Fast Piano

The ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata is by far Beethoven’s longest piano sonata, and in his view it was also his finest. It was begun in or just before December 1817, after a fallow period of over a year in which he had composed next to nothing, hindered by the after-effects of an infection in October the previous year, according to his own account. He seems to have intended from the outset to dedicate the sonata to Archduke Rudolph of Austria (1788-1831), who had been his pupil, friend, patron and chief supporter for nearly ten years. Its nickname derives from Beethoven’s search for a German word for the piano. The word used today, ‘Klavier’, could in those days mean either piano or harpsichord, and so after asking for advice he decided on ‘Hammerklavier’ for the instrument. He then used this term in his preceding sonata (Op 101 in A major), the present one, and the one after (Op 109 in E major). These other two sonatas, however, begin gently, whereas the hammer-like blows at the start of Op 106 suggest ‘Hammerklavier’ as an appropriate nickname. It was issued as a ‘grand sonata’, a term reserved by Beethoven for large-scale sonatas written and published separately.

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce Dance!, the debut recording by the Minerva Piano Trio, featuring seminal pieces by Stravinsky and Ravel alongside new works by two British composers, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Richard Birchall, and Pulitzer Prize-winning American, Caroline Shaw.

William Bolcom was awarded the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his 12 New Etudes for piano, and his music has always revolved around works for the instrument on which he still performs as a soloist and accompanist. This collection of mostly première recordings reveals student pieces that negotiate 20th-century musical battles between the avant-garde influences of Boulez and Messiaen and Bolcom’s love of Schumann, as well as later work that embraces the 1960s ragtime revival and draws inspiration from friends and colleagues in every phase of his distinguished six-decade career. Elegantly performed by friends of the composer, this wide-ranging program is summed up by Bolcom as ‘cleaning house’ in the Charles Ives tradition.

FAST TRACK BUILD is an all new feature here on Sonic Academy. Using the genre selected for Sonic Rewind, the Sonic team attempt to build a track for you in under two hours. This is a fast paced feature allowing you to gain an understanding of a genre in a punchy, bite sized way. Join Phil and Chris as they cover the PRYDA sound.

Paul Hindemith is without question, one of the 20th century's most industrious composers. One of his most famous accomplishments is that he successfully completed a sonata for every major instrument in the orchestra. Hindemith began his career as a violinist amid the turmoil of WWI, and he wrote by far more literature for the viola than any other composer in history. He had an early success becoming concertmaster of the Frankfort Opera Orchestra at the young age of 19. He later turned to viola in 1919, and it was to remain his favorite instrument for the rest of his life. Hindemith was the violist of the Amar Quartet, founded in 1921 for the premiere of the Second String Quartet. He later became known as a soloist in Europe, premiering his own viola works as well as the Milhaud Concerto No. 1 and the Walton Viola Concerto. When the Nazis expelled him from his post at the conservatory in Berlin and deprived him of his German audience due to his Jewish ties and the soprano-in-the-bathtub scene in the opera Neues vom Tage (News of the Day), which apparently shocked Hitler, Hindemith moved to Switzerland and made concert tours to the USA before emigrating there in early 1940.

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Adam Monroe's Honky Tonk Piano was sampled from a vintage Chickering upright piano - exact age unknown - primarily through a Neumann TLM 102 microphone. The piano had undoubtedly seem some action, and although it could be tuned (one note at a time) the tone of the piano was a bit on the "honky" side. The piano was sampled close-miced with lid open in mono, but each note was carefully panned to creat a stereo effect. An AKG D112 was used initially in order to capture the lower frequencies, but the TLM 102 did a fine enough job on its own.