Beethoven Sonatas

On Wednesday (2/10) to hear one Igor Levit (see http://www.igorlevit.com/, where there are free sound tracks. You don't even have to bother with YouTube) do the last three Beethoven piano sonatas - Op. 109, Op. 110 and Op. 111 - last heard played by Elisabeth Leonskaja at St. Luke's in November 2011.

Terrific stuff and even the often dour Guardian was moved to give it 5 out of 5. According to the Guardian, it was a mark of the strength of the performance that Levit was able to carry us from 109 to 110 without a pause and without us clapping. But for me, while I am happy for there to be less mood breaking clapping, I do like there to be clear breaks between movements and an even clearer break between pieces: I dare say the assembling of material into movements and pieces is a bit arbitrary, maybe even in some part an artifact of publication, but it is done because the users of the pieces, particularly the listeners to them, like things to be chunked up so that they know where they are. It is all very well for the cognoscenti to have it all run together but I like my chunks. I would much prefer someone simply to stand up and say that the pianist has asked that there be no clapping until the interval or until the end, rather than just whooshing through so fast that we have no opportunity to clap.

But that is to cavil; the concert as a whole was indeed terrific. BH rather liked having a young man rather than someone of our own age, notwithstanding a piano posture involving a nose very close to the keyboard for surprising stretches of time - a posture which one might think will cause him back problems from his middle years. I rather liked the ceremonial aspect of an evening concert. A luxurious piano, shining with black and gold. A pianist in a sober lounge suit. Darkened, raked auditorium, focused on the stage. At the risk of sounding sacrilegious, a sacrament rather than an entertainment. A form of passion (of the Easter not the D. H. Lawrence variety). And yet again I was surprised at how different the sacrament was from an outing on the hifi in the study - useful though the revision was.

The whole performed without score - as seems to be the fashion these days. There must be a solemn article out there on the subject which I could read one quiet afternoon. Maybe even a PhD.

Audience generally well behaved. Just one mobile phone at the back of the auditorium. One gentleman fiddling with his programme right in front of me. A couple of boys out with their parents, of preparatory school appearance, making more noise than was proper somewhere behind me.

Coming home, impressed that I could buy nearly 400ml of drinkable red wine for just £5.50 from an off-licence next to the Epsom platform at Waterloo (with the posh place upstairs for when one has more time than we had on this occasion), I thought that perhaps the Indians with their classical music being allocated to a time of day had a point. This was clearly evening music - last hearing being lunch time notwithstanding.

PS: readers may recall that I last moaned about the lack of breaks on 8th February.