Maurizio Zaccaria - Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Opp. 10, 78 & 79 (2019) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

The two albums OC19040B and OC19041B introduce Beethoven’s more intimate works that appropriately trace his evolution: from the four Sonatinas, WoO 50 and 51, Anh. 5/1, 5/2, composed in the late 1780s or early 1790s and published posthumously; exploring the four sonatas of the first-period (the Three Sonatas, Op. 10 and the Sonata, Op. 22); two sonatas from the middle period (Opp. 78, in two relatively brief movements; and Op. 79, the shortest of the three-movement sonatas); and ending with the late-period’s Eleven Bagatelles, Op. 119, revised and published as a set in 1823 but gathering works that span from the 1790s to the early 1820s.

While Beethoven’s very early sonatinas may show a rather conservative attitude toward composition and pianistic language (perhaps the reason why they remained unpublished), it is in the Sonatas, Op. 10 that we sense Beethoven’s urge as a young composer to push the boundaries of already old-fashioned archetypes – in the use of the rondo-sonata form, for example, but also in the quintessentially orchestral writing of the third sonata. And it is in the second half of the Bagatelles, Op. 119, written in 1821-22, that we most perceive Beethoven’s iconoclastic force had he not prematurely left the world only several years later.

The present recording was made by Alessandro Simonetto with a pair of 2-stereo Stennheiser microphones.

Tracklist:
01. Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 10 No. 1 "Little Pathétique": I. Allegro molto e con brio (04:15)
02. Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 10 No. 1 "Little Pathétique": II. Adagio molto (07:04)
03. Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 10 No. 1 "Little Pathétique": III. Finale. Prestissimo (03:26)
04. Piano Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10 No. 2: I. Allegro (04:02)
05. Piano Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10 No. 2: II. Menuetto. Allegro (03:35)
06. Piano Sonata No. 6 in F Major, Op. 10 No. 2: III. Presto (02:29)
07. Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10 No. 3: I. Presto (05:06)
08. Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10 No. 3: II. Largo e mesto (09:28)
09. Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10 No. 3: III. Menuetto. Allegro (02:50)
10. Piano Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Op. 10 No. 3: IV. Rondo. Allegro (03:56)
11. Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-Sharp major, Op. 78 "À Thérèse": I. Adagio cantabile - Allegro ma non troppo (05:00)
12. Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-Sharp major, Op. 78 "À Thérèse": II. Allegro vivace (03:05)
13. Piano Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79 "Cuckoo": I. Presto alla tedesca (03:16)
14. Piano Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79 "Cuckoo": II. Andante (02:15)
15. Piano Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79 "Cuckoo": III. Vivace (02:03)

Personnel:
Maurizio Zaccaria, piano