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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Beethoven: Bagatelles
Following his highly acclaimed Beethoven ‘Moonlight’, ‘Pathétique’ and ‘Waldstein’ Sonatas release, Hyperion’s Gramophone-award-winning artist Steven Osborne turns his talents to Beethoven’s complete Bagatelles. Though the composer himself referred to these thirty short piano works, which he penned throughout his life, as ‘trifles’, these are nonetheless trifles from the mind of a genius. In this polished album, Osborne lends his remarkable artistry to everything from the Six Bagatelles of Op 126, which at times occupy the same rarefied spiritual world as the late quartets and were the very last works Beethoven ever wrote for the piano, to the composer’s most famous stand-alone piano piece, the mysterious little A minor Bagatelle known to all the world as ‘Für Elise’. “[Beethoven's] Leipzig publisher complained that they were such insignificant trifles no one would believe they were by Beethoven: not only slight but on the whole easy too. The joy of having a player of Steven Osborne's spare, rhythmically incisive brilliance shows the idiocy of the publisher's words.” The Observer, 16th April 2012 “vigorously and sparklingly played by Steven Osborne, who must bring his pianistic intelligence to bear on elementary and virtuosic performance levels alike.” Sunday Times, 22nd April 2012 “the range is enormous...Osborne encompasses this transition in masterly fashion. This disc follows on from his one of Beethoven sonatas, and it ignites a similar joy in the way that he conveys ideas so lucidly and with such subtle shades of tone, distilling the essence of each miniature with potency and freshness.” The Telegraph, 19th April 2012 ***** “It's a part of [Osborne's] personal excursion to seek the individual potency of each Bagatelle...Osborne has delved deep to extract so much from cameos that pack emotional enormity within small spaces.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “The air of faux naivete Osborne brings to these trifles is particualrly persuasive, with understatement providing the perfect setting and foil for Beethoven's droll humour...Whatever preconceptions you may bring to these pieces, the crystal clarity of Osborne's exquisitely polished pianism is an unalloyed joy to the ear...Osborne's new recording will take its place without apology in any company.” International Record Review, June 2012 “His playing is immaculately polished, but here he misses something of the arresting brusqueness, heartfelt lyricism, madcap zaniness, and tender melancholy...Osborne's most expressive playing comes in the reflective moments of the Op. 126 Bagatelles.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 *** “Despite playing on a modern grand, Osborne’s attack, tone and phrasing suggest an awareness of period performance practice. Climaxes are powerfully telling, yet always remain within “classical” parameters...[Osborne is] captivating, with a gentle touch that produces an astonishing inwardness.” MusicWeb International, July 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven - Complete Works for Solo Piano Volume 10Complete Bagatelles
Beethoven: | Bagatelles (7), Op. 33 Allegretto in C minor Hess 69 Bagatelle in C major, Hess 73 Bagatelle in E flat major, Hess 74 Allegretto in C minor,WoO 53 Andante in C major Bagatelle in C major, WoO 54, 'Lustig-Traurig' Bagatelle in C major, WoO56 Bagatelle in C minor, WoO52 Bagatelles (11), Op. 119 Piano Pieces (4), WoO 59-61a Bagatelle in C major, Hess 57 Bagatelles (6), Op. 126 |
On this new disc, Ronald Brautigam now embarks on the second leg of his traversal of Beethoven’s complete music for solo piano. In this volume he gives us the complete Bagatelles, and includes not only the three sets published during Beethoven’s life time, but also thirteen further pieces composed throughout Beethoven’s career, between 1795 and 1825. Among Beethoven’s Bagatelles – whether official or unofficial ones – are pieces that may originally have been intended as movements of piano sonatas, as well as pieces of an extreme brevity, such as the 11 seconds long Allegramente, No. 10 of Elf Neue Bagatellen, Op.119. Previous volumes in this cycle have been highly praised by reviewers around the world: performances of the Waldstein and Appassionata Sonatas (BISSACD1573) which were described by Gramophone as ‘stunning … technically breathtaking, stylistically astute, emotionally intense and musically alive in every moment’ “Brautigam plays a copy of a c.1805 Walter & Sohn fortepiano for the 15 works composed between 1795 and 1804, and a copy of a c.1819 Conrad Graf for the remainder. Only the sharpest of ears will be able to tell the difference in a blind hearing, but the Dutch pianist's total control of both is quite remarkable to the extent that the character and colour of other well-known 'complete' cycles on modern instruments seem pallid by comparison.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 ***** “Brautigam explores the music with acuity and if, predictably, the fast dramatic Bagatelles bring out the best in him, his nurturing of the wayward C major WoO56 turns a miniature into something surprisingly big...there's far more than unmatched completeness going to Brautigam's new set.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 **** “this is a terrific addition to Brautigam's cycle and is recommended to anyone who thinks fortepianos are the poor relations of the modern Steinway. I defy you not to be won over.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011 | | | (also available to download from $10.75) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Fur Elise - Kempff Transcriptions and Encores
Bach, J S: | Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903 Chorale Prelude BWV659 'Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland' arr. Wilhelm Kempff Cantata BWV147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben': Jesu, bleibet meine Freude arr. Wilhelm Kempff Chorale Prelude BWV727 'Herzlich tut mich verlangen' arr. Wilhelm Kempff Chorale Prelude BWV729 'In dulci jubilo' arr. Wilhelm Kempff Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein, BWV388 arr. Wilhelm Kempff Siciliano in G minor from Flute Sonata No. 2, BWV1031 arr. Wilhelm Kempff Cantata BWV140 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme' arr. Wilhelm Kempff | Beethoven: | Bagatelle in C minor, WoO52 Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO59) | Couperin, F: | Pièces de clavecin III: Ordre 14ème in D major: Le Carillon de Cithère | Handel: | Keyboard Suite, HWV 430 in E major 'The Harmonious Blacksmith': Air & Variations Keyboard Suite, HWV 434 in B flat major: Minuet arr. Wilhelm Kempff | Rameau: | Le rappel des oiseaux arr. Wilhelm Kempff |
Kempff's Baroque pedigree stemmed from the influence of his father, also named Wilhelm Kempff, and his grandfather Cantor Friedrick Kempff, both of whom were organists, and who taught the budding prodigy much of the organ's core repertoire. In fact, Kempff's youthful debut as an organist took place before his first recital as a pianist in 1907. With help from the great German violinist Joseph Joachim, the nine-year-old Kempff was awarded two scholarships at the Berlin Hochschule: one in composition with Robert Kahn, the other studying piano with Heinrich Barth, who also taught Arthur Rubinstein. While most of Wilhelm Kempff's recordings were made for Deutsche Grammophon, his early Decca LPs and EPs are collector's items. Here issued internationally on CD for the first time is the LP of his Bach recital coupled with a delicious record of miniatures by Couperin, Rameau and Beethoven, including the latter's ubiquitous Fur Elise. In his liner notes, Jed Distler compares Kempff's arrangements of Bach with those of Busoni, and his performances with those of Hess and others. 'Fur Elise gently soars from Kempff's fingers in full-throated, legato arcs that might convince you that the piano has lungs in addition to hammers and strings,' he writes, and concludes, 'The warm, naturally balanced and timbrally true sonic image typical of Decca's piano recordings of this vintage only enhance Kempff's singular artistry. Whatever one makes of his style, his spirit defines authenticity.' "...excellently recorded programme of arrangements made by Kempff himself..." Gramophone. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Beethoven: The Bagatelles (complete)
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| |  | Beethoven - Piano Works Volume 1
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| | | (also available to download from $10.75) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Beethoven - Bagatelles
“Effortlessly fluent and faithful performances...lyricism with poetic delicacy.” Gramophone Magazine | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Beethoven: Bagatelles And Dances, Vol. 1
“The charming assortment of dances and Bagatelles on this disc puts the more famous work into a fine musical perspective” Classics Today | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| | .jpg) | Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Volume 1
Beethoven: | Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1 Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2 No. 2 Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2 No. 3 Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, Op. 7 Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10 No. 1 Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2 Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3 Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathetique' Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14 No. 1 Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14 No. 2 Bagatelle in C minor, WoO52 |
To run parallel with his complete Haydn series, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is now starting a complete, chronological cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. This first set covers the sonatas composed in the 1790s. Two further volumes, of middle and late sonatas, will follow in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Each volume in the series will be available as 3 CDs for the price of 2. In a recent cover feature in International Piano, Michael Church spoke with the pianist about the new project and reported: ‘For Bavouzet, the particular pleasure of coming to Beethoven after Haydn lies in the fact that although their basic harmonic language is roughly the same, in Beethoven’s scores the dynamics are clearly indicated, especially where they seem completely independent of the music’s so-called natural harmonic tensions.’ Bavouzet added: ‘The accents are in exactly the wrong place, and that’s what creates his music’s excitement. I am so happy to have these two streams of my work running side by side for the next few years.’ This recording covers the sonatas from Opus 2 to Opus 14, and includes a novelty: two different versions of Op. 10 No. 1. In the words of Bavouzet: ‘Professor William Drabkin has reconstructed for me the development section of the third movement. It’s based on Beethoven’s sketches, which had just one line, one voice, but all the bars are full, so we have the exact length, and the line is not always the top line. This makes us realise how he arrived at the concept of his three-movement sonatas, for this was not originally supposed to be in three movements, but four… I will also record the longer development, and the extra movement, so that people can see how he reduced and concentrated the work from four movements to three. I must stress that this is surmise, but it is very well thought through.’ “Bavouzet’s fingers, precise in touch, sometimes witty and mischievous, make Haydn’s heritage clearly audible...Bavouzet’s playfulness is especially valuable...But Bavouzet equally connects with the music’s soul, sculpting the Pathétique’s grave opening chords to ensure they cast a long shadow” The Times, 25th May 2012 **** “This is one of the biggest discoveries I have come across in years...Bavouzet’s Beethoven...is consistently engaging in its imaginative scope, stylistic freedom and technical fearlessness...The only question now is: after such an outstanding start to his complete cycle, how can Bavouzet maintain this sense of discovery – and how long must we wait for the next instalment?” Financial Times, 26th May 2012 ***** “Bavouzet's performances are distinguished and virtuosic, but he does overemphasise the storminess of some passages, the results sounding perilously close to self-parody...But Bavouzet is quite marvellous in the many quirky, violent and mischievous movements, and in the slow movements where he does not seek to be intensely expressive...so all told this is a most desirable set overall.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 **** “Throughout these discs, Bavouzet enhances his interpretations with pianism of a virtuosity familiar from his earlier recordings...with sound as clear and realistic as one previous Chandos releases...On the basis of this first instalment, he has much to say about this music that is relevant and necessary: one can only look forward to the continuation of this cycle.” International Record Review, June 2012 “Muted beginnings from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet...Make no mistake, his playing is immaculate. Yet in a number of sonatas his is, mostly, an immaculate presentation of their structural logic...The tide with Op. 10. Excellent pianism now gets bedded into genuine interpretation. Bavouzet jettisons fastidious reserve for a personal perspicacity that reaches deep into the music...Bavouzet when performing at his finest is the thing here.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2012 | | | (also available to download from $26.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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