Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Hob.XVI:46

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s complete Debussy cycle has proven to be a real winner with the critics and the record buying public. He now embarks on the Haydn Piano Sonatas, and confirms that he should in no way be pigeon-holed in French repertoire.

Few leading pianists have recorded these virtuosic Classical sonatas but Maestro Bavouzet felt he had something new to contribute. He plays a Yamaha grand, imported from France which he felt best suited the timbre that he wanted to achieve.

The programme for Volume 1 contains the experimental and ambitious Sonata in A flat major, No.31; the elegantly virtuosic Sonata in D major, No.39l, expressive Sonata in B minor, No.47 and the almost Schubertian Sonatas in C sharp minor, No.49. Volume Two will be released this autumn.

Bavouzet launches this new series with the support of a number of concerts across Europe.

These works were recorded at Haydn House and Museum. Rohrau, Lower Austria. Fuller played a fortepiano which is an unsigned instrument, built around 1782.

The legendary Viennese pianist, Paul Badura-Skoda, has issued a new recording of five piano masterworks by Joseph Haydn, for the bicentenary of his death. Johann Schantz's fortepiano from Badura-Skoda's collection, is the most appropriate instrument available today for interpreting Haydn's music. In a letter to Marianne von Genzinger dated 4 July 1790, Haydn refers to Johann Schantz as "the best pianoforte maker". In the late '80s and early '90s Paul Badura-Skoda recorded a small collection of four single volumes on the same instrument, with Michel Bernstein and for Astrée. The booklet contains notes (in four languages) by Badura-Skoda himself. In 1945, Badura-Skoda entered the Vienna Conservatory, and two years later won a scholarship which allowed him to study with Edwin Fischer. In 1949,Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan became aware of his outstanding talent and invited him to play and practically overnight he became world famous. Since then, Badura-Skoda has been a regular and celebrated guest at the most important music festivals, and a soloist with the world´s most prestigious orchestras, recording a vast repertoire: more than 200 LPs and dozens of compact discs including the complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. He performs with equal authority on both period and modern instruments and was a pioneer in proposing the use of period pianos in perfomance.

Here we have the 3rd volume of a series of discs bringing together works for solo piano by Haydn & Mozart. These programmes will be possibly conceived as ‘mirror games’ between the two composers, an approach seen fairly frequently when concerning the string quartets but rarer for the sonatas. The fluid artistry of Claire-Marie Le Guay is certainly evident on this, her latest recording, for the Universal Accord label.