Brilliant Classics
Kraus: Complete Piano Music / Mastroprimiano
$13.99
Details
- Composer
- KRAUS, JOSEPH MARTIN
- Artist
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
- Format
- CD
- Label
- Brilliant Classics
- Released
- Jun 25, 2021
- Catalog #
- BRI95976
- UPC
- 5028421959764
About
| Joseph Martin Kraus, regarded in his lifetime (1756–1792) as one of the world’s six most formidable composers, has like many other contemporaries since languished in the historical shadow of Mozart. Kraus was hailed by none other than Joseph Haydn as Mozart’s equal in terms of creativity and genius but had a career more like Haydn’s and was more of a polymath. Born in central Germany, he studied composition in Mannheim, Mainz, Erfurt and Göttingen. In 1778 he decided on a career in music and emigrated to Sweden, where he became Vice-Kapellmeister at the court of Gustav III in 1781 and Kapellmeister in Stockholm in 1788. Trained as a violinist (who, like Mozart, preferred the viola), he nonetheless was a talented pianist. Francisco de Miranda, a nobleman on a grand tour in 1787, described Kraus playing the fortepiano ‘like an angel’. Sadly, the composer left relatively few works for the keyboard. This disc provides a thorough exploration of these works, from the satirical to the sublime, the expansive to the perfunctory, with the real tours de force being the two fortepiano sonatas, both issued in 1788 by Swedish publisher Olof Ålström. Though limited in number, these works for solo keyboard (almost certainly composed for the fortepiano) represent the variety and originality that are among Kraus’s musical trademarks. The two sonatas in particular challenge the technical limits of the instrument, requiring both dexterity and interpretive ability and often foreshadowing the piano music of thirty years hence in content and scope. |
Tracklist 12 tracks
-
1 2 Neue kuriose Menuetten (Scherzenminuetten), VB 190 02:03
- Track
- 1
- Title
- 2 Neue kuriose Menuetten (Scherzenminuetten), VB 190
- Duration
- 02:03
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
2 Rondo in F Major, VB 191 08:17
- Track
- 2
- Title
- Rondo in F Major, VB 191
- Duration
- 08:17
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
3 Swedish Dance (Svenska dans), VB 192 03:46
- Track
- 3
- Title
- Swedish Dance (Svenska dans), VB 192
- Duration
- 03:46
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
4 Tema con variazioni, VB 193 11:08
- Track
- 4
- Title
- Tema con variazioni, VB 193
- Duration
- 11:08
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
5 Larghetto in G Major, VB 194 00:48
- Track
- 5
- Title
- Larghetto in G Major, VB 194
- Duration
- 00:48
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
6 I. Allegro moderato 08:27
- Track
- 6
- Title
- I. Allegro moderato
- Duration
- 08:27
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
7 II. Andante con variazioni 09:20
- Track
- 7
- Title
- II. Andante con variazioni
- Duration
- 09:20
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
8 III. Allegro ma non troppo presto 07:46
- Track
- 8
- Title
- III. Allegro ma non troppo presto
- Duration
- 07:46
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
9 I. Vivace 07:13
- Track
- 9
- Title
- I. Vivace
- Duration
- 07:13
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
10 II. Adagio 04:17
- Track
- 10
- Title
- II. Adagio
- Duration
- 04:17
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
11 III. Allegretto - Adagio - Arioso 05:53
- Track
- 11
- Title
- III. Allegretto - Adagio - Arioso
- Duration
- 05:53
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano
-
12 IV. Andante con Variazione 10:43
- Track
- 12
- Title
- IV. Andante con Variazione
- Duration
- 10:43
- Composer
- Joseph Martin Kraus
- Performer
- Costantino Mastroprimiano