Beethoven - Sonata op 22 in Bb Major - Rudoph Serkin

This is about my favorite recording of this sonata.  Apparently it was of whoever owned this disc, as well, it's been well played.  Wish there were a more pristine copy of it to post.  Serkin was about my favorite player of the classic German repertoire from the time I was a beginning player.  He still is. There are times, especially in the second movement, when it's like the heavens are opening up.  When he was a young student an impresario approached his father with the idea of touring him as a prodigy.  His father, who, if I recall the story correctly, could really have used the money.  Serkin's father said, "We don't want a prodigy, we want an artist."  They got one.   One of my teachers told me he'd played at his university and he listened to him practicing, he said when he began it was good but not fantastic but after a couple of hours it was brilliant, so he worked at it.

I think it's understandable, if kind of regrettable, that he pretty much specialized in that one area of repertoire.   He was, for a time, involved with Schoenberg's circle,  I don't know if he recorded any of that repertoire but I suspect he'd have performed it beautifully.   Artists have to make a choice of how they're going to go with their career.   His son, Peter, also a fine pianist has played a far wider range of music.