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Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3 / Bavouzet
Chandos

Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3 / Bavouzet

$21.99

Details

Composer
HAYDN, FRANZ JOSEPH
Artist
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Format
CD
Label
Chandos
Released
Sep 27, 2011
Catalog #
CHAN 10689
UPC
095115168929

About

"Bavouzet’s Haydn is unmatched in its zest and its wit. But it is also substantial, informed and deeply rewarding."

--The New York Times on Bavouzet's Haydn Sonatas cycle, 2022

The multi-award-winning pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet continues his great survey of Haydn's piano sonatas. This is Volume 3 in a series, of which The Times wrote: 'Who is the best composer for refreshing the spirit and making you laugh? Haydn, of course, especially when in the hands of a pianist like Bavouzet, another master of delight.' In the words of Bavouzet himself: 'Each volume of this ambitious, extended project will arrive over the years like a postcard, dispatched during my travels with scant respect for chronological considerations, but undertaken with the greatest passion for trying to convey as vividly as possible to twenty-first-century ears the boundless treasures of this sublime music.'

He also notes: 'We often forget how little information Haydn left us in the scores of his keyboard works: few indications of dynamics or of phrasing, and the briefest guides to tempo. This task is never anything other than absolutely fascinating, but for the performer it is also testing, and even risky. He must, even more than usual, create his own world, his own logic, left only to hope that, in the absence of tangible evidence, he will not distance himself too far from the composer's intentions, which remain forever unknowable.'

For the recording of this series, Bavouzet brought in a specially selected Yamaha piano which he feels gives the sort of tonal quality he is looking for, and once again this shows in a program which here presents the large-scale Sonata in C minor alongside sonatas of a lighter and sunnier character.

REVIEWS

If you’ve been collecting this series you won’t need any recommendation from me; if you haven’t been, you ought to start. Once again Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Haydn sweeps the field, at least on a modern instrument. He ornaments lavishly but always intelligently, and as before he omits codas or cadences before the second of the second-half repeats. This is such a smart and musically sensible thing to do that you can’t help but wonder if it was one of those “authentic” customs that was so obvious that no composer of the day bothered to notate or even so much as mention it.

The four sonatas on this disc have been arranged around the splendid work in C minor, one of Haydn’s greatest and most important keyboard pieces. No. 29 in E-flat major also is a grand work, with a profoundly moving central slow movement, while the two sonatas on the other side of No. 33 are lighter in character, but no less rich in invention. The entire sequence makes an ideal program for continuous listening, and Chandos’ sonics are terrific. Another great release in a standard-setting series.

--ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet takes risks. Haydn becomes chameleon like in ever changing variety of mood: now pausing, now bounding forward, now smoothly flowing, now trenchantly snappy. Though there’s a fundamental lyricism it’s tempered by bold assertions. These are highly emotive accounts which nevertheless also seamlessly project the drama of the music.

--MusicWeb International (Michael Greenhalgh)

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 I. Moderato 09:22
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Moderato
    Duration
    09:22
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  2. 2 II. Andante 07:30
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Andante
    Duration
    07:30
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  3. 3 III. Finale: Allegro di molto 05:43
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Finale: Allegro di molto
    Duration
    05:43
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  4. 4 I. Moderato 10:33
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. Moderato
    Duration
    10:33
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  5. 5 II. Andante con moto 07:35
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Andante con moto
    Duration
    07:35
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  6. 6 III. Finale: Allegro 07:28
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Finale: Allegro
    Duration
    07:28
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  7. 7 I. Allegro con brio 04:47
    Track
    7
    Title
    I. Allegro con brio
    Duration
    04:47
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  8. 8 II. Menuet 05:26
    Track
    8
    Title
    II. Menuet
    Duration
    05:26
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  9. 9 III. Finale: Presto 02:53
    Track
    9
    Title
    III. Finale: Presto
    Duration
    02:53
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  10. 10 I. Allegro moderato 06:37
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Allegro moderato
    Duration
    06:37
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  11. 11 II. Menuet - Trio 03:59
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Menuet - Trio
    Duration
    03:59
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
  12. 12 III. Finale: Presto 03:19
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Finale: Presto
    Duration
    03:19
    Composer
    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Performer
    Jean-Efflam Bavouzet