Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Vol.2 | C-AVI AVI8553493

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Vol.2

£13.25

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Label: C-AVI

Cat No: AVI8553493

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 4th November 2022

Contents

About

Daniel Heide releases the second volume in his survey of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas including the ever popular 'Pastorale' and 'Moonlight' sonatas.

'When I first heard Beethoven's Sonata No.15 in D major, op.28, the "Pastoral", it immediately conquered my heart. The swaying, deeply resounding, velvety bass notes and the tender theme in the right hand continue to produce a melodious sense of well-being in me to this day. A series of slow, melodious arches alternating with incisive, characteristic insertions create the general mood in the first movement.

'Then the entire second movement is pervaded by a relentless staccato figure in the left hand: these tranquil sixteenth notes, with their metronomical precision, provide a guiding framework for the right hand's dignified theme. In the middle section, we are surprised by the onset of a harlequinesque alternation between dotted chords and whimsical triplets in the right hand, which lasts until the initial main theme and its accurately pulsating left-hand accompaniment call everyone back to order. In the last section, Beethoven accelerates the theme to thirty-second note runs – leading to a culmination before the music suddenly becomes quiet and the movement fades out in tranquil transcendence.

'In the scherzo we are confronted with an accurate, reactive joy of music-making combined with an outgoing sense of humor, and the same variety of pulsating playing pleasure is likewise prolonged throughout the last movement. This is not a furious finale, but a mischievous, swaying Rundgesang (stanza-and-refrain) with an affectionate rondo theme that returns again and again. A breakneck coda in Presto time allows the soloist to conclude this grand sonata with bravura. I still well remember my admission exam for the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar in 1996. My programme included Beethoven's "Pastoral" sonata; the jury allowed me to play portions of all movements, and I was admitted!'
- Daniel Heide

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