Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Daniel Heide
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Avi Music
Catalogue: AVI8553493
Release: 2022
Size: 998 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28 “Pastorale”
01. I. Allegro
02. II. Andante
03. III. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
04. IV. Rondo (Allegro ma non troppo)
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2 “Moonlight”
05. I. Adagio sostenuto
06. II. Allegretto
07. III. Presto agitato
Piano Sonata No. 12 in A Flat Major, Op. 26 “Funeral March”
08. I. Andante con variazioni
09. Variation 1
10. Variation 2
11. Variation 3
12. Variation 4
13. Variation 5
14. II. Scherzo (Allegro molto)
15. III. Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un Eroe (Maestoso andante)
16. IV. Allegro
Daniel Heide releases the second volume in his survey of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas including the ever popular ‘Pastorale’ and ‘Moonlight’ sonatas.
When I first heard Beethoven’s Sonata No. 15 in D Major, op. 28, the “Pastoral”, it immediately conquered my heart. The swaying, deeply resounding, velvety bass notes and the tender theme in the right hand continue to produce a melodious sense of well-being in me to this day. A series of slow, melodious arches alternating with incisive, characteristic insertions create the general mood in the first movement.
Then the entire second movement is pervaded by a relentless staccato figure in the left hand: these tranquil sixteenth notes, with their metronomical precision, provide a guiding framework for the right hand’s dignified theme. In the middle section, we are surprised by the onset of a harlequinesque alternation between dotted chords and whimsical triplets in the right hand, which lasts until the initial main theme and its accurately pulsating left-hand accompaniment call everyone back to order. In the last section, Beethoven accelerates the theme to thirty-second note runs leading to a culmination before the music suddenly becomes quiet and the movement fades out in tranquil transcendence.
In the scherzo we are confronted with an accurate, reactive joy of music-making combined with an outgoing sense of humor, and the same variety of pulsating playing pleasure is likewise prolonged throughout the last movement. This is not a furious finale, but a mischievous, swaying Rundgesang (stanza-and-refrain) with an affectionate rondo theme that returns again and again. A breakneck coda in Presto time allows the soloist to conclude this grand sonata with bravura. I still well remember my admission exam for the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar in 1996. My programme included Beethoven’s “Pastoral” sonata; the jury allowed me to play portions of all movements, and I was admitted!