Theodore Paraskivesco Haydn Sonate en Eb Variations

Sometimes art is so simple and relaxed it seems to come from a place of utter mastery and command. This superb Sviatoslav Richter recording is like this. The presentation is easeful; there’s nothing forced. Richter just plays the music. These sonatas are reasonably easy for a pianist of his caliber, so the technical polish is perfect, which he makes sound effortlessly achieved. And Richter’s love for these Josef Haydn sonatas shows clearly. It results in a disc that is easily the best set of Haydn piano music in my collection.

Par son altière magnificence, la "Sonate en si mineur" brille au firmament de la littérature romantique pour le piano. Le manuscrit porte la mention « Grande Sonate pour le piano forte, F. Liszt, terminé le 2 février 1853 », en écho à la "Grosse Sonate für das Hammerklavier" de Beethoven. En 1854, l'édition est dédiée « An Robert Schumann » qui, quinze ans auparavant, avait adressé à Liszt sa "Fantaisie op.17". Le « pianiste roi » acclamé dans toute l'Europe occupe désormais les sérieuses fonctions de Kapellmeister à Weimar — petite ville de Thuringe encore emplie du souvenir de Goethe - car le moment est venu pour lui de « briser sa chrysalide de virtuosité pour laisser plein vol à sa pensée ».

Hoewel van de 105 symfonieën van Joseph Haydn meestal de Londense uitgevoerd worden, geven zijn eerste werken ook al blijk van natuurtalent. De symfonieën 6 (Le Matin), 7 (Le Midi) en 8 (Le Soir), die samen "Die Tageszeiten" vormen, stralen de vrolijkheid, de frisheid en de muzikale oprechtheid van de jonge Haydn uit. Hoewel Haydn als musicus in dienst van het hof van de graaf Paul Anton Esterházy in Eisenstadt beperkt was in zijn vrijheid, kunnen de "Tageszeiten Symfonieën" zelfs als experimentele muziek bestempeld worden. Informatie van deze strekking is te vinden in het viertalige booklet van de onlangs uitgekomen cd "Die Tageszeiten" van Haydn (1732-1809), uitgevoerd door het Belgische kamerorkest "Prima La Musica" onder leiding van Dirk Vermeulen.

Every work here is a delight for different reasons, and three of them are more than that: the sonatas #s 40 and 52 and the Andante con Variazioni. Two are brief: #37 (10:33) and #40 (12:14). #37 is a charmer,with a brief Largo amidst two an open Allegro con Brio and a closing Presto-ma non Troppo. The outer movements are effervescent and quite memorable-the Finale slightly more than the first movement. #40 is divided between a nine minute first movement (Allegro e Innocente) and a three minute Presto.

Catherine Perrin's Ah! Vous dirai-je maman is a recital to show off the sound of a 1772 Jakob and Abraham Kirckman harpsichord, a dual-manual instrument with a pedal mechanism that allows the performer to switch from loud to soft stops quickly. She chose pieces that are contemporaneous with the instrument, which are almost always performed either on a fortepiano or modern piano, but they don't sound out of place on this harpsichord, just different. It has a light, elegant sound, not thickly metallic, and gives a lighter character to the music. Being a harpsichordist and not someone who has first learned these works on the piano, Perrin doesn't try to force anything out of the instrument that it can't produce.

It's not as if recordings of the 62 Piano Sonatas of Franz Josef Haydn are thick on the ground. Among the relative big names, there's Jeno Jando on Naxos and John McCabe on Decca. Among the less well-known names, there's Walid Akl on Koch Discover, Roland Batik on Camerata, Ronald Brautigam on BIS, Walter Olbertz on Berlin Classics, and Christine Schornsheim on Capriccio. And for those listeners with record players and aging memories, there's also the venerable Hungaroton cycle, the first complete recorded cycle, that coupled relatively well-known Hungarians like Zoltán Kocsis and Dezsö Ránki with nearly unknown Hungarians like János Sebestyén and the inimitable Zsuzsa Pertis.