Hummel: Sonata In E Flat Major, Sonata In F Major / Alexander-Max
Chandos
CD
$21.99Nov 17, 2009
HUMMEL Piano Sonatas: No. 2 in E?; No. 3 in f. Bagatelle in A?, “La contemplazione” • Susan Alexander-Max (fp) (period instrument) • CHANDOS 765 (67:11)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) is an important transitional composer, especially from a pianistic viewpoint, between the late-18th and early-19th centuries; he is, unfortunately, also a composer who is underrepresented in the recording catalog. Among currently available recordings, Stephen Hough seems to be the only figure of international standing performing today to have devoted any effort to him. Two recordings that I think have stood out in the last 20 years have been the aforementioned one by Stephen Hough of three sonatas for Hyperion (67390), recorded back in 2003, and Dana Protopopescu’s album for Koch Discover (920237) of three sonatas, recorded in 1995. They both bring a virtuoso technique and a good musical sensibility.
Though I am no fan of the fortepiano, Alexander-Max is a good advocate for both the instrument and the repertoire. Her playing has sensitivity and a good attention to articulation and detail. Sometimes though, it is her attention to these small elements that hampers the overall flow of the music. Her tempos in the fast movements tend to be on the slow side: this provides her ample opportunity to bring out many details, but also tends to make the rapid scale and arpeggio patterns sound a bit sluggish. In comparing just the timings of the final movement of the F-Minor Sonata’s finale, marked Presto, Alexander-Max clocks in at 5:22 to Hough’s 3:59! There is no repeat in this movement, so the temporal difference is not reflected in the omission of any material. Even Protopopescu, who does not play this movement nearly as fast as Hough, clocks in around 5: 01—still over 20 seconds faster than Alexander-Max.
Tempo is not the only factor that makes the fast movements seem sluggish though; it is also the lack of intensity brought to many of the figurational patterns that lead to important beats. The focus for example in the E? Sonata’s finale, this time marked Allegro con spirito, seems to be more on the clarity of notes than on the constant surging motion. In the passage from 00:20 to 00:24, Hummel marks a crescendo moving from piano to forte in the span of two measures. In this performance, though a small crescendo does exist, the kind that Hummel requires does not. The tension and release inherent in the sudden dynamic buildup and rest, held with a fermata that follows this passage, is lost. Though the passagework is clean and articulate, the musical excitement is absent. There is a lack of drama.
There are many good aspects to this album as well. My favorite piece that the pianist plays here is the Bagatelle in A?. Marked Larghetto, it is a fantasy in which much of the beginning material comes back with added figuration. Here, Alexander-Max chooses not only a good tempo, one that flows and allows the movement to progress naturally, but also brings all of her interpretative skills to the fore. She maintains an acute sense of articulation and voicing, and a quality of freedom, almost improvisatory at times—all essential for a fantasy. Her ending pianissimo is as delicate and beautiful as any I’ve heard.
This is a fine addition to the recorded discography of Hummel’s music. I would especially recommend it for period-instrument enthusiasts, though the two previously mentioned recordings, by Hough and Protopopescu—both on modern grand pianos—provide good, in some cases excellent, readings of this much-neglected repertoire.
Franz Schubert: Impromptus Op. 90 - Sonata in B flat Major,
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99Jan 17, 2020
The Schubert Impromptus Op. 90 and Sonata in B-flat Major are two of the greatest of Schubert's piano works. Winner of major competitions, Alexander Kobrin gives magisterial performances of these great works. Called the "Van Cliburn of today" by the BBC, pianist Alexander Kobrin has placed himself at the forefront of today's performing musicians. His prize-winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience. The New York Times has written that Mr. Kobrin was a "fastidious guide" to Schumann's "otherworldly visions, pointing out hunters, flowers, haunted corners and friendly bowers, all captured in richly characterized vignettes." "This was a performance that will be revered and remembered as a landmark of the regeneration of exceptional classical music in Central New York."-critic wrote after Mr. Kobrin's performance of Second Piano Concerto by Johannes Brahms with Syracuse Symphony in Syracuse, NY.
In the second volume of his complete Mozart piano sonata cycle, Jae-Hyuck Cho continues his exploration of Mozart's keyboard writing as a living, singing voice. Four sonatas trace a journey from warmth and intimacy to outward brilliance, revealing the composer's remarkable gift for dialogue and character. From the graceful charm of the Sonata in B-flat major, K.281 to the broader expressive range of the Sonata in F major, K.332, the programme moves through the poised intimacy of K.282 before concluding with the theatrical sparkle of the Sonata in C major, K.309. Part of a five-volume series for Orchid Classics, Cho's interpretations emphasise clarity and vocal phrasing, reflecting the operatic spirit at the heart of Mozart's keyboard writing.
Franz Schubert can be considered the first true composer as we understand the concept today: a musician who creates primarily in response to an inner calling, exclusively serving the beauty of the music, which is sufficient in itself. Pianist Mathieu Gaudet, for the third volume of his Complete Sonatas and Major Works for Piano series, chose to record Schubert’s wonderful Sonata No. 7 in E-flat Major, D. 568 (1817) and Sonata No. 15 in A Minor, D. 845 (1825). About the Volume II, WholeNote magazine wrote “Our world will need more Schubert like this.” Indeed.
Pianist Mathieu Gaudet presents the final instalment of his Complete Schubert Sonatas and Major Piano Works recording series. This final volume, The Testament, showcases the very last Sonata by Schubert in B flat major D. 960, a work with a unique sound environment, at once lush but modest, passionate but patient, opening a door to a world of extreme sensitivity. Also on this album is the Sonata in E minor D. 566, written by a romantic 20 year-old man, full of fun ideas and strokes of genius.
This is the second volume of Franz Schubert’s Sonatas for Fortepiano in which Yasuyo Yano chooses two of the greatest sonatas: No. 19 in C Minor and No. 7 in E-flat Major. The Sonata in C minor, D. 958 is characteristic of Schubert’s feeling of retreat. Towards the end, the movement rushes ever more quietly towards silence, before two brute final chords conclude this grandiose sonata. The Sonata in E-flat major, D. 568, begins with a thoughtfully cautious Unsiono. This rapturous mood is soon interrupted by a brisk transition, only to culminate in a swaying waltz-sweetness composed with supple chromaticism. The themes and their lively interplay always reveal a melancholy mood. Yasuyo Yano tells of her encounter with the Fortepiano: “In Venice, in 2001, I played the complete Mozart sonatas for violin and piano together with the violinist Giuliano Carmignola. Andrea Marcon, another eminent Italian musician, told me after one of these concerts that I should consider playing Fortepiano. I took his advice, and I am today still thankful for it, because working with the Fortepiano has opened up entirely new dimensions for me. On the one hand, the Fortepiano enables me to imagine and hear how the music must have sounded back in those days, and on the other hand, the Fortepiano is quite different to modern pianos, offering a large spectrum for creative leeway with a rich palette of sound colors, a wide range of dynamics and the delicate response of the keyboard to touch. I had not expected all of this! But it was quite a long journey to master the instrument so that I was able to reveal these characteristics – a journey with a wonderful reward as it has lead me to Schubert.“
This first volume of Jae-Hyuck Cho's complete Mozart piano sonata cycle reflects the pianist's belief that Mozart's keyboard writing is inseparable from the vocal world of his operas - music that should feel sung, alive, breathing and vividly expressive. Cho approaches these works as dialogues filled with wit, drama and character, seeking not perfection but truth in every phrase. The program begins with the Sonata in C major, K.545, whose apparent simplicity reveals Mozart's precision and elegance. The Fantasia in C minor, K.475, and the Sonata in C minor, K.457, follow as powerful companion works: improvisatory, unpredictable and stormy, yet touched by tenderness. Cho presents them as a single expressive journey, from the Fantasia's restless soliloquy to the Sonata's theatrical sweep, aria-like Adagio and fiercely driven finale. The Sonata in B-flat major, K.333, closes the album with it's lyrical generosity and classical poise - a radiant counterpart to the emotional turbulence of the C-minor pieces. Recorded with Grammy winning producer Michael Fine, this release introduces a cycle shaped by Cho's conviction that Mozart's piano music speaks, laughs and sighs with the freedom and spontaneity of song.
IBS Classical presents a distinguished new release featuring violinist Valerie Steenken and pianist Ricardo Alí Álvarez, performing three major violin sonatas by Richard Strauss, Ottorino Respighi, and Manuel M. Ponce. Conceived as a journey across German, Italian, and Mexican traditions, the programme bridges late-Romantic lyricism and early-twentieth-century modern expressivity. Strauss's youthful Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18, combines soaring melodic invention with symphonic breadth, while Respighi's Sonata in B minor unfolds as a grand, rhetorically charged architecture culminating in a majestic Passacaglia. Ponce's Sonata breve, written in Paris in 1930, distills neoclassical elegance and Mexican lyricism into a concise yet refined statement of style. In this recording, Valerie Steenken (Concertmaster of Spanish National Orchestra) and Ricardo Alí Álvarez (Professor at Reina Sofía School) offer performances of exceptional unity and insight. Steenken's luminous tone, phrasing of great naturalness, and expressive precision find in Álvarez's pianism an ideal counterpart-sensitive, detailed, and dynamically sculpted. Their dialogue reveals a profound understanding of structure and sound, bringing each work's emotional core vividly to life. Through this project, IBS Classical reaffirms it's dedication to artistic excellence and to the renewal of essential chamber repertoire for violin and piano, presented here in a performance of rare coherence and expressive depth.
All the works recorded here were composed between 1825 and 1835, when Mendelssohn was aged between sixteen and twenty-six. He spent much of this decade travelling, from Berlin to Paris via Weimar, then London and Scotland before work in Dusseldorf eventually led to his appointment as municipal musical director and conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. The Piano Sonata in E major and that in B flat major, and indeed the Phantasie (subtitled Sonate ecossaise), owe some debt to Beethoven, but are also influenced by Weber, Hummel, and Moscheles (to whom the Phantasie was dedicated). The two shorter works (Scherzo à capriccio and Capriccio) perhaps show a more relaxed side of the composer, free from the constraints of sonata form. Liszt's virtuosic re-working of themes from A Midsummer Night's Dream completes the programme. Born in Manchester in 1953, Peter Donohoe studied at Chetham's School of Music for seven years, graduated in music from the University of Leeds, and went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham, and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility, and commanding technique.
