A Musical Journey - France: Burgundy / Pays de la Loire / Fr
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$13.99Nov 13, 2012
The Places ò the tour of France takes US to Burgundy to the Pays de la Loire to Franche-Comté and elsewhere and includes glimpses of the 17th century Château de Cheverny with it's hunting museum and souvenirs of the chase and the Château d'Arlay with it's site for falconry. The Château de Bussy-Rabutain was rebuilt in the middle of the 17th century by Count Roger of Bussy-Rabutain exiled from the French court after his scandalous Histoire amoureuse des Gaules a literary preoccupation reflected in his collection of pictures. The restored gardens of the Château de Villandry are seen in their formal lay-out. The Music ò the music chosen to accompany the tour of the fertile and varied landscapes of France is by Beethoven and consists principally of his Pastoral Symphony a work that reflects his feelings as he recollects a visit to the countryside.
A Musical Journey: Sicily - Palermo, Erice, Segesta, Stromboli
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$13.99Nov 19, 2013
SICILY
The Places Sicily has enjoyed a remarkably varied history, held by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, it became part of Roman territory, later to be occupied by Ostrogoths, recaptured by the Byzantines, ruled by Saracens, and occupied by the Normans, followed by German, French, and Spanish overlords. It was only in the mid-nineteenth century that the island was drawn into the unified country of Italy. The historical changes that Sicily has undergone are reflected in its culture.
The Music The music chosen for this tour of Sicily is by Beethoven and consists of three of his best known piano sonatas, the Pathétique, the Moonlight and the Appassionata.
Picture format: NTSC 4:3 Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Running time: 57 mins No. of DVDs: 1
Since 2004, Andreas Haefliger has been presenting Perspectives, a series of recital programs, in concert and on recordings. Each program focusses on one or two Beethoven sonatas, juxtaposed with works by other composers which in some way interact with Beethoven’s music and with each other. Now, for his latest release on BIS, Haefliger has instead opted for an all-Beethoven recital, choosing to present the composer’s three sonatas Op. 31 as a group. In his introduction to the disc, Haefliger describes the set as occupying ‘a very special place in the Beethoven sonata cycle: It preserves a link to the past but gives us also a vision of the works to come, exploring humour and tenderness, nature and the psychology of the human mind.’ The recording took place in the Salle de Musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, celebrated for its superb acoustics, on a Bechstein concert grand which Haefliger describes as ‘a piano which, while a modern instrument, retains a nostalgic quality in its sound world and was a constant source of inspiration during the sessions.’
REVIEWS:
This is a superb release on all counts, and anyone who cares about these sonatas ought to give it a listen.In addition to Beethoven and Haefliger, the third star of this SACD is the C. Bechstein Concert Grand D 282 that the pianist plays, in a recital hall in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
-- Fanfare
The performances are crisp and meticulous. Everything is worked out precisely, and one can feel the artist’s serious purpose. There is little humor or relaxation; perfection is the goal, and Haefliger gets close. There is little to criticize. These are really very fine performances, and the Bechstein piano with its relatively light bass serves the music well.
BIS takes over from Avie presenting Andreas Haefliger’s ongoing (albeit slowly unfolding) Perspectives releases, a series that encompasses intelligent and often unexpected juxtapositions of mixed repertoire. As with its predecessors, Volume 7 features one Beethoven sonata. Haefliger’s careful phrasing and attention to voice leading makes a case for his muted and reflective way with Op. 101’s first movement, although he undermines the music’s undercurrents of energy and subito dynamics. At first the gnarly march movement seems dynamically constricted, yet the obsessive dotted rhythms gather momentum through Haefliger’s spot-on balances, pointed articulation of trills, and attention to transitional passages; it’s closer to Wilhelm Kempff’s caustic perception than, say, the nervous tension of Ernst Levy or the best of Vladimir Horowitz’s myriad live versions. And the difficult fourth-movement Fugue’s contrapuntal strands take on a woodwind-like character under Haefliger’s agile fingers.
The pianist has obviously lived with and “lived in” Berg’s Sonata for some time. At least that’s the impression he conveys in the exposition, where the primary lines and imitative rejoinders intertwine in relaxed conversation. The thick-textured development section sacrifices headlong urgency for top-to-bottom clarity. Similarly, Haefliger shapes the ebb of lyrical phrases and fluttering birdsong caressingly yet never indulgently in Liszt’s St. Francis Légende No. 1.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition abounds with interesting and illuminating interpretive ideas. For example, Haefliger’s rhetorical underlinings in Gnomus reinforce the music’s menacing yet mysterious character. The third Promenade is not loudly declaimed, but deliberate and reticent. Ritards at phrase endings impart an aptly hesitant quality to the Tuileries’ middle section, and there’s a welcome dramatic specificity in the gradual diminuendo at the end of Bydlo. The Unhatched Chicks ballet is lightning-quick and almost deadpan in the way that Haefliger maintains the tempo throughout the central section: most pianists slightly broaden the tempo.
On the other hand, the pianist softens the intended sting of Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle’s repeated-note sequence. But he resists the temptation to speed through the Limoges marketplace, taking a tempo that allows for the climactic broken chords to clearly register and resonate. However, I miss the final two movements’ potential for dynamism and orchestral impact that thrill me in the recordings by Ashkenazy, Berman, Bronfman, and, of course, the sonically grungy yet interpretively amazing live 1958 Sofia performance by Sviatoslav Richter.
In the end, Haefliger’s mastery, intelligence, and stylistic breadth deserve admiration and respect. I also should mention the concert hall realism of BIS’ engineering , together with this SACD’s unusually generous 86-plus minutes of playing time.
Ronald Brautigam's performance on the previous volume in this series was described in the International Record Review as 'remarkably full-blooded and forceful playing, pushing the instrument to its limits yet always securing a rich and well-rounded tone'. With the present disc, consisting of sonatas from Beethoven's middle period, Brautigam continues his survey of Beethoven's piano music on a new instrument, a copy of a Graf 1819 fortepiano, which corresponds to the greater demands in terms of power and dynamics made by works such as the Waldstein and the Appassionata. Beethoven's middle period began shortly after a personal crisis brought on by the composer's encroaching deafness, and during it he began to push the borders between free expression and strict form to an even greater extent than previously. In their glowing reviews of previous volumes, many critics have commented precisely on Ronald Brautigam's ability to bring out the radical aspects of the works. According to the reviewer in The Times, 'Beethoven the revolutionary comes closer than ever in Brautigam's fiery interpretations', and his colleague in Süddeutsche Zeitung agreed: 'One has almost the impression of being a contemporary of Beethoven's: one of the first, infinitely startled - not to say shocked - witnesses to this music.'
A Noble & Melancholy Instrument / Frank-Gemmill, Beatson
BIS
SACD
$21.99Apr 07, 2017
The 19th century saw huge developments in the design of many musical instruments. In some cases changes were adopted more or less universally: the fortepiano that Mozart knew, a five-octave instrument constructed entirely of wood, had by around 1900 grown into the modern grand piano with over seven octaves and a castiron frame. With other instruments, progress was less streamlined. As late as 1865, the natural, valveless horn of Beethoven's time remained the instrument of choice for Brahms when he wrote his famous Horn Trio, and when valves began to be introduced, makers and musicians in Germany, France and Vienna favoured different solutions, offering different results in terms of sound and requiring different playing techniques. The present release is a unique combination of recital and history lesson, with a young British team performing music from between 1800 and 1942 on no less than eight different historic instruments: four horns and four pianos. This gives us the opportunity to hear the works on instruments that the different composers would have recognized, whether Beethoven's Sonata in F major (a natural horn from 1800 and a fortepiano from 1815) or the Villanelle by Paul Dukas from 1906 (an early 20thcentury cor à pistons and a Bechstein from 1898). Both notable performers on modern instruments, Alec FrankGemmill and Alasdair Beatson here revel in the sonic possibilities offered by the historic instruments with results that are as delighting as they are enlightening.
The collaboration between Brett Dean and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra has seen Dean as conductor as well as composer. Dean has become one of this generation’s most performed composers and he often bases his works on literary, visual, or political subjects. This new release includes Dean’s work Shadow Music, which draws on the concepts of the word shadow in its three movements. Also included is Short Stories, which is based around the literary genre in which a condensed form shows a variety of life. Brett Dean is based in Australia, and began his musical career as a violist. He has been much awarded for his compositions, most recently in 2015 he received the Orchestral Work of the Year for his Dramatis Personae.
On Vol. 13 of Beethoven's Complete Works for Solo Piano on BIS, pianist Ronald Brautigam offers a disc of rondos and piano pieces, including a Rondo in C by the 13-year old Beethoven, a revised version of ‘Für Elise’, the ever-popular Rondo ‘The Rage Over a Lost Penny’ and the composer's ‘Last Musical Thought’, an Andante in C from 1826. +Together with this generally lighter fare are some weightier works such as the Andante favori and the Fantasia Op.77.
Dr. Jerzy Kosmala, internationally acclaimed as a concert violist and pedagogue, has concertized throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, Canada, North and South America, Asia, and South Africa, and has recordings on several record labels. He is a frequent guest artist and performer at the world's foremost Festivals, International Viola Congresses, Universities and Academies, and is a permanent jury member of virtually all of the most prestigious international competitions, including the Lionel Tertis, Geneva, Munich, Markneukirchen, Trapani, Primrose Viola Competition, Brahms Viola Competition, and the Concert Artist Guild International Competition in New York City.
With her debut album, Julia Lozowska compellingly affirms her place among the most distinctive pianists of her generation. This recording is far more than a display of virtuosity-it is a finely shaped artistic statement of remarkable depth, clarity, and refinement. Lozowska combines technical brilliance with a rare intellectual and emotional insight into the music, illuminating it's hidden structures-tonal relationships, motifs, and compositional sources of inspiration-with exceptional sensitivity and precision. The selection of well-known, large-scale works unfolds in her interpretation with an almost narrative force. Within expansive, imaginatively shaped forms, the album guides the listener through a deeply immersive emotional journey: from romantic unrest and longing, through moments of introspection and reflection, to a state of calm resolution and an ultimately hopeful, forward-looking perspective.
In 1719 the aristocratic Schwarzenberg family inherited the huge castle of Ceský Krumlov in south-western Bohemia, reviving it's distinguished but dormant musical tradition with a new ensemble of two oboes, two cors anglais, two bassoons and two horns, active from 1771 onwards. These musicians soon provided the foundation for a wave of chamber music featuring double-reed woodwind instruments that flourished as the instruments improved. It reached it's peak of popularity in Vienna in the last two decades of the century, but has remained largely unknown since then. This series unites past and present by combining some of the scores researched in the Ceský Krumlov archives (including a 1799 handwritten copy of Beethoven's 1794 C major oboe trio, which suggests it was a Schwarzenberg commission) with works composed more recently - mainly by oboe-playing composers.
A generation before the now iconic Dinu Lipatti died of cancer at the age of 33, a much less remembered Polish pianist, Karol Szreter (1898-1933), died of the same disease at almost the same age. A pupil of Egon Petri, so of the Busoni school, his brief career began in central Europe and by the time of his death he was becoming acknowledged as a major figure in the pianistic world. His first recordings were made acoustically for VOX, where he recorded both as accompanist and soloist, and we have included one example. He was then taken up by the sister labels Parlophon and Odeon and the majority of these recordings are presented here. Of note is the first electrical recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 and three further sonatas, and - reflecting a different side of his art - five brilliant Strauss transcriptions where he reveals his stupendous technique.
Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schumann: Piano Sonatas
Signum Classics
CD
$19.99Aug 28, 2026
This album brings together piano sonatas by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Schumann that reflect a specifically German approach to the form, distinct from the Viennese Classical tradition. Pianist Tianxu An explores works composed within a 26-year span, a period in which composers redefined the sonata through structural experimentation and greater performative expression. Central to the recording is a focus on the composers' detailed markings, including dynamics, pedalling, and phrasing, and how these shape interpretation in performance. Recorded in 2024, the release presents An's considered engagement with this repertoire and his interest in it's intellectual rigour and expressive breadth.
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No.
DUX
CD
$24.99Aug 21, 2026
This album brings together two of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas, performed here for the first time on record by pianist Maria Korecka-Soszkowska, for whom Beethoven has long remained a central and deeply cherished composer. Though commonly known by the evocative titles Moonlight and Pastoral, neither nickname originated with the composer himself. The celebrated Sonata quasi una fantasia in C-sharp minor opens the recording with one of the most iconic movements in all classical music: a work of restrained passion and inward drama, often associated with Beethoven's unfulfilled love for one of his pupils. The later Sonata in D major unfolds in a more pastoral atmosphere, coloured by echoes of rural life and subtle allusions to folk music. Both sonatas reveal Beethoven's gift for expanding classical form through slow introductions, shifting moods, and a narrative tension that grows organically from within. In Maria Korecka-Soszkowska's interpretation, these familiar masterpieces regain their freshness, intimacy, and poetic depth.
