Beethoven: Piano Sonatas

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Listening to it for the first time [Op.109], I was pleased to recognise familiar virtues: clear and limpid tone, for example, crisp textures and the technical ability to get round all the awkward... — Gramophone Magazine, December 1961 More…

Release Date: 28th Apr 2017
Catalogue No: ELQ4825854
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 33 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathetique'

Work length16:13

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1961-11
Recording Venue: Beethovensaal, Hannover

1. Grave - Allegro di molto e con brio

Track length6:33

2. Adagio cantabile

Track length5:00

3. Rondo. Allegro

Track length4:40

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28 “Pastorale”

Work length21:01

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1961-11-09
Recording Venue: Beethovensaal, Hannover

1. Allegro

Track length7:09

2. Andante

Track length6:23

3. Scherzo. Allegro vivace

Track length2:18

4. Rondo. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length5:11

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 'Tempest'

Work length20:16

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1960-08-13
Recording Venue: Beethovensaal, Hannover

1. Largo - Allegro

Track length8:01

2. Adagio

Track length7:14

3. Allegretto

Track length5:01

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 'Waldstein'

Work length21:46

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1958-07-11
Recording Venue: Beethovensaal, Hannover

1. Allegro con brio

Track length8:38

2. Introduzione (Adagio molto)

Track length3:30

3. Rondo (Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo)

Track length9:38

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 'Appassionata'

Work length21:31

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1958-12-18
Recording Venue: Beethovensaal, Hannover

1. Allegro assai

Track length9:16

2. Andante con moto

Track length6:47

3. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length5:28

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a 'Les Adieux'

Work length14:12

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1961-11-09
Recording Venue: Beethovensaal, Hannover

1. Das Lebewohl (Adagio - Allegro)

Track length6:47

2. Abwesenheit (Andante espressivo)

Track length3:21

3. Das Wiedersehen (Vivacissimamente)

Track length4:04

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101

Work length19:30

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1960-05
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung (Allegretto ma non troppo)

Track length3:41

2. Lebhaft, marschmäßig (Vivace alla marcia)

Track length5:50

3. Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll (Adagio ma non troppo, con affetto)

Track length2:28

4. Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossen- heit (Allegro)

Track length7:31

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

Work length18:47

Andor Foldes (piano)
Recorded: 1960-02
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

1. Vivace, ma non troppo - Adagio espressivo - Tempo I

Track length3:35

2. Prestissimo

Track length2:34

3. Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung (Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo)

Track length12:38

About
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About

FIRST RELEASE ON CD

A couple of years after making these Beethoven recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Andor Foldes remarked that ‘I am not a prodigy and I am not an octogenarian. I just have to be good’. Such plain-spoken reserve might be considered characteristically Hungarian. Eloquence has already released Foldes’s long-esteemed albums of his fellow countrymen Bartók (ELQ4807100) and Kodály (ELQ4807099).

However, he was best-known in English-speaking countries for his performances, and latterly his no-nonsense teaching, of Beethoven. This 2CD release of sonatas is one of three issues of his recordings of the composer’s music for Deutsche Grammophon, made in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (Two available this month, one in May.)

The special grasp Foldes had of Beethoven’s idiom was recognised early in life. At sixteen, he played the ‘Pathétique’ Sonata to Emil von Sauer, whose own virtuoso days were long behind him. At length, von Sauer rose from his seat, went over to the boy and kissed him on the forehead. ‘My son,’ said von Sauer to Foldes, ‘when I was your age I became a student of Liszt. He kissed me on the forehead after my first lesson, saying, “Take good care of this kiss – it comes from Beethoven, who gave it to me after hearing me play.” I have waited for years to pass on this sacred heritage, and now I feel you deserve it.’ The ‘Pathétique’ is here, of course, enriched by a further three decades’ insight and experience; so too are several of the best-known named sonatas as well as two ‘late’ ones, Op. 101 and Op. 109.

Reviews

December 1961

Listening to it for the first time [Op.109], I was pleased to recognise familiar virtues: clear and limpid tone, for example, crisp textures and the technical ability to get round all the awkward corners of Beethoven’s piano writing with ease and naturalness.

July 1962

Andor Foldes knows just what he is at… “Les Adieux” receives a wholly delightful performance… [he] exactly catches the mood… This is playing of great distinction.

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas

2 CDs

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