LDV80

18 BEETHOVEN_PIANO SONATAS NO.21 & NO.29 Did you use the same instrument for both sonatas? I placed my trust in the record label, and they gave me the opportunity to record on a magnificent Steinway. It suited me very well. I don’t have a specific choice of instrument to produce this sound or that sound. On the contrary, I started out from a desire to invent sonorities on a single instrument. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the fortepiano and versions on so-called ‘period’ instruments. I find it fascinating to understand and identify the limitations of technique and sound on such-and-such an instrument. What does that imply in terms of decibels, for example? What about the clarity of the playing? What about the resonance effects you can produce on the pedals? For my part, I haven’t worked enough on that type of instrument yet to be able to present a version that would be convincing. My knowledge is still far too theoretical. What one can achieve on amodern piano is obviously not what the composers and performers of the time heard. But I amfirmly convinced that the possibilities of the modern instrument would have fascinated them. In the end, what you get with modern pianos is akin to a (mini) transcription. You canclearlyhear in the ‘Hammerklavier’ that Beethovenwaswriting for an imaginary piano that didn’t exist yet. Simply because not everything that is written in it is possible! I’m thinking of the Scherzo: without double escapement? . . . It ‘escapes’ me! How do you do it? Especially with Beethoven’s tempo and metronome marks. On the other hand, how not to think of the palette of timbres of the fortepiano in the Largo, with the una corda pedal that is so precise in its effects? Everything is meticulous, nothing is univocal.