Composer: William Sterndale Bennett, Robert Schumann
Performer: Hiroaki Takenouchi
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Artalinna
Catalogue: ATLA018
Release: 2017
Size: 580 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Bennett: Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 13
01. I. Moderato espressivo
02. II. Allegro agitato
03. III. Moderato grazioso
04. IV. Presto agitato
Schumann: Etudes en formes de variations, Op. 13 “Symphonic Etudes”
05. Thema. Andante legatissimo
06. Etude I. Un poco più vivo
07. Etude II. Marcato il canto espressivo, marcato il Thema sempre col pedale
08. Etude III. Vivace
09. Etude IV
10. Etude V. Scherzando
11. Etude VI. Agitato con gran bravura
12. Etude VII. Allegro molto sempre brillante
13. Etude VIII. Sempre marcatissimo
14. Etude IX. Presto possibile
15. Etude X. Sempre con energia non ligato
16. Etude XI. Sotto voce ma marcato
17. Etude XII. Allegro brillante
For several years now, Hiroaki Takenouchi had been keen to champion the music of a major Romantic composer, William Sterndale Bennett – an English virtuoso pianist, born in 1816, and considered one of the most captivating virtuosos in his time because of his flamboyance and mastery of the keyboard. Here, Takenouchi chooses one of what are indisputably Sterndale Bennett’s most accomplished scores, the Piano Sonata in F minor Op. 13, dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: the work unveils a romantic ballad tone, which is both exciting and genuinely exhilarating, like the great scores of Mendelssohn or Schumann. To complete his programme Takenouchi offers one of the latter’s masterpieces for piano, Symphonic Etudes (1834) and dedicated… to William Sterndale Bennett. Indeed, Hiroaki Takenouchi’s new album released on the Artalinna label offers us interplay of reciprocal dedications to these three great names of European Romanticism – Mendelssohn, Schumann and Sterndale Bennett. His first volume of a double anthology dedicated to Haydn had been honoured by an ffff from the French magazine French magazine Télérama (highest award).