Beethoven Beethoven 7

After a formidable first volume, Cedric Tiberghien continues his exploration of Beethoven's corpus of variations. At the heart of this new album are the famous Thirty-two Variations in C minor and their tangy reminiscences of Bach - the Ciaccona from Partita No.2 for violin solo, presented here in Brahms's masterly transcription. He also takes the opportunity to show us what a certain school of American composers (Crumb, Cage, Feldman) has made of this tradition of variation form.

After a formidable first volume, Cedric Tiberghien continues his exploration of Beethoven's corpus of variations.

Cédric Tiberghien has long been interested in the principle of Beethovenian variation, as is demonstrated by a recording he made for harmonia mundi twenty years ago.

A precocious child, Argerich began nursery aged two years and eight months, where she was the youngest child. A five-year-old boy, who was a friend, teased her that she would not be able to play the piano, and Argerich responded by playing perfectly, by ear, a piece their teacher played them. The teacher immediately called the mother and they "started making a fuss." She started learning the piano at the age of three. At the age of five, she moved to teacher Vincenzo Scaramuzza, who stressed to her the importance of lyricism and feeling. Argerich gave her debut concert in 1949 at the age of eight. The family moved to Europe in 1955, where Argerich studied with Friedrich Gulda in Austria, whom Argerich describes as one of her major influences. She later studied with Stefan Askenase and Maria Curcio. Argerich also seized opportunities for brief periods of coaching with Madeleine Lipatti (widow of Dinu Lipatti), Abbey Simon, and Nikita Magaloff. In 1957, at sixteen, she won both the Geneva International Music Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Competition within three weeks of each other. Following this success, Argerich had a personal and artistic crisis; she did not play the piano for three years and considered giving it up to train as a secretary or doctor. She credited Anny Askenase (the wife of Stefan Askenase) with encouraging her to return to the piano.

Intent on developing the reputation he had won in Vienna, Beethoven undertook an extensive tour ending in Berlin, home to the cello-playing Frederick William II. There he unveiled his Sonatas for Piano and Cello, Op. 5 with one of the famed Duport brothers playing cello. These are revolutionary works, with neither instrument subservient and the piano fully independent, for which in the 1790s there was no precedent. Beethoven also wrote vivacious variations on operatic music by Mozart where light-hearted playfulness and dramatic rivalry are energising features.

Intent on developing the reputation he had won in Vienna, Beethoven undertook an extensive tour ending in Berlin, home to the cello-playing Frederick William II. There he unveiled his Sonatas for Piano and Cello, Op. 5 with one of the famed Duport brothers playing cello. These are revolutionary works, with neither instrument subservient and the piano fully independent, for which in the 1790s there was no precedent. Beethoven also wrote vivacious variations on operatic music by Mozart where light-hearted playfulness and dramatic rivalry are energising features.

Above the album worked the UMG Records 'Ludwig van Beethoven - Beethoven', and his release took place on 2020. The album has got 36 songs with a total duration of more than an hour. A compilation is a compilation of original music.

The ‘abundance of intelligence’ in Pavel Kolesnikov’s pianism which so impressed Gramophone pays particular dividends in Beethoven, the ‘Moonlight’ sonata sounding newly minted in this remarkable reading.

At the heart of this programme of Beethoven songs performed by Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano is the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the distant beloved). Bostridge describes it as “the distillation of Beethoven as lover”.