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Beethoven constantly calls into question and modifies the notion of time in sonata form. He never repeats himself. The thirty-two sonatas are like a voyage of initiation that runs throughout his creative career, displaying his endlessly inventive imagination.
After Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and Sonata in B minor, François- Frédéric Guy offers us a complete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas, recorded in public at the Arsenal in Metz. This set is the first volume. ‘To play the complete Beethoven sonatas in public represents the most exhilarating project I have attempted, a tremendous artistic and human challenge. Beethoven explores sonic and poetic regions that in my view still remain, even in the early twenty-first century, his “exclusive territory”.’ François Frédéric Guy
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight'
I. Adagio sostenuto
II. Allegretto
III. Presto agitato
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14 No. 1
I. Allegro
II. Allegretto
III. Rondo. Allegro comodo
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14 No. 2
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Scherzo. Allegro assai
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major, Op. 22
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio con molta espressione
III. Menuetto
IV. Rondo. Allegretto
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathetique'
I. Grave - Allegro di molto e con brio
II. Adagio cantabile
III. Rondo. Allegro
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10 No. 1
I. Allegro molto e con brio
II. Adagio molto
III. Finale. Prestissimo
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2
I. Allegro
II. Allegretto
III. Presto
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3
I. Presto
II. Largo e mesto
III. Menuetto. Allegro
IV. Rondo. Allegro
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat major, Op. 27 No. 1 'Quasi una fantasia'
I. Andante - Allegro - Andante
II. Allegro molto e vivace
III. Adagio con espressione
IV. Allegro vivace
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26 'March Funebre'
I. Andante con variazioni
II. Scherzo. Allegro molto
III. Marcia funebre sulla morte d'un eroe
IV. Allegro
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, Op. 7
I. Allegro molto e con brio
II. Largo. Con gran espressione
III. Allegro
IV. Rondo. Poco allegretto e grazioso
April 2012
“Technically, he is in total control...Guy's whole being seems to expand into the music and he embodies an emotional involvement through rhythmic flexibility, mostly sonorous tone and a left hand the equal of his right in weight, articulacy and dynamic nuance”
April 2012
****
“Guy evidently believes in taking Beethoven by storm, something to which the composer could hardly object...Some of Beethoven's most hackneyed movements, such as the first movement of the Moonlight and of the Pathetique, gave me pleasure for the first time in years.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
I. Adagio sostenuto
