An unrivalled compendium on disc of the Beethoven’s compositional laboratory, full of experiments that would be refined throughout his career to create the piano’s ‘New Testament’ of 32 sonatas. Under the title of ‘early variations’, Alessandro Commellato has brought together all those theme with variation sets for solo and four hands piano that were not included in the main catalogue of Beethoven's compositions. In fact not all of them are early: the imposing C minor 32 Variations WoO80 are the best-known work here, composed as late as 1806, and the sets on Rule Britannia and God save the King were written a year or two earlier, and perhaps not only for commercially expedient reasons, given Beethoven’s admiration for the British resistance to the proclamation of the French Empire. More common, however, are the variation sets where Beethoven was establishing his voice and refining his technique by exercising his imagination on melodies from popular marches and operas by Grétry, Paisiello and Mozart. The composer used these works to curry favour with patrons such as Prince Lichnowsky; even on occasion as dedicatory gifts in order to make amends for his notoriously obstreperous behaviour, such as the variations on a Dittersdorf arietta, ‘Es war einmal’ (Once upon a time) which he gave in the summer of 1792 to Eleonore von Breuning, daughter of Maria Helena, who had welcomed the young wayward artist into her home. Alessandro Commellato uses an 1823 fortepiano by Joseph Böhm, a Viennese piano-maker whose instruments were known to Beethoven, bestowing on this recording an unusual degree of authenticity. He is a specialist in historically informed performances of Viennese Classicism: previous discs for Brilliant Classics include music by Beethoven’s pupils such as the cello sonatas of Ferdinand Ries and piano concertos by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

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REVIEW:

Commellato’s choice of specific instruments for particular works is a personal one, and it is always well-considered. There are five different fortepianos heard here, each with its own unique sound, with the earliest having very distinctly harpsichord-like characteristics and the latest (dating to 1823) beginning to possess some of the range and tone of the more-familiar instruments created later in the 19th century. All in all, this is a fascinating foray into less-known Beethoven and into a form that the composer used in his piano music throughout his life, right through to the second and concluding movement of his final piano sonata.

– Infodad.com

Oehms presents the final volume of pianist Michael Korstick's cycle of Beethoven sonatas. Korstick, who has been named "Dr. Beethoven" by fellow students during his studies at Julliard, has become one of the most important German pianists to date.

All five string trios by Ludwig van Beethoven were composed before 1798, i.e. before he composed his String Quartets Op.18. To understand the string trios as their preliminary studies would be to misjudge their true meaning. The complete recording of the Trio Ostertag shows how masterfully Beethoven was able to solve the delicate proportions of sound resulting from the instrumentation. Trio Ostertag consists of violinist Christian Ostertag, violist Katrin Melcher, and cellist Martin Ostertag.

“From the heart, may it go to the heart.”
(Beethoven’s inscription on the manuscript score of his Missa Solemnis)

Last year at the Semperoper as part of the Dresden Musikfest 2014 I attended a disappointing performance of Beethoven’s great Missa Solemnis. Ivor Bolton was conducting a quartet of soloists, Balthasar-Neumann-Chor and the Dresdner Festspielorchester playing on authentic instruments. It was altogether below-par and I reckon the oppressive hot weather of the day affected not just the tuning of the strings but also the energy levels of the performers.

In view of that uninspiring Dresden concert when this new BR Klassik release arrived I was delighted to have the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the score. Recorded live at the Herkulessaal, Munich by the world class Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks the distinguished conductor Bernard Haitink has selected an impressive quartet of soloists.

The motivation behind Beethoven’s writing of the Missa solemnis was the appointment in 1819 of Archbishop Rudolph as Cardinal-Archbishop of Olomouc. Beethoven’s former piano and composition pupil and most valued patron, Archbishop Rudolph was the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II. Beethoven invested considerable time as well as emotional and spiritual energy on his Missa solemnis and didn’t complete this immense sacred score until 1823 some three years after Rudolph’s enthronement; a ceremony that used works by Haydn and Hummel instead. The Missa solemnis had to wait until 1824 for its première which was given not in a church setting but at a concert hall in Saint Petersburg. Incidentally, in 1807 Beethoven had composed a mass – a commission from Prince Nicholas Esterházy for the name day of his wife.

All Haitink's soloists here sing with unerring commitment and incisiveness. This is not always the case in performances of this work the quartet. They also manage to keep their operatic sensibilities under wraps and concentrate on the reverential aspect of the text. The highly appealing Salzburg-born soprano Genia Kühmeier excels with her eagerly bright and fluid tone. Another Austrian, Elisabeth Kulman is in splendid voice too. A refined well focused lyric mezzo, Kulman’s slightly dark timbre projects strongly, with clear and precise enunciation. In highly engaging voice English tenor Mark Padmore seems to improve each time I hear him. Here he displays creamy tone and impeccable diction all coupled with an eminently respectful projection of the sacred text. Dignified German bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann impresses with his steady, flexible tone and dark-edged hue. He has certainly become a singer to be reckoned with. Highlights include the uninhibited weighty outburst of praise in the Gloria. This is freighted with awe. I especially enjoyed the singing of Quoniam tu solus sanctus which sounded as effectively dramatic as one could wish. The Adagio of the Agnus Dei, the conclusion to the score, has few parallels in sacred music and captures an atmosphere of spiritual serenity.

The orchestra are fully engaged with the sacred drama with no shortage of relish whilst maintaining a resolutely cohesive whole. The vitality and drive generated by Haitink are major attributes of this memorable performance. Concertmaster Anton Barachovsky adopts a pleasing, rather understated approach to his violin solos in the Benedictus — an appropriately ethereal background to the solo voices. Consistently inspiring all evening the choir is excellent and clearly well prepared.

Recorded live in the inexorably reliable acoustic of the Herkulessaal, Munich the sound team can take a bow for the satisfying, clear and reasonably well balanced sonics. The booklet that accompanies the release includes full Latin texts with German and English translations.

Previously I have not felt entirely comfortable in nominating a stand-out first choice for the Missa solemnis but this release from Haitink and his Bavarian forces is as praiseworthy as any recording I have encountered.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Haitink at 85 makes his first recording of one of music’s choral masterpieces – and what a wonderful performance his wisdom and experience offers.
– Gramophone

Second volume in the ongoing series of Beethoven's Piano Concertos with Hannes Minnaar and Jan Willem de Vriend conducting the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. Surely among the most interesting and sought-after pianists of his generation, Hannes Minnaar received international acclaim after winning prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition (3rd Prize) and the Geneva International Music Competition (2nd Prize). Volume one of this series received raves from Gramophone, Fanfare, Crescendo, Classical Candor, and more.

Olga Pashchenko is in the process of creating a unique place for herself in the world of the keyboard: she moves with astounding ease and skill from the harpsichord to the fortepiano, the organ, and the modern piano. After a recording of Beethoven's variations in 2015, the young pianist has now gone to the legendary Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, a venue she knows well since she regularly gives concerts within it's walls, to record three monuments of the pianistic literature - the Appassionata, Les Adieux and Waldstein sonatas - on the original Conrad Graf piano of 1824 conserved there. She utilizes all the sonic possibilities and the full palette of colors of this instrument made around fifteen years after the composition of these sonatas, three of the finest in the corpus of thirty-two that Hans von Bulow called 'the New Testament of every pianist'.

BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto . Piano Trio in B?, op. 97, “Archduke” • Storioni Tr; Jan Willem de Vriend, cond; Netherlands SO • CHALLENGE 72579 (SACD: 71:15)


It’s a good thing I fell in love with this CD before I read about it. I deliberately left the notes for later, like a self-sequestered judge. This has been my year for the Triple Concerto , and I have reviewed CDs of it from The Knights and the Claremont Trio, not to mention rehearing a legendary one from Karajan and company. But nothing has gotten under my skin so much as this vital, beautifully balanced and executed performance. It represents one gloriously weighted, pulse-racing leap through the loudspeakers and has a remarkable ability to keep your attention. The recorded sound is natural and spacious, in the nice unforced way one so often encounters now with SACD.


Still, I burst out laughing, when I first read about the musicians. What a can of worms Roger Norrington and his movement have surely opened! Here we find a Barenreiter-influenced interpretation, but from an absolutely enormous orchestra. The instruments are modern, with steel strings, except for the brasses, which are early instruments. The Storioni Trio play on gut strings, but use considerable vibrato, and to confuse things further, feature the fortepiano.


In other words, this should be some sort of ghastly artistic hodgepodge. Somehow it isn’t. The fortepiano, once you get used to its damped sonority, works well. Still, at times it sounds like a harp made of tin cans. And when the finale’s cadenza hits a powerful series of low-octave trills, you might be convinced there were three harpsichords gone mad in a coat closet. But the gut strings, I find, sound a touch sweeter than steel ones. It would have been nice to hear the whole orchestra strung with them. And both performances are actually lovely, once you get past the “what the hell is that!?” of hearing the fortepiano. The notes, once I read them, were informative and fortunately not pretentious. Nothing is more annoying in music than a theory in love with itself!


FANFARE: Steven Kruger

This is volume 3 of Jan Willem de Vriend’s complete cycle of the Beethoven symphonies, of which volume 1 is reviewed here. I greatly enjoyed what this team did with the Beethoven Violin Concerto, so needed no second bidding to investigate some of this new symphonic work.

The booklet notes are nicely written though somewhat subjective, and there is nothing about De Vriend’s approach to interpreting Beethoven other than the rather coy final sentence, “As always, they delve into the depths of the symphonies and from these depths, they elevate themselves to a higher level... in their understanding of Ludwig van Beethoven” Come on people: that’s not content, that’s worthless column filler fluff. Left to the evidence of what we hear, I agree with John Sheppard’s summary of these being “essentially clean, well recorded performances, combining many aspects of the modern trend towards historically informed performance.” With their SACD recording as a potentially important selling point, they immediately run into an already complete cycle and one of my favourites, that with Osmo Vänskä on the BIS label.

I don’t dislike Jan Willem de Vriend’s Beethoven at all. His Symphony No.7 has a spring and a drive which tops Vänskä for urgency in most of the faster movements, while not sounding over impetuous or rushed. The final Allegro con brio reaches fever pitch for example, and is remarkably exciting. The recorded balance is brighter on the whole, but this might have something to do with the string balance, which is a tad fuller and a good deal warmer from the BIS label, or is it the orchestra? My impression is that there is sometimes not quite enough weight in the string sound during tuttis with the NSO, or at least when the brass is in full flow. This is by no means always the case, but there are moments where the string counterweight to the brass interjections seems to struggle a little. See if you agree at 10:10 in the first movement of the Symphony No.7 where the melodic shape from the strings is actually quite hard to track. Intonation isn’t always perfect either, and the little flute solo at 10:50 in the same movement sounds plain sharp. There is plenty of detail in the recording though, and no really substantial complaints on a technical level.

The character of the brass in the Symphony No.7 is rather special in this recording, with some nicely growling horns creating a sense of drama at numerous points. The period nature of the performance of course means little or no vibrato in the strings, so there will no doubt be comments about their thinness of sound. I’m rather used to this now, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you have an allergy to this practice. The famous funereal Allegretto starts fairly urbanely but builds convincingly, and the timpani thwacks here and elsewhere are allowed free rein.

The pairing of the 7th and 8th symphonies is a good one, with the brooding and theatrical drama of the one contrasting with the frequently good natured sunlight of the other. Once again, this Symphony No.8 is very good, though while the lyrical touches in the winds are nicely phrased the legato from the strings is a little less clean. De Vriend moves everything along with a light touch and everyone at ease with his driving tempo and wide dynamics in the opening Allegro e vivace con brio. Timpani played with harder sticks tell in favour for De Vriend and against Vänskä here, whose fatter sounding drums rumble more like a storm in the background rather than being a real part of the ensemble, though that quiet ending is so tight from the Minnesota band it ends up having the last and best word. De Vriend’s Allegretto scherzando is a bit ‘twixt and between – neither really light and refined nor filled with the surprise and variety we have from Vänskä. His touch is also a mite heavy with the Tempo di Menuetto, coming from a baseline soft dynamic which isn’t really that soft. Vänskä gets his players almost down to nothing where he wants; allowing plenty of space for dynamics without having to raise the roof each time there’s a forte. There are plenty of good things here though, and certainly enough testosterone-filled meatiness to go around if you like your Beethoven assertive and masculine. Funnily enough, after so many hard-driven fast movements it is in the finale of the Symphony No.8 that De Vriend eases his foot off the pedal just a little. This allows all those late Beethoven inner voices to speak with that much more clarity, which I rather enjoy. The little off-beat timpani strokes at 2:22 are a delight, and there is plenty of colour and texture to relish, as well as a fine feel of quasi-descriptive narrative in De Vriend’s almost operatic response to this movement.

This is a fine recording and a brace of performances which has much to recommend it. There are one or two mild and mostly minor qualitative issues with the playing, and if you are looking for the most refined of Beethoven then Vänskä is still your man. Jan Willem de Vriend does have a way of making these symphonies sound fresh and exciting however, even a little dangerous – in a different and good way. These don’t quite knock the best recommendations off the top, but as a SACD choice I would certainly choose De Vriend over the heavier Philippe Herreweghe.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Robert Casadesus (1899-1972) is today almost considered an American pianist - he based himself there from the Second World War onwards and he is known today through the huge number of recordings he made for US Columbia from 1940 until his death, but as a musician and pianist he was French to the core. He had studied at the Paris conservatoire with Isidor Philipp and Louis Diémer and his combination of immaculate technique, a light and brilliant touch and the refined elegance of his interpretations reveal why he was considered one of the greatest French pianists of the century. Casadesus began his recording career for French Columbia in 1928 and all his recordings for that label, until he left for the USA, are included here for the first time. Particularly noteworthy is a previously unpublished studio recording of Mozart's 'Coronation' concerto. He excelled in Mozart and Chopin and in French repertoire and all are well-represented in this collection. There are also noteworthy chamber collaborations in the Debussy cello sonata and Fauré Piano Quartet.

Beethoven's most famous piano trio is dedicated to the Archduke Rudolph, himself an accomplished musician. The importance of Rudolph as a patron can be seen in the number of other prominent works that Beethoven dedicated to him. Beethoven started work on the trio in the second half of 1810, but much of the work was done in March of the next year. Some descriptions give an inkling of how novel a composition this was perceived to be, and a young Ignaz Moscheles reported: "In the case of how many compositions is the word 'new' misapplied! But never in Beethoven's, and least of all in this, which again is full of originality. "A year after the Archduke, Beethoven wrote another piano trio in B-flat major. The autograph dates it 26 June 1812, but besides the similarity in key it is different in every way. It consists of a single movement, was not published during the composer's lifetime, and was written to encourage the nine-year-old Maximiliane Brentano in her piano playing. The Trio in E-flat WoO 38 might have been once intended to be part of op. 1 and although there are no extant sketches to support this, the style of the composition makes a dating of around 1790-1 plausible. The trio contains some surprising twists and turns, particularly in it's lengthy codas. The last piece for piano trio that Beethoven published during his lifetime has one of the longest compositional histories of all of his works. It consists of a long introduction, followed by ten variations on 'Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu' from Wilhelm Müller's popular opera Die Schwestern von Prag. The first version of this piece was probably composed between 1801 and 1803, but it was substantially revised in 1816, and most likely further revised before publication in 1824. This final trio therefore includes elements from Beethoven's early, middle, and late styles.

Also available from Llyr Williams on Signum Classics: Wagner Without Words

A stunning release, Beethoven Unbound is presented to mark the completion of Llyr Williams’ monumental Beethoven cycle at Wigmore Hall and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and was recorded live at Wigmore Hall over three years and nine recitals. As well as the complete piano sonatas, the release also features other works including the 32 Variations in C minor, Eroica Variations, Opus 126 Bagatelles and the Diabelli Variations, a total of almost 14 hours of music.

This is Williams’ fourth album on Signum Classics. Williams comments on the album and the partnership with Sherman: “Rather than adopt the chronological approach, I have arranged the works roughly in the order that I played them in the concerts... This has sometimes allowed for creativity in putting the pieces together. Working with Judy on this project has been a joy and a privilege. It was sad to reach the end – but at least we still have a Schubert cycle to look forward to!”

Williams has developed a reputation as one of the finest exponents of Beethoven, since giving his first Beethoven cycle in Perth in 2010, and winning a South Bank Sky Arts Award in 2012 for an epic two-week marathon in Edinburgh. The Guardian said of one of his RWCMD cycle recitals in 2016: “Williams’ already considerable stature as a Beethoven interpreter seems to grow with every performance” (Rian Evans, 25 March 2016) and The Independent commented on a Wigmore recital: “Williams treats it [the keyboard] as an extension of his body, and with the three Opus 10 sonatas plus the Diabelli Variations he took us onto an altogether higher plane” (Michael Church, 12 October 2016).