Peter Donohoe's greats

Nov 19 2010 By Christopher Morley

Pianist explains to Christopher Morley why he is performing Beethoven's 32 sonatas again.

The first instalment in a complete cycle of all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas is to be performed by internationally-renowned pianist Peter Donohoe at Birmingham Conservatoire.

When he takes to the stage on Sunday, it will be the 11th time that the Conservatoire vice-president has played this “New Testament” of the piano as a single project.

“The first ever time I played them together was in the Schauspielhaus in East Berlin in 1987. That was a very daunting prospect, considering the East German audience’s level of understanding of music – particularly German music!

“This was of course just before the re-unification of Germany and the taking down of the Berlin Wall, and there was a very special atmosphere in the Eastern Bloc at the time, which made it even more memorable.”

Peter expands upon the importance of Beethoven to his career.

“He was the composer who most drew me into the music world in the first place, and now I feel so strongly that his works laid the foundation of almost all piano music since their composition that I need to play them all as regularly as possible,” he explains.

“That’s an almost addictive desire. I developed the same feeling towards Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues (the “Old Testament” of the piano), and the music of Chopin – these three composers the Everest of piano-playing.”

Among Donohoe’s remaining ten cycles of the Beethoven sonatas has been one at the CBSO centre in 1999. He always performs them in chronological order of composition, though the published opus numbers can be confusing (the two sonatas of Op.49, for example, preceded the three of Op.2).

“I love the way each sonata seems to point to the next, and the same goes for each of the eight programmes. In fact, we are very lucky that each programme does seem to ‘fit’ – there is no sense in which it seems incomplete, and each programme seems to work independently as well as in sequence.

“And that’s enhanced enormously by the fact that the very last of the sonatas is, in the opinion of many, the greatest, and possibly even the greatest single piano work of all time. This in itself makes playing them in order very logical.”

Yet Peter has a great fondness for the earlier sonatas.

“The first two programmes are for me almost my favourites, partly because the genius of all of the works never fails to surprise me, and any comparison with the more famous sonatas almost increases one’s admiration for the less-known ones.

“All those early sonatas are so bubbling over with originality and vitality that to miss them in the great scheme of the whole would be a shame. So if any of your readers is thinking of coming to one or more of these recitals, please do not miss out on the early ones. Better still, come to them all!”

Peter is planning to precede each recital with an introductory talk from the platform. How does he prepare for this?

“Actually, I never prepare my pre-concert talks. I used to, but now I find that my own response to the people who attend the talks and the things they ask and observe gives us all a chance to feel part of the same ‘family’.

“I often go on stage to do these talks with a level of trepidation and a sense that I don’t have a clue what to say, but somehow it always works out far better than if I prepare a university-style lecture.