Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Brilliant Classics

Beethoven: The Complete Early Variations / Commellato

$21.99

Details

Composer
BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN
Artist
Alessandro Commellato
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Feb 23, 2018
Catalog #
BRI95425
UPC
5028421954257

About

An unrivalled compendium on disc of the Beethoven’s compositional laboratory, full of experiments that would be refined throughout his career to create the piano’s ‘New Testament’ of 32 sonatas. Under the title of ‘early variations’, Alessandro Commellato has brought together all those theme with variation sets for solo and four hands piano that were not included in the main catalogue of Beethoven's compositions. In fact not all of them are early: the imposing C minor 32 Variations WoO80 are the best-known work here, composed as late as 1806, and the sets on Rule Britannia and God save the King were written a year or two earlier, and perhaps not only for commercially expedient reasons, given Beethoven’s admiration for the British resistance to the proclamation of the French Empire. More common, however, are the variation sets where Beethoven was establishing his voice and refining his technique by exercising his imagination on melodies from popular marches and operas by Grétry, Paisiello and Mozart. The composer used these works to curry favour with patrons such as Prince Lichnowsky; even on occasion as dedicatory gifts in order to make amends for his notoriously obstreperous behaviour, such as the variations on a Dittersdorf arietta, ‘Es war einmal’ (Once upon a time) which he gave in the summer of 1792 to Eleonore von Breuning, daughter of Maria Helena, who had welcomed the young wayward artist into her home. Alessandro Commellato uses an 1823 fortepiano by Joseph Böhm, a Viennese piano-maker whose instruments were known to Beethoven, bestowing on this recording an unusual degree of authenticity. He is a specialist in historically informed performances of Viennese Classicism: previous discs for Brilliant Classics include music by Beethoven’s pupils such as the cello sonatas of Ferdinand Ries and piano concertos by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

-----

REVIEW:

Commellato’s choice of specific instruments for particular works is a personal one, and it is always well-considered. There are five different fortepianos heard here, each with its own unique sound, with the earliest having very distinctly harpsichord-like characteristics and the latest (dating to 1823) beginning to possess some of the range and tone of the more-familiar instruments created later in the 19th century. All in all, this is a fascinating foray into less-known Beethoven and into a form that the composer used in his piano music throughout his life, right through to the second and concluding movement of his final piano sonata.

– Infodad.com

Tracklist 18 tracks

  1. 1 32 Variations in C Minor, WoO 80 11:41
    Track
    1
    Title
    32 Variations in C Minor, WoO 80
    Duration
    11:41
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  2. 2 5 Variations on Rule Britannia in D Major, WoO 79 05:34
    Track
    2
    Title
    5 Variations on Rule Britannia in D Major, WoO 79
    Duration
    05:34
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  3. 3 7 Variations on God Save the King in C Major, WoO 78 08:41
    Track
    3
    Title
    7 Variations on God Save the King in C Major, WoO 78
    Duration
    08:41
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  4. 4 6 Variations on an Original Theme in G Major, WoO 77 07:25
    Track
    4
    Title
    6 Variations on an Original Theme in G Major, WoO 77
    Duration
    07:25
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  5. 5 8 Variations on the Trio Tandeln und Scherzen from Sussmayr's Solimann der Zweite in F Major, WoO 76 09:19
    Track
    5
    Title
    8 Variations on the Trio Tandeln und Scherzen from Sussmayr's Solimann der Zweite in F Major, WoO 76
    Duration
    09:19
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  6. 6 7 Variations on the Quartet Kind, willst du ruhig schlafen from Winter's Das unterbrochene Opferfest in F Major, WoO 75 11:52
    Track
    6
    Title
    7 Variations on the Quartet Kind, willst du ruhig schlafen from Winter's Das unterbrochene Opferfest in F Major, WoO 75
    Duration
    11:52
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  7. 7 6 Variations on Ich denke dein in D Major, WoO 74 05:05
    Track
    7
    Title
    6 Variations on Ich denke dein in D Major, WoO 74
    Duration
    05:05
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  8. 8 10 Variations on the Duet La stessa, la stessissima from Salieri's Falstaff in B-Flat Major, WoO 73 12:26
    Track
    8
    Title
    10 Variations on the Duet La stessa, la stessissima from Salieri's Falstaff in B-Flat Major, WoO 73
    Duration
    12:26
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  9. 9 8 Variations in C Major on the Romance Un fievre brulante from Gretry's Richard Coeur-de-lion, WoO 72 07:10
    Track
    9
    Title
    8 Variations in C Major on the Romance Un fievre brulante from Gretry's Richard Coeur-de-lion, WoO 72
    Duration
    07:10
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  10. 10 12 Variations in A Major on a Russian Dance from Wranitzky and Kinsky's Das Wäldmadchen, WoO 71 12:19
    Track
    10
    Title
    12 Variations in A Major on a Russian Dance from Wranitzky and Kinsky's Das Wäldmadchen, WoO 71
    Duration
    12:19
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  11. 11 6 Variations on the Duet Nel cor più non mi sento from La molinara in G Major, WoO 70 05:44
    Track
    11
    Title
    6 Variations on the Duet Nel cor più non mi sento from La molinara in G Major, WoO 70
    Duration
    05:44
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  12. 12 9 Variations on the Aria Quant' e più bello from Paisiello's La molinara in A Major, WoO 69 06:05
    Track
    12
    Title
    9 Variations on the Aria Quant' e più bello from Paisiello's La molinara in A Major, WoO 69
    Duration
    06:05
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  13. 13 12 Variations on the Menuet a la Vigano from Haibel's Le nozze disturbate in C Major, WoO 68 14:41
    Track
    13
    Title
    12 Variations on the Menuet a la Vigano from Haibel's Le nozze disturbate in C Major, WoO 68
    Duration
    14:41
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  14. 14 8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein in C Major, WoO 67 08:56
    Track
    14
    Title
    8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein in C Major, WoO 67
    Duration
    08:56
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato, Elena Costa
  15. 15 13 Variations on the Arietta Es war einmal ein alter Mann from Dittersdorf's Das rothe Kappchen in A Major, WoO 66 14:53
    Track
    15
    Title
    13 Variations on the Arietta Es war einmal ein alter Mann from Dittersdorf's Das rothe Kappchen in A Major, WoO 66
    Duration
    14:53
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  16. 16 24 Variations in D Major on Righini's Arietta Venni amore, WoO 65 23:27
    Track
    16
    Title
    24 Variations in D Major on Righini's Arietta Venni amore, WoO 65
    Duration
    23:27
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  17. 17 6 Variations on a Swiss Song in F Major, WoO 64 02:55
    Track
    17
    Title
    6 Variations on a Swiss Song in F Major, WoO 64
    Duration
    02:55
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato
  18. 18 9 Variations on a March by Dressler in C Minor, WoO 63 12:41
    Track
    18
    Title
    9 Variations on a March by Dressler in C Minor, WoO 63
    Duration
    12:41
    Composer
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Performer
    Alessandro Commellato