Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110 - DVD & Blu-ray videos

Director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

New Release on Euroarts's sub-label: Recorded Excellence – Historical Value. The aim of the new series is to make accessible to music lovers and collectors top-quality recordings documenting extra-special concert performances that were hitherto unreleased or were no longer available, either for the first time or as re-releases on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The main focus is on artists and repertoire. The new series will showcase defining concert moments of music history.

Digitally remastered and restored from 35mm film. Including intensive and high-quality audio and visual restoration.

In the last part of five DVDs, seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim performs Sonatas 29 to 32 of the so-called 'New Testament' of music, Ludwig van Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas.

Composed over twenty-five years and embodying the shift of musical taste from the Classic to the Romantic, their performance requires a musician of extraordinary versatility. Daniel Barenboim is one such pianist – his recordings run the gamut from Bach and Mozart to Bruckner and Bartók. Infollowing in the footsteps of such masters as Artur Schnabel, Barenboim truly shows himself to be among the greatest living musicians.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 125 mins

For more than 50 years, Menahem Pressler was the driving force of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, giving 6.000 performances until the trio stopped concertizing in 2009. Menahem Pressler is now returning to a solo career.

During this recital filmed at Paris’ Cité de la Musique 2011, Menahem Pressler plays two of the most imposing works in the piano repertoire: Beethoven’s penultimate sonata and Schubert’s last sonata which both require unusual emotional involvement from the performer.

Menahem Pressler is the last representative of a pianistic tradition directly connected with the great German and French piano schools: he studied with several pupils of the illustrious Ferruccio Busoni but also received valuable advice from Robert Casadesus or Paul Loyonnet who opened the world of Ravel and Debussy to him.

“Pressler’s ability to give all the voices prominence while simultaneously isolating the melody was amazing. His fingers still retain a youthful facility.” The Washington Post

Picture format: 1080i 16:9

Sound formats: PCM Stereo

Region code: all (worldwide)

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 88 mins

Stephen Kovacevich's international reputation as a pianist has been built both on his concert appearances, renowned for their thoughtfulness and creative intensity, and on the highly acclaimed recordings he has made throughout his career. He is considered as one of the most searching interpreters of the core classical repertoire and he has won great admiration for his recordings of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Chopin. In this masterclass he works with students on Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Nos 21 "Waldstein" and 31, Op 110

In 2005 Daniel Barenboim performed the complete Beethoven piano sonatas over eight concerts in two weeks at the Staatsoper in Berlin. The performances were beautifully captured on film. In addition to four DVD releases, each covering two of the concerts, the master classes are released in a separate 2 DVD set – these feature the legendary man imparting his wisdom to the next generation, featuring some of the world’s most notable young pianists.

András Schiff, world-acclaimed pianist has in the past been primarily associated with his performances of the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Bartok. In 2004 he began performing the complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas in chronological order, having studied them from the original autograph scores or earliest editions. This meticulous attention to the composer's instructions have resulted in performances much praised for their freshness and authenticity even though they sometimes challenge traditional interpretations.

Here, András Schiff looks at the three great piano sonatas which end the cycle and on which Beethoven worked during final years of his life, Op 109, Op 110 and Op 111. He analyses each sonata in detail and discusses and demonstrates his personal interpretation and technique in playing these sublime works.

For more than 50 years, Menahem Pressler was the driving force of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, giving 6.000 performances until the trio stopped concertizing in 2009. Menahem Pressler is now returning to a solo career.

During this recital filmed at Paris’ Cité de la Musique 2011, Menahem Pressler plays two of the most imposing works in the piano repertoire: Beethoven’s penultimate sonata and Schubert’s last sonata which both require unusual emotional involvement from the performer.

Menahem Pressler is the last representative of a pianistic tradition directly connected with the great German and French piano schools: he studied with several pupils of the illustrious Ferruccio Busoni but also received valuable advice from Robert Casadesus or Paul Loyonnet who opened the world of Ravel and Debussy to him.

“Pressler’s ability to give all the voices prominence while simultaneously isolating the melody was amazing. His fingers still retain a youthful facility.” The Washington Post

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 88 mins

Among the rediscovered treasures are recordings of three outstanding representatives of the French Piano School:Vlado Perlemuter, who worked closely with Ravel on many of his compositions, demonstrates his superb mastery of the composer's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in this Paris recording of 1966; Yvonne Lefébure, also well known for the multitude of compositions dedicated to her, goes from strength to strength with her Beethoven interpretations; Robert Casadesus proves himself yet again as an outstanding interpreter of French repertoire.

The two bonus tracks feature Hephzibah Menuhin, who studied for several years in Paris with Marcel Ciampi, and Dino Ciani who came to perfect his art under the guidance of Alfred Cortot.

Bonus - Pierre-Laurent Aimard in conversation with Jan Schmidt-Garre.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard was born in Lyon in 1957 and studied in Paris with Yvonne Loriod, wife of Olivier Messiaen, to whose music he is particularly close. Pierre Boulez appointed him as solo pianist to the Ensemble InterContemporain when he was 19 and he worked closely with Györgi Ligeti, who chose him to record his entire piano works. This extensive portrait-cum-concert DVD features Pierre-Laurent Aimard in conversation with renowned music filmmaker Jan Schmidt-Garre under the telling title Not Just One Truth. Recorded live at the Akademie der Schönen Künste in Munich in spring 2008, the concert includes important and influential piano music from the Art of the Fugue and Beethoven's second last Piano Sonata No.31, written in 1822, along with works by the grand seigneur of American composers, Elliott Carter (*1908) and of George Benjamin (*1960), who studied under Olivier Messiaen. In the introductory portrait, scholar Christoph Wolff and composer Elliott Carter speak about music and Aimard's readings of it.Thus, the viewer is truly immersed in Pierre-Laurent Aimard's art of piano playing and comes to know one of the greatest contemporary pianists in concert, interview and documentary portrait.

"His technical facility is astonishing…Mr.Aimard's performance was lucid, subtle and delicate." New York Times