Beethoven - The Complete (32) Piano Sonatas + Presentation (reference recording : Wilhelm Backhaus)

The Beethoven Sonatas are one of the most colossal monuments in the history of music. These sonatas cover a period of almost thirty years, so Beethoven was entirely at the keyboard. With the demands he made on instrument makers, he directly influenced the evolution of instruments and integrated technological advances into the content of his own music. For example, Beethoven specified for op.101 (no.28) that it was written "für das Hammerklavier", i.e. for the hammer keyboard (and not for the harpsichord or clavichord) and in the gigantic op.106 (no.29 - more than forty minutes), "Hammerklavier" was used as the title. The first sonatas are above all brilliant in their formidable virtuosity (Beethoven composed them for his own abilities) and respect well the formal structure established by Haydn (notably the organization in four movements). From these pages to the final monuments, the journey was made in progressive stages until the six great sonatas of his last creative period shattered the classical framework and opened the doors to Romanticism. Through the form and metaphysical power of his last great monuments, Beethoven unleashed radical upheavals that his successors took decades to assimilate. The name of Wilhelm Backhaus has commanded the respect of colleagues and the public alike ever since he began to make his mark as a virtuoso before the First World War. His monumental approach to Beethoven and Brahms was unique and he retained his artistry intact over a period of nearly seventy years of concert-giving. Wilhelm Backhaus' integral, the fastest and most severe of all, is also the most homogeneous, and probably the most perfect. Powerful expression, rigid articulation, precise and always balanced, Backhaus culminates in the "Hammerklavier", opus 101, opus 110; the "Pathétique", the "Appassionata" and even a hyper-austere "Claire de lune" give all the measure of such a pianistic battle. The sound is massive, ample, uncompromising, just like the interpretation. The cycle recorded by Backhaus is a real treasure to be discovered or deepened for lovers of Beethoven's music! A friend says that it is a working version, which means that it is perfect to deepen the understanding of the sonatas. Few pianists of this century have been able to interpret the large-scale works of the repertoire with a comparable authority. Backhaus continued to give concerts into his eighty-sixth year and died from a heart ailment at Villach in Austria, a few days after giving a recital. END

Channel: Classical Music/ /Reference Recording

Views: 536,787

Keywords: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Beethoven, Backhaus, Piano, Wilhelm Backhaus, Pathétique, Funeral March, Moonlight, Tempest, The Hunt, Waldstein, Appassionata, For Therese, Les Adieux, Hammerklavier, Arietta, Opus 106, Opus 111, Op.106, Op.111, Grande Sonate, Sonates, Op.57, Opus 57, adagio, Op., 110, piano sonata

Id: 7U726VrX-U0

Length: 537min 36sec (32256 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2016