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Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29, 'Hammerklavier' - Eroica Variations / Aimard
PENTATONE

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29, 'Hammerklavier' - Eroica Variations / Aimard

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Details

Composer
BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN
Artist
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Format
CD
Label
PENTATONE
Released
Jul 02, 2021
Catalog #
PTC5186724
UPC
827949072468

About

After his acclaimed interpretation of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to PENTATONE with a recording of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and Eroica Variations. The Hammerklavier Sonata is one of the pinnacles of Beethoven’s creative output, and arguably one of the highest mountains to climb for any pianist. To Aimard, it poses one of the most frightening tests of a performer’s life, but one that is as irresistible as it is insurmountable. The dazzling Eroica Variations are nicknamed after Beethoven’s iconoclastic Third Symphony, and employ the melody he would later use as the main theme of the symphony’s finale. Beethoven’s fondness for this melody is evident, as he also used it in his ballet music for The Creatures of Prometheus, as well as in the seventh of his 12 Contredanses. Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career. He started his exclusive engagement to PENTATONE with a complete recording of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux (2018).

REVIEW:

Having heard Pierre-Laurent Aimard give several intense and impassioned live performances of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata over the past several seasons, his studio recording generally seems reserved and even foursquare by comparison.

To be certain, his exemplary technique allows for no vagaries of voice leading or textural misfires, while Pentatone’s production values do justice to Aimard’s tonal clarity and transparency at quieter dynamic levels. Still, there’s a pre-planned quality about nearly every breath pause, tenuto, caesura, and dynamic hairpin that somewhat dissipates the outer movements’ continuity and momentum. This is not a function of Aimard’s generally conservative tempos, although the fugal finale becomes heavier and less timbrally alluring as the music unfolds (this is true about most performances, to be fair).

Interestingly, in concert Aimard’s outer movements went for broke, while the Adagio sostenuto came off sounding relatively reserved and reticent. Here, however, Aimard’s expressive palette opens up, with a controlled freedom to the rubatos that culminates in a devastating climax. In the rising chain of broken fifths and sixths between hands just before the first-movement recapitulation (measures 224-226), Aimard reads the lower note upbeat as A-natural, rather than the so-called “inspired misprint” A-sharp, vis-à-vis Kempff, Petri, Brendel, and Perahia; I personally prefer A-sharp, as do Schnabel, Solomon, Arrau, and Levit.

Years ago during a public master class I heard Aimard spontaneously launch into a most inspired and unified reading of Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor. Similar inspiration and unity abound throughout his Eroica Variations, with more than a few audacious touches.

I like the force of his right-hand triplets in Variation 2, buttoned by brash left-hand accents at phrase endings, as much as No. 5’s ruminative delicacy. In No. 6, Aimard’s suave, effortlessly dispatched broken octaves enable the offbeat accents their due without pressing the point. All the more surprising that No. 13’s triplet chords and witty melodic appogiaturas don’t match the insouciant thrust one hears from Clifford Curzon. Yet the concluding Fugue has the variety of character and articulation that I expected to encounter more consistently throughout Aimard’s Hammerklavier Fugue.

– ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Tracklist 21 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro 11:57
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    11:57
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  2. 2 II. Scherzo: Assai vivace - Presto - Tempo I 02:53
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Scherzo: Assai vivace - Presto - Tempo I
    Duration
    02:53
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  3. 3 III. Adagio sostenuto, appassionato e con molto sentimento 16:46
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Adagio sostenuto, appassionato e con molto sentimento
    Duration
    16:46
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  4. 4 IV. Largo - Allegro risoluto 12:05
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Largo - Allegro risoluto
    Duration
    12:05
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  5. 5 Introduzione col Basso del Tema 03:25
    Track
    5
    Title
    Introduzione col Basso del Tema
    Duration
    03:25
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  6. 6 Variation 1 00:38
    Track
    6
    Title
    Variation 1
    Duration
    00:38
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  7. 7 Variation 2 00:50
    Track
    7
    Title
    Variation 2
    Duration
    00:50
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  8. 8 Variation 3 00:43
    Track
    8
    Title
    Variation 3
    Duration
    00:43
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  9. 9 Variation 4 00:40
    Track
    9
    Title
    Variation 4
    Duration
    00:40
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  10. 10 Variation 5 00:52
    Track
    10
    Title
    Variation 5
    Duration
    00:52
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  11. 11 Variation 6 00:39
    Track
    11
    Title
    Variation 6
    Duration
    00:39
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  12. 12 Variation 7 00:39
    Track
    12
    Title
    Variation 7
    Duration
    00:39
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  13. 13 Variation 8 00:53
    Track
    13
    Title
    Variation 8
    Duration
    00:53
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  14. 14 Variation 9 00:40
    Track
    14
    Title
    Variation 9
    Duration
    00:40
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  15. 15 Variation 10 00:37
    Track
    15
    Title
    Variation 10
    Duration
    00:37
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  16. 16 Variation 11 00:47
    Track
    16
    Title
    Variation 11
    Duration
    00:47
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  17. 17 Variation 12 00:42
    Track
    17
    Title
    Variation 12
    Duration
    00:42
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  18. 18 Variation 13 00:40
    Track
    18
    Title
    Variation 13
    Duration
    00:40
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  19. 19 Variation 14 01:16
    Track
    19
    Title
    Variation 14
    Duration
    01:16
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  20. 20 Variation 15 04:30
    Track
    20
    Title
    Variation 15
    Duration
    04:30
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard
  21. 21 Finale: Alla Fuga 04:31
    Track
    21
    Title
    Finale: Alla Fuga
    Duration
    04:31
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Pierre-Laurent Aimard