Maurizio Zaccaria - Beethoven: Works for Piano (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may show a rather conservative attitude toward composition and pianistic language (perhaps the reason why they remained unpublished), it is in the Sonatas, Op. 10 that we sense Beethoven’s urge as a young composer to push the boundaries of already old-fashioned archetypes – in the use of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:
1 Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-Flat Major, Op. 22: I. Allegro con brio 05:51
2 Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-Flat Major, Op. 22: II. Adagio con moto 07:19
3 Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-Flat Major, Op. 22: III. Menuetto 03:10
4 Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-Flat Major, Op. 22: IV. Rondo. Allegretto 06:16
5 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 1, Allegretto 01:55
6 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 2, Andante con moto 01:05
7 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 3, A l'allemande 01:24
8 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 4, Andante cantabile 01:18
9 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 5, Risoluto 01:15
10 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 6, Andante 01:49
11 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 7, Allegro, ma non troppo 01:08
12 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 8, Moderato cantabile 01:11
13 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 9, Vivace moderato 00:36
14 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 10, Allegramente 00:17
15 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: No. 11, Andante ma non troppo 02:06
16 Piano Sonata in F Major, WoO 50: I. Allegro 01:19
17 Piano Sonata in F Major, WoO 50: II. Menuetto. Andante 00:38
18 Piano Sonata in C Major, WoO 51: I. Allegro 02:23
19 Piano Sonata in C Major, WoO 51: II. Adagio (Completed by F. Ries) 03:03
20 Piano Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5 No. 1: I. Moderato 01:27
21 Piano Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5 No. 1: II. Romanze 01:54
22 Piano Sonatina in F Major, Anh. 5 No. 2: I. Allegro assai 01:31
23 Piano Sonatina in F Major, Anh. 5 No. 2: II. Rondo. Allegro 01:56

Personnel:
Maurizio Zaccaria, piano