Haydn: Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Sonata - un piccolo divertimento)

Recorded and released in the ‘anniversary year’ of both Handel and Haydn, Hyperion’s Record of the Month is an effusive celebration of the two composers, performed by an artist whose renditions of 17th- and 18th-century keyboard works on the piano have received the highest possible acclaim. This recital is a welcome gesture from the ‘high priestess of Bach’ (The Sunday Times). As you will hear, Hewitt’s trademark clarity of line, singing tone and instinctive musicality are perfectly suited to the urbane elegance of the works recorded here.

In a fascinating and personal booklet note, Angela Hewitt takes the listener through her own childhood experiences of the works of Handel and Haydn that led her to select the works for this disc, and includes an interesting discussion of historical performance practice. This is an enchanting release that will delight Angela’s legion of fans.

Stefan Vladar continues this series. In 1999 he was appointed as professor of piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2009 he received the Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria.

A year ago we issued, to great critical acclaim. A double album of Paderewski’s first recordings, made in Europe in 1911-12 (APR6006). Between 1914 and 1931 the pianist recorded for Victor in the US but in 1937, after it appeared Paderewski had retired from the studio, he was persuaded to return to the HMV studios in London to make a final series of recordings. At first the plan was to record the repertoire which featured in the film ‘Moonlight Sonata’, a huge blockbuster success at the time which featured Paderewski playing himself, but in addition to this repertoire Paderewski went on to record works by Haydn and Mozart which were new to his discography. It has often been said that in later life Paderewski’s technique was not what it had been, and to an extent the is undoubtedly true, but this is not an issue in the classical works featured here, and the Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in particular reveal the extreme poetry that had mesmerised audiences for fifty years and had made Paderewski the most famous pianist of his generation.

This is the first time all Paderewski’s 1930’s HMV recordings have been assembled together and two unissued tracks from the 1938 sessions are also included.

The pianist Vanessa Wagner put together the programme for this recording in successive stages. The idea first began to form in concert when she began playing two of the pieces in a number of recitals, Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations and the Berio Cinque Variazione. As time went on, she read through and listened to many different works, from all periods. Some pieces automatically disqualified themselves because of their duration, but in the end she initially decided in favour of Haydn’s highly unconventional Variations in F minor and Brahms’ Variations on a theme from Bunte Blätter by his friend Robert Schumann, a work hardly ever played. Although the music of Rameau was not at first considered, when the pianist came across his Gavotte Variée the music seemed to fit in perfectly and create a natural balance with the rest of the programme.

Vanessa Wagner’s career itinerary has been meteoric. After obtaining a Premier Prix at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at the age of seventeen (in Dominique Merlet’s class), she entered the postgraduate cycle (class of Jean-François Heisser) as top student of her year. She came to the attention of Leon Fleisher and was admitted to the Cadenabbia Academy, where she was taught by several great masters of the keyboard. She was named ‘solo instrumental discovery of the year’ at the Victoires de la Musique in 1999. To date she has recorded five CDs devoted respectively to Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Mozart, Schumann, and Debussy, all of which have received numerous awards. She also participated in the Arte broadcast and Naïve DVD Les Pianos de la Nuit de La Roque-d’Anthéron, which won the award ‘Recommandé par Classica’.