Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1-5 and variations

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sometimes it's like listening to two people excitedly bouncing ideas off each other; at others it's like a love duet, or even the kind of intense parting conversation in which every word counts... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2017, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Dec 2016
Catalogue No: ONYX4178
Label: Onyx
Length: 2 hours 26 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

April 2017

Chamber Choice

In stock

Usually despatched within 1 working day

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5 No. 1

Work length24:55

Album only

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

I. Adagio sostenuto - Allegro

Track length17:48

Album only

II. Rondo (Allegro vivace)

Track length7:07

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Beethoven: Variations (12) on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" for Cello and Piano, Op. 66

Work length9:55

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2

Work length25:36

Album only

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

I. Adagio sostenuto ed espressivo - Allegro molto, più tosto presto

Track length16:13

Album only

II. Rondo (Allegro)

Track length9:23

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Beethoven: Variations (12) on "See the conquering hero comes" for Cello and Piano, WoO 45

Work length12:14

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69

Work length27:23

$4.50

$6.30

$7.85

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

I. Allegro, ma non tanto

Track length12:48

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

II. Scherzo (Allegro molto)

Track length5:42

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

III. Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace

Track length8:53

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Beethoven: 7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen', WoO 46: Variations in E flat major, WoO. 46 on Mozart's "Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen" (Die Zauberflöte)

Work length9:34

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1

Work length15:19

$3.00

$4.20

$5.20

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

I. Andante – Allegro vivace

Track length7:51

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

II. Adagio - Tempo d'andante - Allegro vivace

Track length7:28

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102 No. 2

Work length21:11

$3.50

$4.90

$6.10

Ralph Kirshbaum, Shai Wosner

I. Allegro con brio

Track length6:40

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

II. Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto - Attacca

Track length9:54

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

III. Allegro - Allegro fugato

Track length4:37

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

About
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About

Beethoven’s sonatas for cello and piano span his entire creative life. The Op.5 sonatas date from the late 1790s and therefore are products of his early years as a virtuoso pianist and aspiring composer in Vienna, where he had settled after leaving his native Bonn.

The 3rd sonata Op.69 dates from the composer’s ‘middle period’, and is contemporary with the 4th and 5th Symphonies and the Razumovsky String Quartets. It is one of his greatest chamber compositions, a work of great beauty, full of surprises and seemingly limitless inventiveness.

The two sonatas of Op102 were composed at the beginning of Beethoven’s visionary ‘late period’ and rub shoulders with the last violin sonata, the piano sonatas Nos.27, 28 and 29 ’Hammerklavier’. Beethoven’s later fascination with the baroque fugue surfaces not only at the end of the ‘Hammerklavier’ but also in the finale of the 5th sonata, reaching its apex in the Grosse Fugue’ Op.133 a few years later.

These performances were recorded immediately after live performances at Wigmore Hall, the culmination of a tour of all 5 Sonatas and the Variations across the USA and the UK in conjunction with Texas-born, Ralph Kirschbaum's 70th birthday.

Reviews

April 2017

sometimes it's like listening to two people excitedly bouncing ideas off each other; at others it's like a love duet, or even the kind of intense parting conversation in which every word counts to an almost painful degree…few get so close to the complex truth of this music

Febuary 2017

[these sonatas] have an infectious exuberance. Highlights are many: the opening movement of Op 102 No 1, for instance, which is unerringly paced and nicely balances the muscular and the skittish, and Kirshbaum never less than beautiful in the high-lying writing…as a whole, this is a more ‘traditional’ approach to the sonatas than the comparisons listed below, but if subversion and reinvention are not top priorities, it’s well worth exploring

8th December 2016

Wosner keeps the piano line crisp and buoyant; Kirshbaum spins long, broad phrases that look convincingly into the far distance. Together they make Beethoven’s huge structures work, but the details can be striking too.

10th January 2017

The playing is probing yet unaffected, thoughtful yet delivered with a simplicity that lets Beethoven’s lyrical succinctness shine through the maelstrom of emotions that flavour the sonatas’ expressive twists and turns…Kirshbaum brings effortless maturity to all these works, supported by the poetic solidity of Wosner’s pianism

20th February 2017

It is the rugged, Romantic side of Beethoven that is to the fore in these interpretations. Pure and precise they may not always be...but they are full of authentic feeling.

Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1-5 and variations

2 CDs

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