Tessa Uys & Ben Schoeman - Beethoven: Symphonies, Vol. 5 (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Front Cover & Digital Booklet | Time - 66:40 minutes | 990 MB
Classical | Label: SOMM Recordings, Official Digital Download
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Front Cover & Digital Booklet | Time - 66:40 minutes | 990 MB
Classical | Label: SOMM Recordings, Official Digital Download
SOMM Recordings proudly announces this fifth and penultimate release in the complete cycle of the Beethoven Symphonies arranged for piano four-hands by the great Polish-German composer and pianist Xaver Scharwenka. This is a series that has consistently had listeners “waiting impatiently for the next volume” (MusicWeb International).
Of the many piano-duo versions of the Symphonies, Scharwenka’s benefit from an unbroken link back to Beethoven himself, for the arranger was a piano student of Franz Kullak, who in turn studied under the master symphonist’s pupil Carl Czerny. The present Volume 5 adds Symphonies 4 & 8 to the collection, coupled with Ferruccio Busoni’s two-piano transcription of Mozart’s Magic FluteOverture BV B 93, leaving only Beethoven’s “Choral” Ninth still to be released on the series’concluding instalment.
The performers undertaking this monumental recording project, the “phenomenal” piano duo of Tessa Uys & Ben Schoeman (“In Tune”, BBC Radio 3), have performed all nine symphony arrangements in public for almost a decade, breeding a familiarity that informs the impeccable ensemble and authoritative vision they bring to the recordings. Gramophone’s Peter J. Rabinowitz lauded this in Volume 4: “Uys and Schoeman cut through the clutter with impressive unanimity; and their finely gauged handling of dynamics and their rhythmic drive … assure that the symphonies emerge with their shape intact, even shorn of orchestral colour. It all sounds idiomatic, both as Beethoven and as piano music … knowledgeable and illuminating.” The Sunday Times’ Dan Cairns, who named Volume 3 a “Classical Album of the Week”, also relished those “dual delights: you can just as easily feel you are listening to entirely new works as experience moments when your response will be along the lines of: ‘Ah yes, that bit’. Both are richly rewarding … a fascinating listening experience.”
The two-piano Magic Flute Overture included here echoes Volume 4 in the series, which featured the Mozart-Busoni Duettino concertante based on the Finale of Piano Concerto No.19, a performance hailed in BBC Music Magazine as “brilliantly conceived and light as a feather”. Ateş Orga, reviewing for International Piano, noted the change in aural texture from the four-hands Beethoven to two pianos, “the audible separation of instruments enhancing their spatial impact”.
Ferruccio Busoni was a younger contemporary of Scharwenka, and they died the same year, making this the centenary of the deaths of both pianist–composers. Perhaps most associated with arrangements of Bach, Busoni also championed the music of his fellow Freemason Mozart, and he celebrates that link in his transcription of the Masonic opera’s overture.
Tracklist:
01. Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): I. Adagio - Allegro vivace
02. Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): II. Adagio
03. Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): III. Allegro vivace
04. Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): IV. Allegro ma non troppo
05. Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): I. Allegro vivace e con brio
06. Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): II. Allegretto scherzando
07. Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): III. Tempo di menuetto
08. Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): IV. Allegro vivace
09. Overture from "Die Zauberflöte", BV B 93 (After Mozart's K. 620)
foobar2000 1.4.1 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2024-06-24 15:58:51
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Analyzed: Tessa Uys / Beethoven: Symphonies, Vol. 5
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR14 -0.65 dB -20.43 dB 11:08 01-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): I. Adagio - Allegro vivace
DR16 -1.21 dB -23.67 dB 9:40 02-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): II. Adagio
DR14 -0.65 dB -20.15 dB 5:14 03-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): III. Allegro vivace
DR14 -0.96 dB -20.10 dB 7:07 04-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): IV. Allegro ma non troppo
DR13 -0.71 dB -18.46 dB 9:25 05-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): I. Allegro vivace e con brio
DR14 -3.59 dB -25.12 dB 4:37 06-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): II. Allegretto scherzando
DR15 -4.74 dB -23.68 dB 4:04 07-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): III. Tempo di menuetto
DR13 -1.80 dB -19.58 dB 8:29 08-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): IV. Allegro vivace
DR15 -1.80 dB -21.46 dB 6:53 09-Overture from "Die Zauberflöte", BV B 93 (After Mozart's K. 620)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate: 96000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 2019 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
log date: 2024-06-24 15:58:51
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Tessa Uys / Beethoven: Symphonies, Vol. 5
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 -0.65 dB -20.43 dB 11:08 01-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): I. Adagio - Allegro vivace
DR16 -1.21 dB -23.67 dB 9:40 02-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): II. Adagio
DR14 -0.65 dB -20.15 dB 5:14 03-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): III. Allegro vivace
DR14 -0.96 dB -20.10 dB 7:07 04-Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): IV. Allegro ma non troppo
DR13 -0.71 dB -18.46 dB 9:25 05-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): I. Allegro vivace e con brio
DR14 -3.59 dB -25.12 dB 4:37 06-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): II. Allegretto scherzando
DR15 -4.74 dB -23.68 dB 4:04 07-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): III. Tempo di menuetto
DR13 -1.80 dB -19.58 dB 8:29 08-Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (Arr. for Piano 4 Hands by Franz Xaver Scharwenka): IV. Allegro vivace
DR15 -1.80 dB -21.46 dB 6:53 09-Overture from "Die Zauberflöte", BV B 93 (After Mozart's K. 620)
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate: 96000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 2019 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
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