Elly Ney Beethoven Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 14, 23, 31 180g Import 2LP

Elly Ney was a German romantic pianist who specialized in performing music by Beethoven. Born in Dusseldorf, her grandmonther introduced her to the works of Beethoven and supported her studies of the piano. She later traveled the world including the USA, playing in carnegie Hall in New York City.

Her face is unforgettable; here, surely is wisdom and a matured sense of values such as we seldom find, and that view is supported by her playing. In the final movement of the Moonlight does she perhaps overdo the little hesitations on the barlines? Is the middle movement too slow? Perhaps, but after all it is marked allegretto, and this slow tempo, which may well be right, grows on you... She is best in the variations, where her playing takes on an almost mesmeric quality. The finale is not polished, but effective enough, and, like Browning, she makes the long repeat in the second half, a repeat which Fischer says is always disregarded. In her hands the repeat seems meaningful and well worth making.