Gode nyheder - den absolut bedste cd vi har købt i et år (LvB cellosonater med Schiff og Perenyi på ECM) bliver nu fulgt op af en komplet serie med alle klaversonaterne.

De heldige Københavnere kunne i sidste måned høre noget af det bedste Beethoven spil der har været i byen - Schiff var på spil.

1. sæt kommer om en måned - og man kan jo kun forvente at ECM leverer sædvanlig kvalitet. Så nu er der kun at vente.....  

 

BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas, Volume 1 

 

CD 1

1-4 Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op.2/1  (1793-5)

5-8 Sonata No.2 in A major, Op.2/2  (1794-5)

9-12 Sonata No.3 in C major, Op.2/3  (1794-5)

 

CD 2

1-4 Sonata No.4 E-flat major, Op.7 (1796-7)

 

 

András Schiff

http://www.terryharrison.force9.co.uk/andras.htm

 

András Schiff, the distinguished interpreter of Bach, Mozart and Schubert, has waited until he was 50 to tackle the Beethoven sonatas. The Hungarian pianist is keenly aware of the overwhelming tradition of legendary performers – Schnabel, Fischer, Kempff, Arrau – and the extreme musical demands of this important cycle: “These 32 sonatas to me always seemed like a suit I still had to grow into”.  Composed between 1795 and 1822, the sonatas are central to Beethoven’s creativity – none resembles any other and each develops completely new solutions. 

 

Schiff began his three-year chronological project to perform and record the Beethoven cycle in early 2004. The first four recitals of Schiff’s cycle, played in major halls in Europe and America, were received with unanimous enthusiasm. London’s Evening Standard spoke of “sustained magic”, while Neue Zürcher Zeitung hailed a “very contemporary” rendering “miles away from the excitement of romanticism.”

 

The three Op.2 Sonatas, written when Beethoven was 25, mark a debut of stunning confidence. Holding on to the tradition of his teacher Joseph Haydn, Op.2 sets new standards: the four-movement layout is introduced as a new model, with the third already developing into the typical Beethoven Scherzo. The impassioned Sonata No.4, Op.7, his second longest, demonstrates a symphonic ambition.

 

For the ECM discs, Schiff opted for live recordings because concerts facilitate communicative immediacy and create musical suspense. Schiff uses two different grand pianos: a Bösendorfer, which “is adequate to the Vienna dialect”, for the early Beethoven, and a Steinway for the more dramatic sonatas. They are recorded at recitals in the Zürich Tonhalle, renowned for outstanding acoustics. The cycle will be released on ECM in eight volumes, issued in chronological order as single or double albums.

ECM 2cds 4763054