BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES NOS. 5 &

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No one knows who first gave Beethoven's Trio Op. 11 the nickname Gassenhauer ("street song"). Neither do we know if the name was kindly intended or derogatory, chosen to boost sales or perhaps meant ironically (Heinrich Heine, for instance, would later satirize the omnipresence of a tune, sung everywhere, from Weber's opera chorus "Wir winden dir den Jungfernkranz").The catchy tune in Beethoven's final movement with variations was the vocal trio "Pria ch'io l'impegno" ("Before I go to work") from the comic operaL'Amor marinaro (The Sailor's Love), composed in 1797 by Joseph Weigl, who was a godchild of Haydn and had been pupil of Antonio Salieri. The aria enjoyed widespread, long-term popularity: more than 30 years after the opera's premi�re, Paganini still delighted Vienna audiences with variations on the same tune. Beethoven wrote his instrumental trio only half a year after the premi�re, probably fulfilling a commission by clarinetist Joseph B�hr, who is said to have asked for variations on that theme. When clarinetist Kilian Herold asked composer Johannes Sch�llhorn to arrange a Beethoven work for trio, Sch�llhorn thought of the Bagatelles Op.119. The idea was to add a final level to a three-level concept, Composing Beethoven, consisting in an original work by Beethoven, then one of Beethoven's arrangements of his own works, and, finally, a work by Beethoven arranged by a 21st-century composer. Sch�llhorn, already well-experienced in creative approaches to music of the past, deconstructs the original piano texture here in such a way that the resulting sound is not too lean, but opens up new areas of freedom for the pianist's new partners. He has conceived a light, airy trio texture brimming with discreet punch lines, interruptions, disruptions, unexpected connections, and cello sonorities ranging from sul tasto to col legno battuto, resulting in a fond, respectful homage to Beethoven.

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One can easily find a great number of outstanding chamber music works for string instruments; on the other hand, chamber music repertoire for woodwinds on a similar high level of composition is relatively sparse. By the 1800s, string instruments and the piano had achieved a high standard in terms of playing technique and construction; wind instruments, however, lagged somewhat behind. Woodwinds still sounded uneven across their registers and suffered from technical constraints, including limitations in terms of musical keys: all of this must have exerted a counterproductive influence on a generation of Romantic composers who wanted to expand music’s horizons in terms of dynamics and harmony. The Ma’alot Wind Quintet has teamed up on this album with pianist Markus Becker in works by Ludwig van Beethoven for piano and woodwinds, supplemented by several of Beethoven’s charming works for flute-playing clock, arranged by clarinetist Ulf-Guido Schäfer for woodwind quintet. The main raison-d’être for this choice of program lies in the fact that Beethoven himself composed an excellent large-scale original work for four woodwinds (oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) and piano – a work which, in terms of musical proportions and compositional ingenuity, rose far above the standard of what was otherwise being written for winds at the time when it was premiered (1796).That original composition is coupled on this album with another work by Beethoven for which we no longer have the original instrumentation, but which can be reconstructed, thanks to a series of circumstances, to a point of departure from which Ulf-Guido Schäfer has been able to arrange it as a chamber music Concerto for piano and wind quintet.

2020 saw the release of the first installment in this three-album traversal of Beethoven’s violin sonatas – a disc which has garnered distinctions such as Choc de Classica and Cum Laude (Luister), with performances that ‘wed classical verve to a profoundly Romantic spirit’ (Gramophone) in ‘recordings that are conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ (BBC Music Magazine). As Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen open the second disc, they do so with the iconic Spring Sonata, Op. 24. Completed in 1801, the work proved immediately popular with a second edition appearing only months after the first publication. There were also numerous arrangements for a variety of forces – including a song based on motifs from the sonata’s slow movement. Soon after completing Op. 24, Beethoven began work on a set of three sonatas of which the first two are included on this album. Musically the Op. 30 sonatas continue the development that had begun with the Spring Sonata towards a contrast-rich, symphonic style. Beethoven originally planned to end the first and shortest of the three with the expansive movement that later became the finale of the great Kreutzer Sonata. As this would clearly have ruined the proportions of the work, he eventually replaced it with a set of variations. Closing this album is the second sonata of Op. 30, in C minor. It is the most important of the set; a genuine Grande Sonate in four movements, and an early example of Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ style.

REVIEW:

This is one of the most responsive partnerships I’ve heard in these sonatas, and I’ve heard some really outstanding ones. The togetherness of these two artists in precision of timing and harmonic vibration in matters of phrasing and dynamics is an amazing thing to experience.

-- Fanfare

The Orchester Wiener Akademie and it's conductor Martin Haselb�ck continue the Resound Beethoven series, performed on period instruments and scrupulously respecting the orchestral layouts of 200 years ago. Volume 8, the last volume of the series, is devoted to two emblematic works, both of them dedicated jointly to Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian Lobkowitz and Count Andreas Kirillovich Razumovsky: Symphonies nos. 5 and 6. Each of these symphonies has a name attached to it. While the Fifth Symphony is sometimes called the 'Fate' Symphony for more or less determined reasons, Beethoven himself named the Sixth 'Pastoral', thus pursuing the venerable tradition of the musical pastorale while conferring a new dimension on it. The Orchester Wiener Akademie recorded these two works in the Landhaus Saal of the Nieder�sterreich Palais, Beethoven's favorite concert venue. Between 1819 and 1827, all his nine symphonies were performed there at the 'Concerts spirituels' founded by Franz Gebauer, and it was in this same palace that the Austrian Revolution of 1848 began.

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The pairing of the two works on this album is unique in that one comes from the dawn, the other from the dusk of Ludwig van Beethoven’s career. Indeed, whereas the composer wrote the Quintet for winds and piano, Op. 16 when he was only 26- the talented young man also excelled as a successful pianist- he did not finish his String Quartet Op. 130 until a year before his death. The Edding quartet proposes here the original version of the work, with the Grosse Fuge, op.130, as final. The direct comparison of these two works on the same disc intelligently sheds light on the fantastic distance the composer covered between these two points in time. Two years after their successful Schubert album, which was warmly received by the press and public, the Edding Quartet and Northernlight felicitously join together once again on the same album to give new readings of these masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Having become major interpreters of the Classical and Romantic repertoires, the two ensembles offer expert performances, refined and precise, of two of the German composer’s finest scores.

Beethoven's Sonatas for Fortepiano and Cello or Horn clearly demonstrate the connection of the transition from Classicism to Romanticism - they were composed throughout his entire creative career and tell a continuous story, a musical and historical testament, of maturity and change. The three sonatas on this CD were created in three different phases - the young, the struggling and the mature Beethoven in an intense and lucid performance.

This disc presents three sonatas, No. 1, No. 23 ('Appassionata'), and No. 30, Op. 109, performed by 2008 Grammy-winning pianist, Garrick Ohlsson. In the words of annotator Frank Cooper, 'Three stages of greatness-exploratory, revolutionary, visionary- are represented here...'.

In this new Chaconne release, Trio Goya offers unique accounts of Beethoven’s early piano trios, revealing on period instruments and in the magical acoustic of the Britten-Pears Auditorium at Aldeburgh’s Snape Maltings the extraordinary range of colors and narratives that these pieces suggest. Beethoven’s Opus 1 features amongst Trio Goya’s central repertoire, played regularly in the UK’s most prestigious venues and beyond. After a recent Wigmore Hall concert, Early Music Today wrote that “Trio Goya sent us home spinning on the delights and laughter of early Beethoven. His piano trio opus 1 No. 1 frothed and bubbled down the finale's theme, the musicians swept along by their own hell-for-leather, immaculately kept tempo.” These pieces mark a kind of beginning in Beethoven’s career. They were indeed planned and executed, over a period of two years, with unprecedented care and skill; they mark the start of a new creative period for the young genius, which is distinct from the younger Bonn years and is fully deserving of the label ‘first maturity’ conferred by the musicologist Lewis Lockwood.

By the time of Emperor Joseph II’s death in 1790 Beethoven was a member of the court musical establishment in Bonn. To mark the occasion, Beethoven was commissioned to write to cantatas, one to mourn Joseph’s death and the other to celebrate the accession to the throne of Emperor Leopold II. Although Beethoven was only 19 years old at the time, both works show the embryonic marks of his greatness: intense expression and control of structure in one, and an almost operatic panache in the other. Neither piece was performed during Beethoven’s lifetime.

Born in Strasbourg, Elizabeth Sombart studied piano from the age of seven. She studied all over the world with various teachers, including Bruno-Leonardo Gelber, Peter Feuchtwanger, Hilde Langer-Ruhl and Sergiu Celibidache. Elizabeth received the rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2006 and then was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008, both in reference to her career in music. Elizabeth has a strong relationship with the RPO and will be continuing this Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with them over the coming months. Beethoven is one of the single most influential figures in the history of Western music. Starting out with Mozart and Haydn as his spiritual mentors; he wrestled off the shackles of 18th century Classicism, forging uncompromising musical landscapes with a visionary intensity that left most musicians quivering in his wake. For centuries, music had lagged behind the other arts, but with Beethoven’s iron-clad will, it found itself at the cutting edge of social change.

Ludwig van Beethoven's devotion to wind musical instruments dates already from his young life in Bonn, as proved from the correspondence between his teacher Josef Haydn and the Elector of Bonn Maximilian Franz: here the composition of his Parthia dans un concert, or wind Octet op. 103 is mentioned as a work written before his arrival in Vienna and therefore as the earliest piece he wrote for winds. The remarkable Rondino for the same instruments, using the recently invented mutes for the horns, might have been part of the same Parthia in an earlier version. Once in Vienna, Beethoven was impressed by an ensemble consisting of just 2 oboes and cor anglais and wrote for them the extended and virtuosic Terzetto op. 87 in 1794 and the Variations on Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 1796. Also from 1796, a quintet with the unusual scoring of one oboe, three horns and bassoon survives incomplete. The picture of Beethoven’s output for winds wouldn’t be complete without his military music, commissioned around the year 1810. According to the Austrian tradition, with remote Turkish influence- the so-called janissary music- the scoring here includes also trumpets, contrabassoon and a rich variety of percussion instruments.

Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the musical city of Leipzig are closely intertwined with each other: Felix Mendelssohn, Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester, made the work an indispensable part of the concert hall repertoire and Arthur Nikisch, one of his successors, established in 1918 the worldwide tradition of performing this groundbreaking and pioneering work at the end of the year. The phenomenal Herbert Blomstedt, Gewandhaus-kapellmeister from 1998 to 2005, once again conducted Beethoven's Ninth in Leipzig for the 2016 New Year celebrations. With his former orchestra, of which he has been Conductor Laureate since 2005 and with whom he enjoys a close friendship, he achieves a gripping interpretation of this monumental work. Under the direction of Blomstedt, together with his excellent musicians, the choirs, and an outstanding quartet of soloists led by the magnificent voice of Christian Gerhaher, the utopia of global freedom and humanity in Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy," penned in Leipzig in 1785, grows to overwhelming dimensions.

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.

Born in Strasbourg, Elizabeth Sombart studied piano from the age of seven. She studied all over the world with various teachers, including Bruno-Leonardo Gelber, Peter Feuchtwanger, Hilde Langer-Ruhl and Sergiu Celibidache. Elizabeth received the rank of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2006 and then was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008, both in reference to her career in music. Elizabeth has a strong relationship with the RPO and will be continuing this Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with them over the coming months. Beethoven is one of the single most influential figures in the history of Western music. Starting out with Mozart and Haydn as his spiritual mentors, he wrestled off the shackles of 18th century Classicism, forging uncompromising musical landscapes with a visionary intensity that left most musicians quivering in his wake. For centuries, music had lagged behind the other arts, but with Beethoven’s iron-clad will, it found itself at the cutting edge of social change.

This release features a live concert recording from St Petersburg. Beethoven composed a total of eight works for cello and piano, whose sheer joy and ingenuity are hard to beat and are wonderfully captured in this live recording. The French cellist Marc Coppey and Peter Laul, his St Petersburg partner at the piano, perform these works with great character and energy, creating an impeccable, sparkling sound in the popular variations and substantial sonatas. Even in a live situation, the technical perfection of the performers is impressive. As a venue for their "Beethoven marathon", they opted for the Small Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia: its historical ambience, steeped in tradition, and the supremely attentive audience create atmosphere as well as inspiration. Both are features of this recording, setting it apart from other complete recordings of these popular works, most of which are studio recordings. The hall's resident Steinway and the recording equipment from the former Melodya studios complete the Saint Petersburg ensemble.

REVIEW:

Coppey and Laul put forward a highly effective case for this great music. Their sound is well balanced, the recording much more satisfying. There seems very little audience noise and no applause, and the players are technically remarkable. These two musicians play together as one, and their sensitivity for when to pause and how to make the most of Beethoven’s music is just as I would wish to play it myself. In a word, these are outstanding interpretations of some of the greatest cello music.

– American Record Guide

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth, Sony Music Entertainment presents four major reissues devoted to Ludwig van Beethoven in its series of Classical Masters. Among the treasures in these new budget-priced sets are the complete symphonies, string quartets and violin sonatas performed by illustrious musicians of the past century.

The Italian violinist Uto Ughi studied with Enesco, was signed by EMI while still in his teens and went on to become a major RCA artist in the 1980s and 90s. In 1978, he recorded Beethoven’s 10 Violin Sonatas with Lamar Crowson, whom none less than Alfred Brendel described as “one of the finest chamber music pianists of our day”. The set was acclaimed on its release in Italy on LPs but has been largely unavailable since then, making this first release on four albums particularly enticing to the many admirers of these two superb musicians.

REVIEW:

Sony Classical’s budget price release of a 1978 Beethoven cycle originally issued by Dischi Ricordi featuring violinist Uto Ughi and pianist Lamar Crowson comes as a welcome surprise. The 34-year-old Ughi’s instrumental mastery and intelligent musicianship were captured at the cusp of his early maturity. His burnished, almost viola-like sonority is firmly focused in every register, abetted by impeccable intonation and a knack for tossing off the most difficult passagework with flawless ease. More to the point, however, Ughi consistently taps into the sometimes stressful dramatic, dynamic, and emotional contrasts that characterize Beethoven’s style, as does his expert collaborator Lamar Crowson.

The G major Op. 30 No. 3’s Allegro assai exemplifies this in how the duo offsets their fleet and winged treatment of Beethoven’s lyrical themes with appropriately hard-hitting szforzandos and driving climaxes. Another cogent case of “opposites attracting” can be found in both the refinement of the rapid runs and the unfettered dynamic surges in the A minor Op. 23 Allegro molto finale (sound clip). Listeners also will notice the playfully dovetailed imitative writing in the “Spring” and Op. 30 No. 2 Scherzi, and, conversely, the controlled rapture of Op. 96’s sublime central movement, where Ughi’s sheer tonal beauty and seamless bow control yield no quarter to the immense catalogue competition.

Each variation in the “Kreutzer” sonata’s middle movement conveys a distinct character, yet easily flows from one to the next. I also like how Ughi’s unexpected accents or points of emphasis appear to push the finale’s scurrying triplets ahead of the beat, yet never actually do so. In this sonata, however, Crowson proves less assertive a partner than the conductor/pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch in Ughi’s stunning and slightly superior early digital-era RCA Victor remake, coupled with the “Spring”. A pity that these later alternative readings didn’t find their way into this bargain box, along with Ughi’s still-artistically-competitive and long unavailable RCA Beethoven concerto with Sawallisch conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. Still, the 1978 Ughi/Crowson cycle is a veritable sleeper, worth considering as a supplement alongside the Dumay/Pires, Perlman/Ashkenazy, and Grumiaux/Haskil reference versions.

-- ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beethoven's own instrument was the piano, and in his improvisations - which made him the darling of the Viennese salons - he merged virtuosity and unbridled expression. The piano concertos give a clear idea of these performances. At the same time, they are prime examples of Beethoven's ability to create large orchestral works with seemingly endless arcs of tension. This release features his piano concertos nos. 1-5, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker with special guest Mitsuko Uchida. Legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own quest for truth and beauty. Renowned for her interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, she has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

Beethoven started composing Leonore in January 1804. The subject – the release to freedom of an unjustly imprisoned man by his devoted wife – was part of the genre of ‘rescue operas’ which were very popular at the end of the 18th century. The premiere of Leonore, given before an uncomprehending audience at a time of political upheaval, was a failure and Beethoven responded by shortening the work from three acts to two, which was the version performed in 1806. After further revisions it was to emerge in 1814 as Fidelio. This performance is from Opera Lafayette’s Leonore Project which included a performance of Pierre Gaveaux’s Léonore, ou L’Amour conjugal (available on Naxos DVD 2.110591 and Blu-ray NBD0085V) – the opera on which Beethoven modelled his Leonore.

Alongside the many works of Beethoven that are staples of the concert repertoire there are a number of piano pieces that have not received as much attention as their more famous siblings and remain infrequently performed. This recording (with the notable exception of "F�r Elise") is dedicated to these works. Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantly interesting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 20th-century composers. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad, he appears in the most prestigious concert series and music festivals all over the world.

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“Who would I need to be to be able to talk about a man who is still growing…” (Adam Zagajewski: “The late Beethoven”) Margarita Höhenrieder and I have known it all our lives: the elucidations of Carl Czerny or Rudolf Kolisch, the latest Urtext editions that will lead us to “faithfulness to the text”, the disquisitions from Romain Rolland to Eleonore Büning – we read, we discuss, it all seems helpful and necessary. At the end of the day it is the mature individual, the serious exponent, who makes the decision led by the promptings of conscience, and who simultaneously senses this “growing” of which Zagajewski speaks. We climb a steep path, in order to approach Beethoven more closely. The summit of this path is visible, but not attainable. That is why we keep returning to this path, endless as it is. Beethoven lives in us, as he changes, as we change. Life aspires to art, art is a way forward, life is our way forward. Beethoven changes us through his “growth”. We grow with him!

SIR SIMON RATTLE CONDUCTS BEET

Live performances of all nine of Beethoven's symphonies, recorded 1978-2008, featuring the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra under none different conductors.

Nicknamed ‘the poet of the piano,’ Nelson Goerner has an impressive discography, including his recent multi-award-winning Chopin and Debussy CDs. For this disc, Goerner tackles Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29 ‘Hammerklavier’, and his Bagatelles Op. 126. Of his Hammerklavier, the great composer said, “Here is a sonata that will make pianists work hard.” Goerner rises to this challenge beautifully, playing the forty-five minute work with passion and emotion.

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REVIEWS:

Goerner’s Hammerklavier is about flight, variety of shapes, sounds, ideas and precision of communication. Phrases are imbued with life and meaning but, equally importantly, they are separated by breath, lending them intelligibility. If ever there were an effortless Hammerklavier finale, this is it.

– Gramophone

The Hammerklavier has received several amazing recordings in recent years, and Nelson Goerner’s is one of them. It is also a highly individual though never quirky account.

– BBC Music Magazine

Beethoven and Hummel’s relationship was one of fractious beginnings, but ultimately true friendship. Between 1825 and 1835 Hummel arranged his contemporary’s Symphonies Nos. 1-7 and Septet, Op. 20 for his favored combination of pianoforte, flute, violin, and violoncello. Beethoven would surely not have objected- arrangements were, after all, a perfectly normal part of the 19th-century musical landscape. To audiences today his symphonies need little introduction but, thanks to the musical sensitivity and sheer brilliance of Hummel’s arrangements, it is possible to experience the thrill of hearing these extraordinary pieces afresh.

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