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Piano Classics

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op.31/3 & 110, Bagatelles Op. 33 &

$19.99

Details

Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
Format
CD
Label
Piano Classics
Released
Jan 16, 2026
Catalog #
PCL10337
UPC
5063758103374

About

A unique recital on record of complementary bagatelles and sonatas from two distinct periods in Beethoven's life, in a new recording by a modern master pianist. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is 'a storyteller', remarked Jeremy Nicholas in his Gramophone review of the Chopin sonatas on Piano Classics. He went on to praise 'nigh-on ideal' playing in the Second Sonata: 'unforced, rhythmically buoyant [and] texturally translucent'. The German pianist now illuminates four works of Beethoven with the same qualities. The Sonata Op.31 No.3 and Bagatelles Op.33 both date from what would prove to be a transitional point in Beethoven's career, around the year 1802, as he was stretching his wings and his capabilities. They achieve striking and often sudden contrasts of expression within both expansive sonata-form structures and the miniature sketch-form of the bagatelle, which Beethoven effectively invented from scratch with this set. 'Schmitt-Leonardy's superb technical and musical command holds unflagging interest' through the variation sets of Brahms, according to Jed Distler in another Gramophone review. Such command is a prerequisite for addressing the late masterpieces of Beethoven, so often recorded, and to which Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy brings his own, individual musical intelligence. Twenty years elapsed between those earlier pieces and the Sonata Op.110, during which time Beethoven's thinking inevitably underwent a sea-change. By this point he was striving ever more keenly to achieve the expression of transcendence in music, and the Sonata's ineffable opening phrase seems to distil that search into an unforgettable gesture. The Sonata is also marked by the composer's intensifying preoccupation with Baroque-era counterpoint, which gives the most haunting life to the finale's semi-autobiographical narrative of vitality lost and regained. The Bagatelles Op.126 are trifles in name only, contemporary with the Ninth Symphony, sharing the Olympian humour of it's Scherzo and the span of the Diabelli Variations. Each one captures a mood as intense as it is fleeting. They are perhaps comparable in this way with the sonatas of Scarlatti, such as those played by Schmitt-Leonardy on another Piano Classics album: 'one the most intelligently programmed and distinctively played Scarlatti collections to cross my reviewer's desk in years.' (Gramophone)

Tracklist 20 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro 08:16
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    08:16
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  2. 2 II. Scherzo 05:07
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Scherzo
    Duration
    05:07
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  3. 3 III. Menuetto 04:21
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Menuetto
    Duration
    04:21
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  4. 4 IV. Presto con fuoco 04:46
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Presto con fuoco
    Duration
    04:46
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  5. 5 No. 1 in E-Flat Major 03:42
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 1 in E-Flat Major
    Duration
    03:42
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  6. 6 No. 2 in C Major 02:43
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 2 in C Major
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  7. 7 No. 3 in F Major 02:12
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 3 in F Major
    Duration
    02:12
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  8. 8 No. 4 in A Major 02:52
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 4 in A Major
    Duration
    02:52
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  9. 9 No. 5 in C Major 03:16
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 5 in C Major
    Duration
    03:16
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  10. 10 No. 6 in D Major 03:01
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 6 in D Major
    Duration
    03:01
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  11. 11 No. 7 in A-Flat Major 02:02
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 7 in A-Flat Major
    Duration
    02:02
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  12. 12 I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo 06:35
    Track
    12
    Title
    I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo
    Duration
    06:35
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  13. 13 II. Allegro molto 02:20
    Track
    13
    Title
    II. Allegro molto
    Duration
    02:20
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  14. 14 III. Fuga: Allegro ma non troppo 11:03
    Track
    14
    Title
    III. Fuga: Allegro ma non troppo
    Duration
    11:03
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  15. 15 No. 1 in G Major: Andante con moto, Cantabile e compiacevole 03:02
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 1 in G Major: Andante con moto, Cantabile e compiacevole
    Duration
    03:02
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  16. 16 No. 2 in G Minor: Allegro 02:58
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 2 in G Minor: Allegro
    Duration
    02:58
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  17. 17 No. 3 in E-Flat Major: Andante, Cantabile e grazioso 02:48
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 3 in E-Flat Major: Andante, Cantabile e grazioso
    Duration
    02:48
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  18. 18 No. 4 in B Minor: Presto 04:07
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 4 in B Minor: Presto
    Duration
    04:07
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  19. 19 No. 5 in G Major: Quasi allegretto 02:13
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 5 in G Major: Quasi allegretto
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
  20. 20 No. 6 in E-Flat Major: Presto 04:36
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 6 in E-Flat Major: Presto
    Duration
    04:36
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy