How not to play Beethoven: F.F. Guy at the Embassy of France

Friday night, J. and I joined our friend K.L. at the French Embassy to hear a performance of some Beethoven piano sonatas. The pianist was one François-Fréderic Guy, whom I had not heard of until then. He was actually performing the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas, in chronological order, over a period of a couple of weeks. When K.L. first told me about it, my initial reaction was to try to hear every one. The complete Beethoven cycle performed live is an extremely rare event, the undertaking being so Promethean. I'm still kicking myself for not having gone to hear Robert Silverman do them a few years ago. The commitment on the part of the listener is equally great, however, so reason prevailed and we settled on last Friday's performance, where Guy was doing Nos. 22 - 26, No. 23 being, of course, the great Appassionata.

Good thing we didn't spend money on tickets for more than one of these. The concert was a huge disappointment. Guy played with no feeling or emotion whatsoever. There was no lyricism or subtlety to speak of. His tempos were way too fast (most fast works are usually played too fast, but that's a whole other discussion), he left no space between the notes, and as a result ended up glossing over every significant detail. Appassionata's gorgeous finale, while certainly fast, lives and dies by the relaxed fluidity of the performer's approach, but Guy hammered through it like an automaton. No. 25's Andante movement can be achingly beautiful in the right hands, but we heard none of that beauty on Friday. Guy seemed to want nothing better than to get to the next fast movement so he could so some more mindless shredding.

This kind of butchering of sublime music breaks my heart, and in the case of Beethoven sonatas - some of the greatest piano music of all time -- makes me angry. J., a lifelong musician and classical music fan, has inexplicably been skeptical about Beethoven's solo piano music, and Friday's concert has done nothing to change her mind. Thank you, Mr. Guy, for scaring off another potential fan.