Elliott Carter’s comment on the present performance (quoting from the record jacket): “This performance of my Piano Sonata by Beveridge Webster is deeply understanding, living and imaginative and while revealing the wide range of Mr. Webster’s extraordinary personal artistry and command yet remains faithful to my intentions.”
Webster's performance is easily the finest interpretation of this sonata...with apologies to Paul Jacobs, Francesco Caramiello, et. al. It has a buoyancy and fluidity that other performances lack, perhaps intimidated by Carter's relentless insistence upon, and praise for, executive precision. For those who think Carter was "all intellect, all the time," he could be quite entertaining after two lunchtime martinis! He was still totally lucid, but could cover a very wide range of subjects with inimitable humor. That is, after a ritual excoriation of copyists (thankfully not present) who did a less-than perfect job on, say, parts for Concerto for Orchestra (at the time, that was his most recent major work).
Elliott Carter’s comment on the present performance (quoting from the record jacket):
“This performance of my Piano Sonata by Beveridge Webster is deeply understanding, living and imaginative and while revealing the wide range of Mr. Webster’s extraordinary personal artistry and command yet remains faithful to my intentions.”
This has got to be one of the greatest performance recorded in the twentieth century.
Webster's performance is easily the finest interpretation of this sonata...with apologies to Paul Jacobs, Francesco Caramiello, et. al. It has a buoyancy and fluidity that other performances lack, perhaps intimidated by Carter's relentless insistence upon, and praise for, executive precision.
For those who think Carter was "all intellect, all the time," he could be quite entertaining after two lunchtime martinis! He was still totally lucid, but could cover a very wide range of subjects with inimitable humor. That is, after a ritual excoriation of copyists (thankfully not present) who did a less-than perfect job on, say, parts for Concerto for Orchestra (at the time, that was his most recent major work).