Beethoven: Für Elise and Bagatelles Opp. 33, 119 & 126

 
Beethoven: Für Elise and Bagatelles Opp. 33, 119 & 126 cover
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LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN
Beethoven: Für Elise and Bagatelles Opp. 33, 119 & 126
Paul Lewis (piano)

[ Harmonia Mundi / CD ]

Release Date: Saturday 1 August 2020

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Pianist Paul Lewis is the type of musician that can take the most mundane musical phrase and bring it to life. And all without exaggeration or sounding affected. He's displayed this high degree of musicianship on all of his previous recordings, especially when playing the music of Franz Schubert. These short-form Bagatelles by Ludwig van Beethoven have often been overlooked by pianists who thought they weren't substantial enough, or that they wouldn't allow them to demonstrate their pianistic skills and technique. Quite the contrary. It's by uncovering the essence and charm of these miniatures that pianists can reveal their musical backbone. And speaking in strictly pedagogical terms, these pieces were, and still are, the stepping stone or gateway into Beethoven's music for thousands of piano students. Take Für Elise for example. Despite simply being a series of repeated broken chords with a dramatic passage thrown in for diversion, it's been one of the essential learning tools for every piano student, and is arguably the most famous piano work of all time. These 'trinkets' should not be overlooked, especially when played as well as they are in this revelatory recording by Paul Lewis.

"As you'd expect from such an experienced Beethoven performer as Paul Lewis, there's a confidence in every track...What is also particularly telling is the way he creates the sense of a bigger structure over the course of an opus, even where that involves a study in contrasts....Lewis always giv[es] due consideration to Beethoven's highly contrasting musical ingredients....All told, another hugely impressive disc from one of our greatest Beethovenians" Gramophopne Editor's Choice Sept 2020

"Combining expressive variety and technical ease, Lewis delights in the wit too. Even Für Elise, beaten to death by every would-be and would-not-be learner, becomes tolerable in his hands" The Guardian

Tracks:

Seven Bagatelles, Op. 33
Eleven Bagatelles, Op. 119
Six Bagatelles, Op. 126
Bagatelle Für Elise, WoO 59
Klavierstück, WoO 60
Klavierstück, WoO 61
Klavierstück, WoO 61a
Fantasia, Op. 77