Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 'Hammerklavier' - CD

CD+bonus DVD Journey into the Hammerklavier.

Subtitles, Fr & Eng

Format: NTSC

Total time: 51'40

A documentary directed by Jean Frederic Neuburger and François-René Martin

Volume 7 in Brautigam’s series features a pinnacle of the piano repertoire, the monumental Hammerklavier Sonata. Once more he gives his listeners the opportunity to revisit a well-known work, and experience it in a fresh light, as a result of the clarity and distinctive timbre of Brautigam’s chosen instrument, and his superb, but never self-serving technical command of it.

Volume 1 of this series featuring the young Italian pianist Christian Leotta was released in January 2008, ACD22486. Appearing in Montreal in 2002 at the age of 22, Leotta was the youngest pianist since Barenboim to undertake the complete cycle of the 32 sonatas in recital. He has since performed ten complete cycles of the Beethoven Sonatas.

The next release in the critically acclaimed series dedicated to the French pianist Yvonne Lefébure. This recording of two outstanding Beethoven sonatas and Weber’s Invitation to dance (the French refer to this piece as a waltz) demonstrate the dedication and brillance that Yvonne Lefébure brought to the piano.

The legendary Walter Gieseking plays Beethoven’s late piano sonatas, No’s 28 – 32 in recordings made between 1937 and 1949.

The release of the last two volumes (7 & 8) of Schiff’s complete Beethoven Sonatas this autumn finally offers the opportunity to view, and hear, the pianist’s approach to this unique repertoire segment in total. Volume 7, recorded once again live at Tonhalle Zurich, includes the first three of the so-called 'late' sonatas which were written between 1814 and 1822. A highlight in any Beethoven cycle is the 45-minute long 'Hammerklavier' sonata which Schiff - especially with regard to the fast tempo markings by Beethoven - calls "probably the hardest work in the whole repertoire of the piano - technically, structurally, atmospherically, metaphysically."

Reviewers in the UK, Germany and Switzerland expressed their unanimous admiration after Schiff’s recitals with this programme in May 2006, praising the pianist’s structural awareness, his individual approach to musical characters, and outstanding sonic control. A personal and charismatic, yet extremely thorough reading of the musical texts offering many revealing new insights.

Recorded on a Bösendorfer and a Steinway to match the sonatas' different characters.

This is the third CD of Rudolf Serkin's celebrated London concerts featuring the Beethoven's Piano Sonatas. Here we have the 'Hammerklavier' and Op.110, two giants of the piano literature and given Olympian performances by Serkin conveying his lifelong understanding of these late works.

This 'live' broadcast release has been officially endorsed by Peter Serkin, Rudolf's son.

Rudolf Serkin was famous for his Beethoven interpretations which in 1968 and 1971 represented high points in the pianist's long career. Serkin went onto record these same sonatas around this time but he was, by his own admission, always at his best away from the confines of the studio.

Superb recording by the BBC in London's Royal Festival Hall

On this disc Garrick Ohlsson plays Beethoven's towering “Hammerklavier”, a work the composer called “my greatest,” even expressing the idea that it “would make pianists work creatively.”

Critic Jed Distler writes that “Garrick Ohlsson approaches Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata as a harbinger of Romanticism... his rounded phrases and discreet tempo fluctuations never pull focus from the music's linear trajectory and sudden dynamic extremes. Ohlsson pinpoints the Scherzo's dotted rhythms so that they truly catch fire and effectively contrast with the enigmatic trio. He builds the great Adagio from the bottom up, letting the bass lines lead and allowing the highly ornamented right-hand melodic writing to speak on its own. This easily is the finest release in Ohlsson's ongoing Beethoven cycle, and one of the best-sounding too.”

It seems impossible to discuss a nicknamed work by Ludwig van Beethoven without encountering some measure of gentle controversy. The Piano Sonata of Opus 106, the twenty-ninth in Beethoven's compositional output, provides no exception…

"Backhaus was a shy, unaffected, introspective personality whose astounding abilities were so unsensationally presented that a lay audience had no notion of his fabulous talents." That was written by the pianist and composer Abram Chasins after a Backhaus piano recital at Carnegie Hall.