, and it is also curiously contained, with dynamics reigned in.  The Menuetto ratchets up the tension, especially in the biting middle section, and the Rondo wraps the whole work up with a nicely dynamic style with some fine detail brought to the fore.  A good second disc.

The third disc of Bouboulidi's cycle opens with the Moonlight sonata, and, to my surprise, she opens the work in a more satisfying manner than Kodama.  Her slow, steady, occasionally stiff, but relentless playing creates a darker tone, though I could have done with more sustain.  The Allegretto isn't too bad, either, in a slow and steady sort of way.  But the Presto agitato sounds more like an itchy Andante, and dynamics sound more compressed than normal, and the playing sounds labored and low energy.  Meatloaf's dictum does not hold here.  49/2 follows, and the opening movement fares pretty well, and it sounds a bit on the serious, intense side.  The Tempo di Menuetto sounds charming and light, with just the right degree of clarity.  Bouboulidi nails this one.  But then 106 follows.  Truth to tell, I did not look forward to hearing it, expecting a slow, labored, far from world class reading, and that's exactly what I got.  At just shy of the thirteen minutes, the Allegro is one of the slowest out there, and, rather like Tatiana Nikolayeva's recording, the really slow tempo doesn't compensate for limited technique.  Bouboulidi doesn't make errors in the same fashion as Nikolayeva, but she can't play the movement with any sense of command.  The second movement is just a bit better, at least during some passages, but for the most part, it just isn't very good.  The slow movement, though, coming in at just over seventeen minutes, is reasonably good, and would be better if not for the engineering flaws.  Bouboulidi's relentless, slow-charging style keeps the movement tense and terse, and if it never achieves a desolate feeling of many of my preferred versions, and it remains very small in scale, it does the trick.  The last movement, though, does not.  But then, at this point, I did not expect it to.  The Largo fares well, and the transition to the fugue, with an insistent right hand, is good, but the fugue itself is slow and labored and lacks forward momentum.  It's just not competitive.  A so-so to not-so-good good disc three.

Disc three for Kodama covers the Op 2 sonatas.  Kodama opens the work in a light-ish, energetic fashion, plays the Adagio in a controlled, relaxed way, plays the Menuetto slow and serious, and plays the Prestissimo with nice energy but not much intensity.  Nice, but it lacks something.  2/2 is better.  The Allegro vivace is played with real verve; the Largo is taken at a nice, perhaps not very Largo-y clip, and if it doesn't seem passionate, it approximates it well enough; the Scherzo is dashed off in chipper fashion; the Rondo is infused with charm and energy and is meticulously played.  2/3, in all its virtuosic goodness, is perhaps an even better fit for Kodama, who dispatches the opening movement with ease and seems to revel in the dynamic contrasts.  (She also seems to stomp the pedals a few times to achieve those effects.)  The Adagio offers more delicate playing for much if its duration, but also stronger playing when needed, as with the tolling bass notes.  The Scherzo and Allegro assai are both played with the same sense of ease as the opening movement, making for a satisfying end to the opening trio.  A very good third disc.

Disc four for Bouboulidi starts with sonata number one, which suffers from poor engineering right from the start, and this unpleasantness is compounded by her embellishment in the Allegro, or lack thereof, which is jarring like Paavali Jumppanen's, but unlike the Finn's, it is poorly executed.  The Adagio is unusual in that while remaining stodgy, it is also played fast.  Indeed Bouboulidi rushes through it, at times eliminating any semblance of dynamic or tempo variation, and often sounding on the verge of playing without control.  The Menuetto fares little better, with the middle section sounding rushed and ugly.  The Prestissimo is a disaster.  It is more an Andante, and even then it sounds on the verge of falling apart.  It is just terrible.  This is the worst Op 2/1 I've heard.  Others may like it, though.  (The set did get a five star review on Amazon, after all.)  Les Adieux follows, and in the opening Adagio, it sounds like a different pianist playing, with Bouboulidi achieving a sense of late Beethoven transcendence.  But then the Allegro arrives, and it's back to sounding like a slow-motion aural wreck.  The Andante espressivo sort of muddles along like other slow movements.  The Vivacissimamente then sounds sort of like the earlier Prestissimo of 2/1.  It isn't quite as bad, but then that's hard to imagine.  Op 79 is up next, and Bouboulidi's Andante alla tedesca, er, Presto alla tedesca, plods along predictably, sapped of any sense of energy, fun, or charm.  The acciaccatura simply sounds like a mass of out of tune notes played slowly.  The up close sound allows one to clearly hear how bad it sounds.  The Andante sounds comparatively better, but it is hard to muster any enthusiasm for it.  The Vivace is the most successful movement of the sonata, sounding basically decent.  I had to take a break before listening to Op 111, but, as with Op 110, Bouboulidi seems to have something of an affinity for the late sonatas.  The Maestoso is dark and satisfyingly intense.  The Allegro, while slower than normal and bordering on the stodgy, boasts greater dynamic and tempo contrasts than other sonatas, and if it sounds like Bouboulidi strains at times, she manages to hold everything together.   The Arietta does sound a bit clunky, and sounds rushed, but stodgy it really is not.  The transition to the first variation sounds typically blunt, and the variation itself sounds tense and middle period direct, with the second variation throwing in a bit of aggressiveness.  Things sort of resort to normal form in the third variation, which is played too slow and lacks any rhythmic flare.  Things don't improve much from there.  The left hand playing is not steady, the "little stars" section is rough, the trills poorly executed, and the coda is drab and blunt.  The sonata starts stronger than it finishes, that's for sure.  A mostly unpleasant disc four. 

Kodama's fourth disc opens with Op 13.  She plays the opening chords of the Grave with a decent amount of heft, but I suppose I was hoping for more.  The Allegro is swift and meticulously well played, and stays on the light-ish, classical side of the interpretive fence.  Kodama plays the Adagio at a nice pace and attractively enough, but the sonata only really comes alive in the last movement, which is delivered with a nice degree of energy.  Op 10/1 follows, and Kodama plays the opening ascending arpeggio at a nice tempo, with nice control, and nice oomph, as she does the rest of the movement, as well as the slow movement, and the swift and powerful enough Prestissimo.  10/2 ends up pretty much the same, with everything sounding just about right, though the Allegretto comes close to being a bit too slow.  The 10/3 Presto is played at a nice, comfortable clip and displays nice, proper dynamics.  The Largo is suitably slow, and Kodama belts out the loudest passages with nice weight, but something seems lacking: feeling.  It's all superbly well done, but it's almost clinical.  The Menuetto and Rondo, the latter especially, display a bit more in the way of rubato and dynamic shading, but nothing that could in any way be deemed idiosyncratic.  Disc four is more textbook Beethoven.

Disc five for Bouboulidi opens with the Op 14 sonatas.  The first one is an almost unqualified success.  The quibbles have mostly to do with the inconsistent sound.  Otherwise, while Bouboulidi does play a bit slow and a bit stodgy, especially in the last movement, she manages to keep things light enough that it works.  The second sonata, somewhat against hope, sounds better yet, because Bouboulidi ekes out some tonally attractive playing, too.  Neither match the top five, ten, or even twenty versions, but both are completely enjoyable.  Op 28 follows, and definitely against hope, Bouboulidi delivers the best performance of the cycle to this point.  Everything sounds basically just right.  Suitably lyrical, with intense passages where appropriate, and recorded with admirable clarity and consistency, Bouboulidi seems at home.  There are some hints of stiffness here and there, but here they are fleeting and cause no harm.  Color me surprised.  The disc closes with Op 31/2, and Bouboulidi pretty much keeps the streak alive.  The opening movement is taken at a somewhat slower than normal pace, but that works in Bouboulidi's favor.  Her frequent stodginess here turns into pointed, hard playing that sounds just fine, even if it lacks enough intensity or dynamic range.  The Adagio is played just a bit faster than expected, and the music benefits, and if some of the more demanding passages sound a bit rough, the overall spirit of the piece remains intact.  The Allegretto, too, turns out well, with only a few rough and/or stodgy passages and ample intensity.  I wonder if perhaps these are some of her favorite works, or if the recording venue and equipment differed from the prior discs.  In any event, disc five is good.

Reaching disc five in Kodama's cycle meant revisiting the Op 31 trio, and seeing if, at least in general terms, it sounded like I remembered.  For the most part, it did and does.  Kodoma plays the opening of 31/1 swiftly, with impressive precision and clarity, and quite a bit of energy, but there's not much personality there.  The Adagio is very slow, and sounds quite lovely, but at least in the outer sections, it also sounds a bit too literal, too serious.  There are some nice touches – a beefy bass trill, for instance – but it lacks energy.  The Rondo allegretto is played perhaps just a tad slower than ideal, but is delivered expertly, if too seriously.  Where's the fun?  31/2, rather like Opp 53 and 57, finds Kodama more at home.  She opens with a subdued Largo, launches into a powerful but never rushed Allegro that delivers superficially exciting and strong climaxes mixed with slow and superficially tense quiet passages.  As with 31/1, the slow movement is too slow, and tension flags as a result.  The Allegretto, very well played, alternates between some passages that lack tension and drama in parts, and others where she packs more of a wallop.  31/3 opens in more promising fashion, dispatched with ease and energy, and hints of wit.  Kodama also nicely thunders out loud passages.  The Scherzo is just a bit slow, and while Kodama delivers nice dynamic contrasts, there's a literalness, a seriousness that detracts a bit.  This is rollicking good-time Lou; this is scampering across the keyboard music.  Things need to be looser.  This is too well mannered.  Kodama does deliver a lovely, slightly subdued Menuetto, and she does let loose a bit in the Presto con fuoco, accenting some passages effectively, but the disc, for all the excellent playing, ends up sounding a bit low in energy and a bit generic and superficial. 

Disc six of Bouboulidi's set opens with the slowest ascending arpeggio I've ever heard for Op 10/1.  It might work if the movement were marked Adagio.  She does play with clarity and dynamically limited intensity of a sort, but the entire movement is a whiff.  The Adagio fares a bit better, but the limited dynamics and blunt transitions do not help anything.  The Prestissimo sounds basically as bad as the opening movement.  Op 78 follows, and it, too, is predictably slow and not graced by cantabile playing in the opening movement, and the Allegro vivace while a bit more vibrant than expected, also sounds a bit clunky.  Op 26 follows, and Bouboulidi's style works in the opening movement.  That she doesn't play as slow and stiff as normal helps, as does the more varied dynamics.  The variations sound satisfyingly varied.  The Scherzo is a bit stodgy, but holds up, and the funeral march, while dynamically limited, sounds decidedly serious and effective.  Even the Allegro mostly succeeds, gliding along at a nice pace, with just some stiff 'n' stodgy playing in the middle section.  A success!  The disc closes with Op 57.  The opening movement sounds somewhat bizarre.  Bouboulidi opts for slightly slow tempo, and she plays with less stodginess than normal, and her tone sounds a bit more appealing, but the dynamic range is horribly compressed – perhaps artificially so.  I don't know if the engineers opted to alter the sound in post-production, or if Bouboulidi plays in such a way as to result in a miniaturized version of her already not huge sound, but the result doesn't sound quite like the real thing.  In style and spirit, the Andante sounds pretty good, and the Allegro is infused with decent intensity, and not terrible dexterity, but bad engineering, and a couple not so hot edits indicate again that this dynamically compressed movement may not quite reflect what was played in the studio.  So, not a bad, or at least not too bad, Op 57, but it lacks some elements of a good recording.  A not-so-good disc six.

Kodama's sixth disc opens with Op 26, and the opening movement is taken at a nice pace, and Kodama plays everything with ease, making the variations pop just a bit more than Bouboulidi.  The Scherzo is dispatched with even greater comparative ease, and the swelling dynamics add much needed energy and weight.  The funeral march is bigger, and again Kodama delivers some thundering forte playing, with plenty of bass weight, but the playing also seems a bit detached.  The Allegro is then taken seemingly slower than Bouboulidi's and while well played, it lacks snap.  27/1 follows, and given Kodama's approach, I figured it would be good, and so it is.  She never rushes through the piece, instead favoring a slightly leisurely pace, and she plays up the dynamics well, including a massive, loud, but perfectly controlled ending to the Allegro molto e vivace and a wonderfully scaled and performed coda.  The piece sounds bigger, grander than usual.  The Pastorale follows, and the first movement flows along at a lovely pace and with Kodama playing with a lovely tone, interrupted by a nicely tense middle section complete with her loud, controlled playing.  The Andante maintains a slightly tense, pretty quick for an Andante pace for much of the movement, offering a delightful contrast to the opening movement.  Kodama plays the Scherzo with some nice sforzandi to go with the power and wit, and she keeps the Rondo taut and light in tone, except, of course, when she belts out the loud passages.  A satisfying version.  The disc closes with Op 90, and Kodama plays up the contrasts within the first movement, playing with intensity and bite approaching bitterness, with even the more subdued passages displaying hints of subdued displeasure.  The second movement is generally flowing and lovely, though I could do with a bit more proto-Schubertian lyricism.  (I always can.)  Overall, a very good disc six.

Bouboulidi's seventh disc opens with Op 90, offering an almost A/B comparison, though one separated by a day.  Bouboulidi's less attractive, more effortful sound doesn't hurt her in the opening movement, and even the ever so slightly slow tempo works to her advantage.  And if none of the music ever sounds subdued, the tradeoff is a relentless opening movement, and that is no bad thing here.  Bouboulidi opts to play the second movement with an uncommon degree of nervous intensity, too, and the stiff staccato prevents much in the way of lyricism.  Still, it's not a bad reading of the sonata.  Op 7 follows, and the Molto Allegro con brio is not as slow as I anticipated, but it can hardly be said to be played with much brio.  The lack of dynamic gradation – basically mezzo-forte to forte – kind of results in an unpleasant blur of piano sound after a while.  The playing slows down as the movement progresses, and things get worse as a result.  The Largo is played slightly fast, and the largely undifferentiated dynamics and slow-charging approach yield a movement devoid of beauty or insight, instead rendering an almost inane grouping of notes.  The Allegro starts off clunky, as usual, but then the middle section sounds like the pianistic equivalent of an old dog growling slowly at an imagined intruder.  It's just not attractive or well done.  The Rondo sounds stodgy and lacks anything that could be construed as adhering to the grazioso designation.  The whole thing makes for a very long half-hour of listening.  Op 49/1 follows, thankfully.  Sort of.  It is more intense, more unrelenting than 49/2.  The thanks is due to the brevity.  Brevity is not the watchword for what follows.  At over 27 minutes, I believe Bouboulidi's Waldstein is the longest I have heard, which means it is slow.  And this starts with the Andante sonnolenza, er, Allegro con brio.  One might be tempted to say that it is converted into a Scherzo, but the slow tempo seems due less to interpretive insight than an inability to play the piece properly.  This sense is reinforced by a further limiting of Bouboulidi's already limited dynamic range, though to a lesser degree than with Op 57.  It's bad.  Real bad.  The slow Introduzione is OK-ish, at least when compared to what came before, and the Rondo is not as bad as the opener, it's just slow and clunky throughout, though, to be fair, Bouboulidi plays some passages reasonably well, though not the horrid coda, that's for sure.  Overall, this recording could definitely benefit from some good old fashioned William Barrington-Coupe-style jiggery-pokery.  Disc seven starts decent enough, but the two big works sink it; it's a bad disc.

Kodama's disc seven contains seven short sonatas, starting with the Op 14 sonatas.  Kodama cruises along at a comfortable speed in the opening Allegro, playing with a nice dynamic range (enhanced when comparing her to Bouboulidi), and both the Allegretto and Rondo are charmingly dispatched.  14/2 is pretty much the same, with a slower than normal (or at least often) and lovely Andante and fun Scherzo with some chords pounded out just because.  Op 54 follows.  Kodama does a nice job playing the contrasting themes in the opening movement, alternating lovely playing and intense playing.  The second movement moves forward with requisite energy, sounding playful in the process.  49/1 is next, and Kodama plays it with perhaps a smidge too much seriousness of purpose, but that not quite quibble aside, it is very well done, and the embellishment near the end and slight acceleration in the coda are nice touches.  49/2 likewise sounds a bit more serious than normal, and the second movement ends up being more than a lovely little tune, which may be a good thing, or not, depending on what you want.  I pretty much like the lovely little tune.  Next is Op 78.  Kodama plays this piece a bit on the more serious than normal side, and the Allegro section never really catches fire, with Kodama instead choosing to play in more measured fashion the whole movement.  The Allegro vivace is likewise a bit slower than versions I prefer, but still maintains a certain snappiness and charm.  Op 79 closes out this very nicely varied disc, and again Kodama takes a slightly slow approach, though everything flows wonderfully.  The logic of her choice is apparent in the Andante, which here sounds more lovely and profound than normal – sort of a small hint of greater things to come in the late works.  The Vivace is all fun and charm and ends a quite fine disc.

Disc eight for Bouboulidi opens with Op 2/2.  Though a bit slow, again, and in not-so-hot sound, again, the opening movement is OK, at least most of the time.  A few passages succumb to the dynamically undifferentiated sonic blob effect, but the movement sounds tolerable.  Pretty much the same holds true for the Largo, though it is not particularly slow and certainly does not adhere to the appassionata designation.  The Scherzo is pretty good, too, but then the finale arrives, and while not as bad as some playing earlier in the cycle, some unfortunate phrasing, and some random studio noises, and a just not right coda mar what could otherwise have been a successful sonata.  Op 109 follows, and I wondered if it would be more like Op 110 or Op 111.  A mix, it turns out.  The opening movement sounds superficially decent, and not stodgy or ugly, at least until the end, but it also sounds unstable, played right at the edge of Bouboulidi's ability.  The sluggish, heavy Prestissimo veers close to ugh territory.  The closing movement suffers from poor (or poorly manipulated?) sound, but the playing does attain a decent cantabile tone in the opening theme, and the first variation sounds decent, though it doesn't take long for the playing to display the now familiar, unpleasant traits.  To be fair, the playing does maintain something of an air of late-LvB sound throughout.  Still, this is not at all a contender.  The disc closes with Op 31/3, and miracle of miracles, it is actually good, with no serious reservations.  Yes, the tempi are a bit slow, most noticeably in the last movement, and the tone is a bit more serious than fun, but really, Bouboulidi manages to play the whole thing with the right spirit and enough energy and verve to satisfy.  It's not a great recording of the work, though.  Disc eight is better than average for the cycle.

Kodama's eighth disc opens with Op 106, and she takes the opening Allegro at a not too fast, not too slow eleven-ish minutes, but she plays with command and scale, and a most satisfying dynamic range.  The Scherzo continues on in the same fashion.  Kodama plays the Adagio at a sensible pace – just under sixteen minutes – allowing herself a few slow passages, but generally opting for a tense, cold movement, which is a good thing since the playing is a bit detached overall.  The final movement ends up being where Kodama offers her best playing, where she absolutely attacks the fugue, playing with an exciting mix of clarity, speed, and power.  Perhaps it's not the best rendition of the overall work, but she knows how to end on a strong note.  Op 101 follows.  The opening movement sounds clean and superbly well executed, and it hints at late LvB goodness, but there's an almost clinical feel to it.  The march is predictably excellent, with oodles of power where needed and a forward moving, snappy rhythm.  The Adagio sounds superficially lovely, but there doesn't seem to be much behind the notes, and, as expected, the knotty fugal passages are dispatched with zest and clarity, and almost (and maybe actual) joy, but the effect, while fun to listen to, sounds too mid- or even- early period.  For all the digital wizardry on display, something is missing.  Still, disc eight is enjoyable.

The last disc of Bouboulidi's cycle opens with the Pathethique, and the Grave, though predictably limited dynamically, comes off reasonably well, with a nice degree of intensity.  The slow Allegro, though, adds the predictable stodginess to the mix with the results one expects.  The slightly swift Adagio comes off nice enough, and Bouboulidi ekes out a semblance of cantabile most of movement, too, though the clunky middle section does no one any favors.  The slow-mo Rondo offers more of what one expects at this point.  Op 10/3 follows.  The Presto, here sounding more like an Andante/Allegro mix, moves forward with a slow, inevitable momentum that fails to generate much interest.  The Largo comes off pretty well.  Tense and slightly swift, there is a bit more dynamic range here, and the unrelenting slow-charging style works well here, though the shakiness of some chords and passages detracts a bit.  The Menuetto falls into the slow 'n' stodgy but not terrible category, but the Rondo veers mightily close to edge of terribleness before settling into a merely clunky and unattractive category.  The cycle ends with Op 27/1.  The Andante is basically OK.  The Allegro is not.  It's slow 'n' stodgy.  The Allegro molto vivace lacks the two most important traits implied by the description.  I'll leave it to the gentle reader to guess which two.  The Adagio muddles along in a not too damaging way.  The Allegro vivace lacks much in the way of speed or drive, though it could be worse, I suppose.  The best thing about the sonata is the ending: it brings the disc and the cycle to an end.  I don't know if I'll be able to listen to the whole set again.  Actually, I do know.

Kodama's cycle ends with the last three sonatas.  Op 109 opens with an energetic and somewhat lovely Vivace and Adagio and segues nicely to a potent and controlled Prestissimo, though it all sounds a bit light.  The opening theme in the last movement sounds lovely, cool, and restrained, and so are the variations, which also sound a bit superficial.  When she wants to, Kodama will rip through a passage, and she builds to powerful climax and plays a lovely coda, but the playing never achieves a sense of transcendence, or anything much beyond being well played, though it certainly is that.  The opening two movements of Op 110 are dispatched with ease, sound lovely, but once again sound well played and nothing more.  In the Adagio, Kodama starts to display hints of late -LvB goodness.  It still sounds lovely, but her fine dynamic gradations and subtle accents add that something extra.  The fugue is predictably well executed, with beefy lower registers and fine clarity, the return to the slow music adds a bit more urgency, the repeated chords don't really build to a satisfying weight, and the inverted fugue is again well done, and the coda ends things well enough.  Op 111 starts with a weighty but somewhat soft-edged Maestoso and moves into an Allegro of weighty lower registers, but not a great deal of intensity, and at almost ten minutes, it lacks the drive of the best versions.  (I suppose coming so soon after Nelson Freire's almost reckless sounding, and much faster opening, this lacks bite.)  There's nothing at all wrong with the playing, it just isn't exceptional.  The Arietta sounds a bit blocky and not at all ethereal in the first half, though it attains a cool, almost serene air in the second half.  The first two variations are devoid of the transcendent sound I prefer, and are a bit light, almost snappy and fun.  The boogie woogie variation has pep and weight.  The "little stars" are played with an effective lightness and blurred sound.  The trills are nicely done, and as the movement goes on, Kodama produces a more transcendent feel, though it feels more like an approximation than the real thing, and the coda is kind of just there.  So the cycle ends with a well-played final trio, but they do not match the best.

Two more cycles down, and ultimately neither one floats my boat.  Mari Kodama's cycle is unquestionably the better of the two.  Her playing, at times, is a marvel to hear.  But some playing sounds clinical, some sounds superficial, and some is devoid of individuality.  For me, the closest analog I can think of in the LvB sweepstakes is Vladimir Ashkenazy's cycle, which is likewise extraordinarily well played, but which also lacks the depth and individuality to rate among the best.  Newcomers could do worse than this cycle, but they could also do better.  Rita Bouboulidi's cycle is just plain bad.  There's one good disc, and a few good sonatas on other discs, and a few more good movements and moments sprinkled throughout the set, but overall, it is too slow, too dynamically constrained (mezzo-forte to forte-ish most of the time just will not do), too stodgy, and often just too ugly.  Had I not slogged through Tatiana Nikolayeva's disaster of a cycle in the summer, I'd say that Bouboulidi's is the worst cycle I've heard in years.  As it is, it's the second worst cycle I've heard in years.  I'm not sure who this vanity project is aimed at, other than obsessive LvB sonata cycle collectors like me.  This makes four middling to terrible sets in a row.  Are any more really good-to-great sets out there?  I sure hope so.

To sound, Kodama's sound for Pentatone is generally excellent, if more reverberant and distant than I prefer, though this does result in good dynamic range.  I also found that I had to listen at louder than normal volumes to get the best sound.  I listened to the CD layer, so SACD may be a different story.  Bouboulidi's cycle is in generally poor sound given its supposed 2010 recording dates.  The sound is close – oppressively so at times – and riddled with all manner of noises, vocalization, what sounds like the digital equivalent of wow and flutter, and some poor edits.  It sounds worse than Idil Biret's likewise underengineered set. 

[Brian]

Meatloaf's dictum does not hold here.

This is why I always read these reviews.

I listened to Bouboulidi's samples, on her website. Curious if you would like to share track timings for some of the most inappropriately slow movements throughout? (e.g. the andante for prestissimo) Francois-Frederic Guy's "Waldstein" also clocks in at 27 minutes, by the way; the difference is in the level of artistry.

[Todd]

Curious if you would like to share track timings for some of the most inappropriately slow movements throughout?

Op 79 opens with a 5'58" Presto alla tedesca in one especially bad example.  Op 7 starts off with a 10'02" Molto allegro con brio.  Op 53 starts off with a 12'39" first movement.  Bouboulidi can't play fast movements fast, and she sort of offsets this with somewhat quick slow movements, so overall timings don't really indicate how bad the effect is.

[Oldnslow]

I recently finished the Kodama cycle too, and generally was very impressed by her Beethoven. I really didn't hearl the detachment or clinical playing Todd refers to, though she does tend to omit a lot of the repeats. I especially liked her Waldstein, Appassionata, Les Adieux, Opus 31 and Opus 109-111. Next up for me is the Pollini box when it comes (I only have his late sonatas), and I ordered used copies of the John O'Conor set, which I have  always wanted to hear.

[Brian]

You're kidnapped by a group of unusually cultured guerrillas. They put you in a cell and a guard, who is playing Good Cop, offers you a CD player and a Beethoven sonata cycle.

(S)he offers:
- Rita Bouboulidi
- Anne Oland
- HJ Lim
- Tatiana Nikolayeva

Which do you choose?

Also: why are those all women? What are your least favorite cycles by men?

[Todd]

Which do you choose?

I choose a rusty nail in the ear.

[Todd]

Also: why are those all women?

I pondered this a bit.  When I listen to any new cycle, I couldn't care less about any superfluous aspects of the artist – gender, race, etc.  I always subject every cycle to the same simple standard: Do I like it?  In the cases of Nikolayeva, Bouboulidi, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Oland, the biggest problem is that they just cannot play the music.  Therefore, they receive appropriate opprobrium.  HJ Lim is different in that she can play the music, though not always in the way she decides to interpret it.  Willfulness is not a problem in itself – I love Heidsieck and Sherman, for instance, and they are hardly less willful – but if one goes that route, it had better be backed up by world-class ivory tickling.  None of this has anything to do with gender.  Nor should it.  For instance, St Annie perches atop my list of favorites, smiting many masculine titans of the keyboard with ease.  Yaeko Yamane and Irina Mejoueva also fare well.  Throw in Penelope Crawford and Dina Ugorskaja, and it's clear that an artist's junk has no bearing on how well they can play the music - but you and I already knew that.  And if Ragna Schirmer decides to turn her formidable mind and technique to the New Testament for 2020 or 2027 (or any other time), I believe she can deliver one of the greatest cycles of all.  She is this century's St Annie.

As to the worst men's cycle, the clear leader, though he never completed a cycle, is Gould, because he is willful to terrible fault.  Other less than stellar cycles from men would include Ciccolini, De Groote, Gieseking! (Tahra), among others.  I have compiled a rough grouping in five tiers of all cycles I have heard.  After I hear Pollini's last disc, I may post it.  I doubt Pollini's last disc will have any impact on how he fares overall: his late sonatas remain among the greatest achievements in recording history, and his earlier 31/2 is pretty damned good.

[Brian]

Thanks for that thoughtful response. And I hope you know I wasn't implying any sexism or anything like that - just thought it a curious coincidence. Strong words about Ragna Schirmer.

Coincidentally, just got Eric Le Sage's new Opp 109/110/111 album from my editors. It's pretty much what you'd expect. There is one innovation - the booklet has a superb B&W glamour photo of the piano tuner.

[prémont]

I knew nothing of Bouboulidi, and still know only what is on her website, namely that she's a Greek pianist in her 70s who has been performing and occasionally recording for decades.  This cycle, purportedly recorded in 2010 in three locations in Belgium and New York, looks to be a privately funded vanity project,

Rita Bouboulidi (1926-2014) was 84 years old when she recorded the Beethoven set in 2010. So she was well beyond her prime at the time of the recording. In her earlier years, she seems to have been regarded as a well respected pianist. But of course this recording should never have been released.

[Todd]

Rita Bouboulidi (1926-2014) was 84 years old when she recorded the Beethoven set in 2010. So she was well beyond her prime at the time of the recording. In her earlier years, she seems to have been regarded as a well respected pianist. But of course this recording should never have been released.

Your response is a decade late.

[prémont]

Your response is a decade late.

I know, but it hadn't been stated that she was that old at the time of the recording.

[Todd]

I know, but it hadn't been stated that she was that old at the time of the recording.

Yes, it was.  Once again, you did not actually read the post.

[(poco) Sforzando]

There is one innovation - the booklet has a superb B&W glamour photo of the piano tuner.

Let us not discount the importance of that often-unsung hero. Even solo sonatas are, in that respect, collaborations.

[prémont]

Yes, it was.  Once again, you did not actually read the post.

No, that is incorrect. In your 2014 review, you mentioned that she was in her seventies. However, she passed away in 2014 at the age of 88. Therefore, your post suggests she was approximately ten years younger than her actual age. This discrepancy is significant in the context of her shortcomings you've mentioned.

[Todd]

No, that is incorrect.

It's correct.  People in their 70s are old.  For some weird reason, you've decided to resurrect a decade old thread.  Go figure.

[Todd]

This post led me to google the pianist, which led me to this interesting forum discussion:

https://forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/printthread/Board/2/main/196326/type/thread.html

Someone listed Andrea Lucchesini as a woman.  You gotta love the interwebs.

[prémont]

It's correct.  People in their 70s are old. For some weird reason, you've decided to resurrect a decade old thread.  Go figure.

Indeed, individuals in their 70s are considered old, but those in their 80s are even older, which carries significant implications. One may only fully grasp this with age.

The revival of the old thread is not strange. It happened because I found most of her Beethoven cycle on one of my backup hard drives by chance. I don't remember how it ended up there, but as I listened to the recordings, I realized that your assessment of the collection was overly critical. While I acknowledge some flaws, there is still much to appreciate, perhaps more than you have acknowledged.

[Todd]

Indeed, individuals in their 70s are considered old, but those in their 80s are even older

SMH.

The revival of the old thread is not strange.

It is weird.

I realized that your assessment of the collection was overly critical.

Incorrect.

While I acknowledge some flaws, there is still much to appreciate, perhaps more than you have acknowledged.

Why don't you try writing about the things that can be appreciated? 

[prémont]

SMH.

You will become wiser with time.

It is weird.

If commenting on old reviews feels weird, why not consider deleting them?

Why don't you try writing about the things that can be appreciated?

Indeed, this is likely what I shall do after listening to the recordings in question several times.

[Todd]

If commenting on old reviews feels weird, why not consider deleting them?

What?

Indeed, this is likely what I shall do after listening to the recordings in question several times.

It should be illuminating.