What a beautiful Friday it is. I am listening to the birds outside, looking at the green outside the window:

Every five minutes I look up from the computer to look at some trees…

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I can go out on the balcony in the warmth when I take a break from all the editing:

Our neighbor built this little thing. Perhaps we should too?

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So, I’m back home, and I am editing many hours a day. Basically done with the final version of the Sonata op. 14 nr. 2, which was the third time I recorded it (!). The problem was, first time was too slow. Then, I did it a second time WAY over-reacting to the first time. One should not react to bad versions I kept telling students in Stockholm. Wouldn’t hurt if I followed my own advice now and then, eh?

Listen to the beginning of the second version:

No flow and not really beautiful. The “pastoral” quality does not come through at all. So, this is the final version:

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The main piece on Volume 4 will be the Funeral March Sonata (op. 26). Although the grandiose sonata in B-flat op. 22 is also a major piece: you could see it as the most accomplished, and the last, of Beethoven’s early sonatas (he was very proud of that sonata himself).

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Here is the end of the first movement of op. 26. It’s so beautiful. Sorry for the camera sound, I didn’t take the time to match the video with the microphone sound (that I will do in the complete version of the video). The microphone is, by the way, one of the four Neumann U87 I am using for the recordings, together with a pair of Rode tube microphones. Enjoy, and see you next Friday! I have to get back to editing…