CORO is proud to introduce �CORO Connections,� a new series that will feature all of their guest artists! All featured artists have links to Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, and the first disc features two of Harry�s colleagues from the Handel & Haydn Society: Susanna Ogata (violin) and Ian Watson (fortepiano). Using period instruments for which the music was originally written, Watson and Ogata strive to reveal not only the clarity of Beethoven�s extraordinary musical structure, but also an amazing palette of colors. In doing so, the duo aims to recreate the white-hot intensity of the moment these striking sonatas were first performed.

Daniel Barenboim began his career as "child prodigy" with great technical qualities. The young pianist had studied first with Claudio Arrau, then with Edwin Fischer. He recorded this, his first LP, featuring three famous Beethoven sonatas, in 1958, when just sixteen. It can be seen as a sort of challenge: show to the public that a young pianist could compete with the most famous soloists of the time. We can easily tell that the young Barenboim met that challenge; his talent, interpretations and performance technique underlining the beginning of a long artistic and human story still being told.

Glenn Gould maintained a very peculiar relationship, a sort of love and hate, with Beethoven's music, which he performed out of any traditional scheme or system. This CD presents two live Gould rarities, the first one being the Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat, op. 73 "Emperor", recorded live in Buffalo, NY on 6 November 1960 with the conductor Josef Krips. The second live recording on this CD, taking place only two weeks earlier, concerns Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2 in B-flat, op. 19, conducted by Paul Paray, in an original and personal performance by both these artists. This very significant addition to the discography of Glenn Gould furthers the image of this eclectic, fascinating and singular artist.

This release is the second of four installments which will record Susanna Ogata and Ian Watson performing the complete Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin of Ludwig van Beethoven. Watson and Ogata use period instruments, revealing the beauty and clarity of these works in the way they were originally conceived by the composer. "Exhilarating... Ogata and Watson's urgent, dramatic readings benefit from the clarity of period instruments and generate excitement in each of the opening movements... Their buoyant rhythmic sense enlivens the finales." (The Strad on Volume 1)

Classical Music

The 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120, commonly known as the Diabelli Variations, is a set of variations for the piano written between 1819 and 1823 by Ludwig van Beethoven, on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli. It is often considered to be one of the greatest sets of variations for keyboard, along with J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations.

This is the concluding disc in a four-CD collection of Beethoven's complete music for piano trio, recorded live by the Gould Piano Trio in a series of concerts at St. George's, Brandon Hill in Bristol, UK. We end the series with a unique coupling that marries the very first work Beethoven wrote for piano trio - the little Trio in E flat composed when he was 22 - with his last work, the supreme masterpiece known as "Archduke" written 20 years later. This CD marks the culmination of one of the most important chamber music recording projects by a British ensemble in recent years.

Winner of the prestigious Premio Venezia prize, Vincenzo Maltempo 'rides high among many young and gifted Italian pianists.' (Gramophone, January 2015). His recordings on Piano Classics have won critical acclaim for their technical finesse and musical sensitivity. His latest release is a timely one, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in Bonn with the two major variation sets and the ever-elusive, whimsical Bagatelles which have taxed the hands and imaginations of all the greatest pianists. All the works here derive ultimately from the composer's instincts as an improviser and thinker at the keyboard: playing continually with ideas both physical and intellectual, working them over and around the body of the instrument that was his own principal medium of expression. The Op. 34 variations marked a seachange in the composer's treatment of his form, sharing the expressive reach of his sonatas and concluding with an ambitious fugue. Even the Eroica Variations, however, give little notice of the visionary transformation wrought upon an upbeat but modest waltz, sent to him by his publisher Diabelli, in his final work in variation form. They occupied Beethoven on and off for five years, during which time he explored every possibility of the theme and of variation-form itself. The result is, in the words of Alfred Brendel, 'the greatest of all piano works.' Here and in the final Bagatelles we find Beethoven challenging even the outer limits of his own prodigious imagination as well as the fingers of his performers and the minds of his listeners. Amid the cavalcade of Beethoven releases in 2020, Maltempo's new album is a big event.

After an acclaimed first installment, Inon Barnatan, Alan Gilbert and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields complete their Beethoven piano concertos diptych. This recording project bears the fruit of longstanding and profound musical friendships, and – surprisingly – offers the first integral recording of Beethoven piano concertos by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, one of the most-recorded ensembles in the world of classical music. While the 2nd Piano Concerto is fairly Mozartian in spirit, the famous 5th “Emperor” Concerto reveals Beethoven’s full maturation, and is one of the most popular piano concertos to this very day. These pieces are complemented by two rarities: Beethoven’s arrangement for piano and orchestra of his Violin Concerto, as well as his Choral Fantasy, a small-scale forerunner of his epic “Choral” Ninth Symphony. Inon Barnatan is one of the most admired pianists of his generation (New York Times). The Academy of St Martin in the Fields has built a consistent repertoire with the label throughout the years. Alan Gilbert made his PENTATONE debut with Beethoven Piano Concertos Part 1 in 2019.

2020 is the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, and this album presents three works that reshape the composer's awe-inspiring music for the 21st century. The Sonata for Orchestra considers how the Violin Sonata No. 7 would sound had it been written for orchestra, while A Fidelio Symphony transforms vocal lines into symphonic textures to take us through the entire arc of the composer's sole opera. Based on the famous Ode to Joy of Beethoven's final symphony, BEETHOVEN9 Symphonic Remix uses loops, grooves and musical transformations to create a contemporary tribute to Beethoven's universal message. This release contains world premiere recordings of three works that reimagine the music of Beethoven in differing and special ways: a brand-new 'symphony' in the style of Beethoven based on the Seventh Violin Sonata, an orchestral suite that captures the spirit of Fidelio, and Gabriel Prokofiev's unique take on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony featuring styles from minimalism to impressionism via Hip-Hop, African, Funk, Baroque and many others to create an eclectic but striking remix of some of the most famous movements in all music. Conductor Yaniv Segal is a versatile polymath who has appeared on stages as a violinist, actor, singer, composer, and conductor dedicated to bringing classical music of all types to a broad and mainstream audience, and has been spotlighted by Esquire Magazine as a rising star that is 'redefining classical music.'

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.

Opus 18 needs little introduction and is often revered as demonstrating Beethoven's total mastery of the Classical String Quartet. The Eybler Quartet completes it's exploration of these iconic quartets in an album that showcases radiantly Beethoven's fiendishly difficult tempi and his genius for finding contrast within a single pulse as well as highlighting the depths of his humour, wit and irony. The Eybler Quartet came together in 2004 to explore the works of the first century -and-a-half of the string quartet and plays on instruments appropriate to the period of the music it performs. The Toronto-based ensemble's live performances have consistently garnered praise as "glowing and committed", "spirited" and "lively and energizing". The Eybler Quartet harnesses a unique combination of talents and skills: razor-sharp ensemble skills, technical prowess, expertise in period instrument performance and an unquenchable passion for the repertoire. The group's five other recordings feature world premieres of Eybler's Opus 1, world premieres of Backofen quintets coupled with Mozart's clarinet quintet featuring Jane Booth, Haydn's six quartets Op. 33, the world premiere of Johann Baptist Vanhal's op. 6 on period instruments and volume one of Beethoven's Opus 18 the companion to the present album.

Gustav Piekut is establishing himself as one of the most interesting young classical musicians in Scandinavia. He has been described by the West-Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung as "a poet and virtuoso at the piano" and "stunned the audience with his transparent playing and sense of timing" according to Hamburger Abendblatt. After debuting with the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra at the age of 12, and appearing two years later as a soloist with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Piekut regularly travels across Europe for recital, concerto and festival performances. In addition to winning four prizes at Aarhus International Piano Competition in 2017, Gustav Piekut has taken prizes in the Dublin International Piano Competition, Piano Campus Competition Pontoise, Astana Piano Passion, Balys Dvarionas International Music Competition, International Piano Forum Sanok and many others. This is Gustav Piekut's debut recording.

Classical Music

Classical Music