Composer: Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Aris Alexander Blettenberg
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Avi Music
Catalogue: AVI8553529
Release: 2023
Size: 896 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Liszt: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, S. 464/7 (After Beethoven, Op. 92)
01. II. Allegretto
02. Schumann: Etudes in Variation Form on a Theme by Beethoven, WoO 31
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101
03. I. Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung. Allegretto ma non troppo
04. II. Lebhaft, marschmäßig. Vivace alla marcia
05. III. Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll. Adagio, ma non troppo, con affetto
06. IV. Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit. Allegro
07. Beethoven: An die Hoffnung, Op. 94 (Arr. Blettenberg for Piano)
The debut CD from the young German Pianist Aris Alexander Blettenberg.
The programme begins and ends with transcriptions of works by Beethoven. The first piece is the Allegretto (2nd movement) from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony in the arrangement by Franz Liszt, and the programme ends with a solo piano version of Beethoven’s song An die Hoffnung, created especially for this CD. The two pieces form a framework of sonorities and emotions that set the basic mood for this musical journey.
The Allegretto serves as a prologue: it looks ahead, indicating the direction we shall be taking. At the other end of the programme, the song transcription serves as an epilogue: it looks back, taking stock of all that has occurred. On the one hand, there is a somber mood that runs through the entire programme: we find it in the Allegretto’s passages in minor, in the Schumann variations, in the third movement of the Beethoven sonata, and in the recitativo-like passages of An die Hoffnung.
These are complemented by episodes of light: the A-Major sections of the Allegretto, the first, second, and fourth movements of the sonata, and, ultimately, the hopeful, optimistic sonorities we find in the song transcription with the final cry: “O, Hope!” (Aris Alexander Blettenberg)