Piano Sonatas on the run...

[classicalmusicfan]

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Baroque
Domenico Scarlatti composed more than 500 piano sonatas, which rank among the benchmarks of Baroque keyboard music and remain immensely popular today. Beloved for their amazing fusion of popular Spanish styles with the sophisticated keyboard techniques of 18th-century Italy, each sonata is melodically and harmonically highly progressive – not to mention tremendously enjoyable to play and hear. Originally written for a variety of Baroque keyboard instruments, including clavichord, harpsichord and possibly even organ or fortepiano, Naxos’s acclaimed Scarlatti Keyboard Sonatas cycle presents these evergreen works in vivacious interpretations on the modern piano.


Classical Part 1: Beginnings of the Modern Piano Sonata
During the latter half of the 18th century, following the death of Domenico Scarlatti, the piano sonata began to take its modern form as a multi-movement work of musical significance. The sonatas by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach are notable even today for their expressivity and daring, while those of his brother Johann Christian made a great impression on the young Mozart who admired their elegance. Muzio Clementi’s contribution was to heighten the virtuosity of the classical sonata while sustaining its lyrical potential. Hummel’s engaging sonatas are regaining their rightful place in the piano repertoire while the harmonically and melodically progressive works by Ries take Beethoven’s example as their starting point and point towards the fully-fledged Romantic style.


Classical Part 2: Haydn
Haydn’s piano sonatas reflect his personal development as a composer as well as the rise of the piano as an instrument that gradually supplanted the harpsichord. Haydn’s early piano sonatas – written for the harpsichord – are composed in the shadow of the Baroque suite: they mostly consist of three movements, are easy to perform, and sometimes show the influence of folk song. As the piano became more and more popular, Haydn wrote specifically for this more expressive instrument, revelling in its new-found potential. Though relatively neglected until recent times, these later sonatas are tours de force for the pianist, demanding the highest technical and artistic abilities.


Classical Part 3: Mozart
Mozart’s mature piano sonatas were composed between 1774 and 1789 and are regarded by many as the pinnacle of the Classical style – elegant, balanced, entertaining and extraordinarily beautiful. Mozart wrote the first six mainly for himself, performing them during his concert tours. The following seven sonatas show him expanding the scope of the sonata and pouring forth seemingly endless reams of gorgeous melody, underpinned by telling harmonies. They exploit the technical development of the piano and demand incredible virtuosity from the performer. In his last seven sonatas Mozart tends to reign in the sheer profusion of his melodies, instead emphasising the masterful transformation of characteristic themes.


Classical Part 4: Beethoven
Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas are often referred to as the ‘New Testament’ of piano music (Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier being the ‘Old Testament’). They contain some of his most popular compositions such as the Pathétique, the ‘Moonlight’, ‘Appassionata’ and ‘Tempest’ sonatas. In these path-breaking works, Beethoven effectively workshops his ever-developing style, transforming the Classical aesthetic represented by his first sonatas, though the tumultuous personal drama of his middle period sonatas where he pushed Classical form, structure and expression to their limits, to his great final sonatas that ushered in a new world of Romantic intimacy and intensity which remains to this day immensely moving and somehow ‘timelessly modern’.


Romantic
Here are some of the most beloved Romantic sonatas by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin and Liszt, each of whom took the piano sonata along untrodden new paths. Above all, the Romantics sought to imbue their music with personal significance, making this music among the most dramatic, rapt and beguiling ever written. Yet the heart did not entirely rule the head: each composer was also a master of form and proportion, virtuosity and restraint, self-revelation and emotional concealment. Sonatas by famous late Romantic composers such as Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss and Busoni can be found in found in the 20th century selection.


20th Century
Explore and discover the multiple facets of 20th century music, a thrilling era that gave birth to a variety of different styles and means of musical expression. Beginning with sonatas indebted to the Romantic tradition, such as those by Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss and Busoni, this selection ranges as far as Pierre Boulez’s extraordinarily disciplined, yet strangle beautiful serial pieces. Important works reflecting the strong nationalist styles developed in the Soviet Union (Shostakovich, Prokofiev), other parts of Eastern Europe (Janacek, Bartok), and America (Ives and Copland) are included, as well as fascinating pieces composed in various kinds of twelve-tone technique.

https://www.classicsonline.com/promos/PianoSonatasonNaxos.html

[gep]

I do not know if it interest you or anyone else, but if it does, one might want to investigate the various cycles issued on Brilliant classics, among which are

- The complete Scarlatti sonatas on 36CD's, payed by Piet-jan Belder on various instruments, very good set
- The complete Schubert Sonatas, one box by various pianists (which is quite nice) and another by Michel D'Alberto which, in my view, is stunning.
- The complete Beethoven by Gulda also not to be missed.
- Complete Medtner Sonatas by Hamish Milne
- Under way: Complete Sonatas by Soler and Clementi.

Much music to be had for little money!

All best,
Gep

[weissenberg2]

If anyone here is interested in the Beethoven sonata cycle, Valentina Lisitsa is recording the complete cycle. I don't like her playing that much, I find that she just gets the job done and not much else IMO.