Riccarda Pisano Rari Agrumi Italiani: Agrumi D'italia Meravigliosi e Poco Noti Vol.2 (2014)

This luxury Belcea Quartet Box brings a new high-definition audiovisual reference recording of Beethoven's Complete String Quartets! The ensemble embarked on the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets, playing the whole program within twelve days, and recorded at the Wiener Konzerthaus in 2012, with each concert featuring one work from the early, middle and late quartets, including perhaps the most exciting of all works by Beethoven: the Opus 133, the 'Große Fuge' which he wrote as the finale of the quartet Opus 130.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet returns for the second volume of his survey of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. The project, set to conclude with Vol. 3 in 2014, runs alongside his complete recording of Haydn’s Piano Sonatas. Vol. 1 of the Beethoven series was critically acclaimed, BBC Music calling the performances ‘distinguished and virtuosic’ and Fanfare remarking that ‘his readings will withstand the test of time’. In this release Bavouzet performs the sonatas published between 1800 and 1804.

Leopold Koželuch, an eminent contemporary of Mozart and at the time considered by many to be the superior composer, was one of the first champions of the fortepiano, and his compositions for the instrument enshrined the highest qualities of Viennese style. Composed over nearly four decades his sonatas show progressive development, embracing lyrical melodies, delightful harmonic shifts, and foretastes of Romantic drama. They can be judged worthy to stand alongside those of Haydn, Dussek, Clementi and Mozart, and as a precursor to those of Beethoven.

After the success of their first volume Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella propose a second disc devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach's most talented and surprising son, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788). The Sinfonia in C major expresses multiple emotions, ranging from irrepressible suffering in the Adagio to joyous release and insouciance in the concluding Allegretto, tinged with near-Mozartian grace. The Cello Concerto in B flat reveals the influence of the waning Baroque era and Vivaldi in particular.