Beethoven Baruda Skoda

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Aaron Short have assembled an interesting program mostly of very rarely heard works. The sonata is, of course, standard repertoire and has been recorded by nearly every major violinist since Fritz Kreisler and Szymon Goldberg; and, whileSkaerved and Shorr don't have big-time soloist pizzazz, they know their way around classical scores better than most big-time soloists, and this is a very satisfying, intelligent interpretation of that score.

Now many of the world’s most serious and significant pianists (Schnabel, Serkin, Brendel, Goode, etc.) have devoted a great deal of thoughtful study to the Beethoven sonatas; in general, performance of this music represents a level of erudition and deep contemplation probably unequaled by the works of any other mainstream composer. Serious pianists study every aspect of these works in minute detail; virtually everything is taken into account except those instruments which inspired Beethoven, and which he had in mind when he composed.

The second two-disc installment of a projected Beethoven sonata cycle from Christian Leotta offers individualistic interpretations that alternately hit and miss, sometimes within the same work. The “Waldstein” first-movement exposition and recapitulation exude power and polish, yet the development comes off too sectionalized and rounded off for the arpeggiated sequences to generate the dramatic tension we expect. Leotta’s deliberation in the Rondo yields gorgeous, alluringly blurred sonorities at the outset as he observes Beethoven’s long pedal markings, yet the extensive scales and rotary figurations run in place, moving nowhere until the Presto coda: too little, too late.

This is the latest and, they tell us, the last of EMI’s Simon Rattle Edition, gathering together the conductor’s complete forays into certain composers and repertoire. As with any such project the sets hitherto released have contained both treasures and duds. Even though not everything here is perfect, this set sends the series out on a high with his complete Vienna recording of the Beethoven symphonies.

Grumiaux and Haskil were close friends and long-time playing partners. This collaborative relationship lasted until a few days before Haskil's death. Their duet gained wide popularity among music lovers through numerous published recordings. This concert in Besançon in 1957 is a legend. The first publication in the world spans time and space with beautiful sound quality, allowing us to immerse ourselves in this happiness.

Chef d'oeuvre de fraîcheur et d'invention mélodique, l'Octuor de Mendelssohn, exprime le génie précoce d'un jeune homme de seize ans. Cet effectif élargi peut se combiner par la réunion de deux quatuors (les Smetana & Janacek, les Kocian & Prazak…) ou être confié à des formations ad hoc, comme le Wiener Oktett que nous entendons ici dans sa formation tardive de 1972, menée par Anton Fietz au premier archet. Les instrumentistes autrichiens privilégient la souplesse du matériau à la vigueur de l'élan, adouci par la texture fondue de leur sonorité suave.

Dumay and Pires have made some outstanding recordings.. and this new set of Beethoven's complete works in the same genre.. belongs among the very best available.
Make no mistake, this is chamber music playing of the first order, and a major contribution to the Beethoven discography–a set to be savored and enjoyed many times over

Following their previous two volumes of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas, Antje Weithaas and Dénes Várjon now release the third volume on our partner label CAvi. This was a long-held wish of renowned violinist Antje Weithaas, who says “Just once in my lifetime, I wanted to record Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas as a cycle!”. Together with the versatile Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon, she recorded the cycle not in the chronologial order but thematically. Their third and final album spans an arc from the first to the last violin sonatas, as well as Sonata No. 5 and 6, and collects the composer’s more lyrical works.