Although there are moments, here and there, that synthesize research and approaches to the sonatas (especially chapters 1-3), the rest of the book presentsan expanded version of the author's excellent and thoughtful critical edition combined with Romantic commonplaces about the universality of music, debatable claims about Beethoven's intentions, and peripheral background information. In order to appreciate Gordon's observations about Beethoven, ... Read moreperformers and readers would be best served by paying careful attention to the extensive commentary.
Notes
This friendly, helpful, refreshingly nondoctrinaire guide to performing Beethoven is quite far from what appears to be a hornets nest atmosphere in American musicology today. It is addressed to thinking pianists who wish to make up their own minds about what Beethoven may have wanted in his sonatas. It is a book of choices, reasonably argued.
Benjamin Ivry, International Piano
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