Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, Opus 13 and the Back-Check

[@voraciousreader3341]

I love Beethoven’s music on these period pianos….it’s transporting, and ear altering. Beautiful!

[@myboibill]

Talented, very bright and very handsome. A pleasure to watch !

[@The_Frozen_1]

I really would love more videos like this. Very interesting!

[@michaels7889]

Really interesting. When young my father restored and repaired keyboard instruments and I helped with the menial tasks like bushing, felting and so on but never the final setting up. However, this is a fascinating connection with Beethoven's keyboard compositions and playing. Totally enjoyable, clear and instructive.

[@DJStefandeJong]

I Really liked how you played the ornamentations (to call them that) sound very different from most performances.

[@Daring2Win]

I love this sound of this instrument: it's like a cross between and spinet piano, a harpsichord, and a Roland RD-1000.

[@PooyaRadbon]

Back-check is of course a good thing to control hammers from bouncing but bouncing happens when one plays too hard on an instrument that is from another aesthetic like those of Andreas Stein. Hammers of Walter are notably heavier and that's why check is essential. For Schiedmeyer, Dulcken and Stein it is not so necessary because the hammers are not so heavy and since these are all made with escapement, they will not bounce really! Stein is fine for Mozart period but not for Beethoven. That is right that Beethoven was a Walter type pianist but Streicher was not necessarily listening to Beethoven's wish through this sonata! she and her brother were making pianos patriotly like the way their father made in Augburg and was very famous. So they were not thinking of altering anything at all on what their great father did! there were many other composers around whose music was not so revolutionary like Beethoven and it all worked fine for them. Even Haydn preferred Schanz because of its delicate touch etc. and found Walter too heavy! So as a conclusion : Stein pianos do not require check technically and musically! So it was no improvement from Walter! he had to do it because he made heavier hammers! and we know that Cristofori used check around 80 years earlier! another action yes, but still that's a check!

[@ritschardt]

Walters had to have a back check because he used brass kapsels ; it is imperative that the steel axles with their needle points run as freely as possible without rattling, as a result there is no friction in the bearing to slow the hammer bounce in any way.On the other hand a Stein action with its wooden kapsels having a brass axle running in a tight hat felt bushing had much less tendency to bounce therefore less need for checks unless played very heavily.

[@PooyaRadbon]

@@ritschardt Absolutely correct. These days I am making brass kapsels in the style of Wirth and Schmidt who were both Stein pupils but made pianos with fork like 3,5mm brass kapsels that do not look like Walter at all. The earliest dated of these kapsels I have seen is on a Schmidt (Salzburg) from 1789. My own orignal Wirth of ca.1790 has also these. Another 1797 one has wooden kapsels and an 1803 Wirth in Stadtmuseum München has also such kapsels. Interestingly I found the same kapsel on a weird early romantic piano (ca.1820) in south Italy! Stein pupils who used this kapsel, also made a quasi back-check for them and the reason is as you said. Brass kapsels without back-check does not work properly. Zuckermann fortepianos that are neither Stein nor Walter nor anything else have very heavy brass kapsels and no check!

[@wouterruifrok7642]

Just never play this music on another type of piano! Hear how it comes alive!😍❤

[@maetes54]

Does it come really alive more than on a modern instrument? Not for my ears...

[@supermariozaken]

@@maetes54 Yes

[@awndlr]

wow. that is absoluely fabulous. thank you! you hit the sweet spot of explanation and playing. I want more ;-)

[@amadeuswolfe7180]

Great video ...That Forte piano sounds awesome. some remakes don't sound too good, this does.

[@leopoldoromeromartin377]

Thank you so much!!!

[@charleshoward1591]

I’ve been listening to these sonatas for decades in total ignorance; and now I have to collect them all again?!

[@aqvaice]

Curious how Beethoven’s triple concerto would sound like on period instrument.

[@DIONYABA]

This great information. Thank you so much!

[@resons]

Superb!

[@christian-johansson]

So what's the point of not having a back-check? Did Streicher win anything by not implementing it, other than the reduced cost of a back-check rail?

[@lindamclean8809]

Wonderful

[@militaryandemergencyservic3286]

I heard that first chord s as being played twice very distinctly. Now that I play it again and again I only hear it once. Jow strange.

[@TimSoederstroem]

Thank you, very interesting. :-)

[@fluffdragon6305]

I desperately search Beethoven music on his period piano or fortepiano instead of modern pianos

[@joelrigal4622]

Try to search on Paul Badura-Skoda and Jorg Demus side, they recorded a lot of Beethoven' works (in fact the complete sonatas) on historical fortepianos...both of them.

[@EcstasyJesus]

I suggest Ronald Brautigam, he recorded all the sonatas on instruments accurate to the era the Sonatas were written around individually. Except for the Les Adieux for some strange reason

[@_PROCLUS]

Huguette Grémy-Chauliac (harpsichord) Ludwig Van Beethoven, Trois sonates: No. 1, 8 & 14

[@pianoromano1640]

drinking game: take a shot everytime he blinks

[@GerardvanR]

Mozart played on a Walter. Did this piano have a back check or not?

[@keysersose996]

Anton Walter was one of the very firsts to add the back checks in Wien, since 1780 if I'm not making a mistake.

[@townnet]

Your speaking voice loud than piano. Can you setup mic close to the sound board for clear recording?

[@McGhostluvin]

Lovely playing...but I cannot accept that is played Grave.... everyone seems to want to rush this piece.

[@petertyrrell3391]

Allegro, not prestissimo, please!

[@ignatiusjk]

For any of you Seinfeld fans this was the song George's girlfriend played when Eliane laughed during her show.

[@Schwallex]

For any of you Seinfeld fans: this is not a song. There's no lyrics and nobody is singing.

[@PrinsTan]

For any of you Seinfeld fans, it’s the pez dispenser episode.