Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 14, 23, 24 & 26

Classical Music

...[T]here is still the...craggy splendour of the Serkin. The Serkin has a fill-up, 11 Bagatelles, finely played. The sound is relatively hard and it has not been possible, I fear, to remove from the final pages of the Diabelli a strange and persistent off-stage noise, possibly mechanical but sounding like the repeated cry of an aggrieved bird. "Healthy, unaffected, dryly energetic", is how Tovey characterizes Diabelli's waltz theme, and that is the way Serkin plays it at the start of performance that is lofty, severe and always dramatically keen-edged. In the humorous variations, Serkin is fierce and sardonic, as Brendel used to be. He is even at times a touch brutal; but this is not the fascist brutality of the jackboot in the face. As ever with this great pianist's Beethoven it is the elemental sound of the anvil at work in the musical forge.

-- Gramophone [8/1990]

The insert does not include liner notes.

MARLBORO FEST 40TH ANNIVERSARY

This CD documents the first joint concert by 160 musicians from the Berlin
and Israel Philharmonics, conducted by Zubin Mehta April 18th, 1990.

BERLITZ PASSPORT - THE MUSIC O

BEETHOVEN: DIABELLI VARIATIONS

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 & Overture from Fidelio

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis. CBS MK 42103 [The Creatures of Prometheus, The Ruins of Athens, Egmont, Coriolan, Leonore Nos. 1 and 3, and Fidelio] (released 1986)

Colin Davis presides over somewhat more reserved – one might almost say chaste – accounts of seven Beethoven overtures, though his readings are in no sense underpowered or lacking in point. In fact, Sir Colin gets the rhetoric exactly right, and the Bavarian orchestra turns in performances of splendid authority and bite. The sound is well balanced, with just about ideal weight and atmosphere, and the image detailed and spacious. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.

BEETHOVEN: STRING QUARTETS OPP

BEETHOVEN: VIOLIN CONCERTO, VI

If, for some strange reason, you suffer from an irrational fear of losing your CD of Beethoven's Tenth Violin Sonata, then you're in luck: Sony Classical's CD reissue of the Francescatti Casadesus cycle includes it twice—once with Sonatas Nos. I, 2 and 3 ((D CD45683), then with Nos. 5 and 9 (CD CD46342). Now, at long last we have the concluding volume in the series, a generous compilation (partially compensating for the previous duplication), which highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of this formidable partnership. The Sturm und Drang element in Nos. 4 and 7 is particularly well projected: both works are given with immense vigour and urgency.

Casadesus is always kingpin, his clean, rather dry sound abetting Beethoven's counterpoint and providing the perfect foil for Francescatti's vibrant, though occasionally unsteady violin line. That's really my main quibble—his tendency to employ unvarying tone production, with lashings of vibrato but little in the way of dynamic inflexion. Otherwise, this is a great success: vital and intelligent music-making, but with plenty of heart. The transfers are truthful re-creations of clear but rather dry analogue originals.

-- R.C., Gramophone [4/1993]

"The work . . . comes mostly from Scotland, from Herr Thomson, who tends to ask for a song without words: that is, he sends the tune he wants arranged for voice (or voices) and piano trio . . . . [T]he melodies are such charmers, have such unassuming strength and grace, that their arrival is like that of good company: wholesome stimulants of a composer's wit and skill, his heart too. Beethoven wrote 140 such arrangements, and here are 29 of them, each one a delight. . . . The performances are excellent: good singing and playing by all concerned, and though we may not have expected to find Josef MacProtschka among them he is welcome none the less. . . . The record is the most genial of musical companions, and none but the grumpy heart will want to miss it." -- Gramophone

REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, p.93) - "...Weil leads his band in sinewy, alert accompaniments. Immerseel and Weil especially capture the grandeur and mystery of [concerto no.] 4; they project much of the cumulative exultation found in the greatest readings of this marvel..."