Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Sonata was extensively revised by the composer in 1931, and the revised version is tighter and thinner in texture than the original version of 1913. It represents a supreme challenge to the pianist in either version, and has all the hallmarks of the composer at the height of his powers. The 6 Moments Musicaux Op.16 are early works which exhibit the flamboyance of the youthful virtuoso. Sonya Bach includes three of the Preludes from the Op.23 set.
The sonatas on this album (except K311, this sonata was written in Mannheim) were composed in Munich as part of a cycle encompassing six sonatas. Mozart found himself in the Bavarian capital over the winter of 1774-1775 to produce his opera La finta giardiniera. The degree of imagination that Mozart, as a youth of 18 or 19, drew upon in his approach to the sonata genre is truly astounding. Each of these works - which based on their extensive virtuoso demands were presumably written for his own use - offers an individual and profoundly original solution to the specific problems of the genre, and if the young composer perhaps lacks something in his mastery of the form compared with his later works, it is well compensated for by his sheer wealth of imagination. What is more, we read in Mozart's correspondence that he repeatedly performed the works himself from memory, which was not a given in those days.
I do not believe that there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' instrument on which to perform Beethoven's Sonatas Opus 2. What matters is the musical result. It depends on the alchemy that is created between the performer and the instrument. I extensively tried various modern copies of fortepianos from 1795 - 1800, trying to get closer to the sound and expressive world of early Beethoven. However, with the opportunity of having a Graf fortepiano (No. 429) in my studio, restored in 2023, I was able to prepare this recording on that instrument, playing it regularly for a year and achieving a kind of familiarity with it's action and timbral response that I have grown fond of - Roberto Prosseda.
So far and yet so near. The harmonies and the virtuosity: that is what the two composers Sergei Rachmaninoff and Carlos Guastavino have in common. "Even though at first glance the geographical distance between them was immense, their approach to the piano was strikingly similar," remarks Martin Klett. In both composers he loves the Romantic element- paired with attractive simplicity in one case, with ambitious piano artistry in the other. "I don't think one could even say if this music is by Guastavino or Rachmaninoff! It's somewhere in between, and thus provides a smooth, perfect transition- the ideal piece to play before the Rachmaninoff sonata." (Klett) Martin Klett has made a name for himself as a solo pianist and chamber musician. Ever since winning the International Johannes Brahms Competition and the German National Music Competition, he has become a welcome guest at prestigious music festivals.
His 18 piano sonatas can be described as the secret stars of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's extensive oeuvre. They were often important areas of experimentation, which in Mozart's short biography describe a development from early rococo to classical maturity, in which he explored new compositional techniques and then later transferred these to the larger genres. This is exemplified by the three works now recorded by Amy Lin in her familiar sensitive manner: the Sonata K. 333 emphasizes the lyrical and pastoral. In K. 284, the 18-year-old composer establishes the alternation between 'quasi-tutti' based on the orchestral writing and soloistic passages in dialogue-like interplay. The famous C minor Sonata K. 457, which Beethoven admired so much, shows a completely different, darkly dramatic tone and thus Mozart's fascinating stylistic diversity in this genre as well.
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.
Pianist Sviatoslav Richter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich were among Prokofiev's friends during the last years of his life. They inspired the composer to continue his work and he, in turn, dedicated his 1947 Ninth Piano Sonata to Richter. For Rostropovich he wrote an amazing group of late works, among which was the Sonata for Cello and Piano. Both the Ninth Piano Sonata and the C Major Cello Sonata are considered masterpieces, finding Prokofiev at the height of his powers. The two Sonatinas, Op. 54 are delightful miniature Sonatas, each lasting less than 10 minutes. The two illustrious artists featured on this disc, Donohoe and Wallfisch, partner each other affectionately and in perfect harmony in this recording.
Over several years and several decades, Domenico Scarlatti composed a new sonata for his royal piano pupil practically each week. And so something gradually evolved that can justifiably be described as his life's work. But what does a life's work mean for us today? An immense number of sonatas, 555 in total. Their grandiose diversity and originality are only actually unlocked when, instead of consuming them ne masse, you listen to just one a week. However you should then listen to this one sonata every day, just as Scarlatti originally intended. And in one fell swoop, your life is over! Can we really do them justice today? In view of this, mine and Christoph Ullrich's undertaking to stretch the production over 17 years seems appropriate. Besides this, at the same time, Christoph Ullrich is still working on other lifelong projects, such as his large-scale children's project Laterna Musica (formerly Earworm). And so with our altered perception of time, we're battling to revive the past whilst remaining modern and curious in order ot meet today's demands. But the battle is worth it! What an adventure! Because who knows what'll come out of it after 17 years? What will the fingers and ears end up doing? Will there still be music at the end of it all? In all of his playfulness, craziness and childishness, in his cacophony of hand-crossing and sensuality, this cycle can also offer something very special compared to so many others: the realization that doing more and more and doing it faster doesn't actually help. Composer in the face of the fact tha tour existence is finite.
Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 / Giovanni Bellucci
Brilliant Classics
CD
$21.99Sep 18, 2020
The second volume of Giovanni Bellucci’s Beethoven cycle for Brilliant Classics takes the listener on a journey of six eventful years, from Op.22 of 1800 to the ‘Appassionata’ Sonata of 1806. During that time Beethoven established himself as Vienna’s pre-eminent pianist-composer. He came to regard Op.22 as the best of his ‘early’ sonatas but a sea-change in the deepening of his expression is already evident in the piano-writing of Op.26, with its funeral march ‘in memory of a hero’. There follow the remarkable formal innovations of the Op.27 pair – No.2 immortally inscribed on the popular imagination as the ‘Moonlight’ – and then the smooth, undulating rhythms of the ‘Pastorale’ Op.28. The trio of Op.31 sonatas present a study in contrasts, from the graceful profile of No.1 in G major to the sound and fury of the ‘Tempest’ No.2 and then the hectic momentum of No.3, presaging the concision of works at the end of his ‘middle’ period such as the ‘Serioso’ Quartet and the Eighth Symphony. The proportions of the two-movement Op.54 are even more tautly circumscribed, before the reach of Beethoven’s expressive range for his instrument expands to hitherto undreamt heights in the ‘Waldstein’ Op.53 and the ‘Appassionata’ Op.57. Giovanni Bellucci is among the most strikingly individual of modern pianists. Described by Italian critic Piero Rattalino as ‘a force of nature, vast and palpitating’, he cultivates an old-fashioned richness of piano timbre while still attending to the letter as well as the spirit of Beethoven’s scores. According to Le Monde, ‘he takes us back to the Golden Age of the Piano’. His recordings have been showered with prizes such as Diapason d’Or, Choc, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, CD Maestro etc.
The sonata concertata form is perfectly illustrated in these trios by Dietrich Buxtehude which, according to Peter Wollny constitute ‘a landmark in the history of the sonata’. They provide a better understanding of a composer who has owed his fame chiefly associated to his cantatas and organ works, and to the admiration of the young Johann Sebastian Bach, who walked 400 kilometres to hear him play. After recording Buxtehude’s first set of chamber sonatas (ALPHA367), the musicians of Arcangelo (Sophie Gent, Jonathan Manson, Thomas Dunford and Jonathan Cohen) now revive the pieces from the second collection, published in 1696. It shows the multiple European influences (Baltic, Italian, German, French) that flourished in Lübeck, the north German city where Buxtehude worked as organist of the Marienkirche, but also in Hamburg, where the music was type set.
