0 Beethoven & Hummel: Piano Trios

“…these are really impressive and vibrant accounts that bring out all the abrupt contrasts that so shocked the works' Beethoven first audiences… If you prefer these pieces on period instruments, you're unlikely to find them better done… Beside Beethoven, Hummel's G major Trio is small beer, though its scherzo-like- finale is fun, and Staier wittily invokes the piano's built-in percussion effect for the concluding chords.” --BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

BBC Music Magazine Chamber Choice - February 2007

“This bold juxtaposition of Beethoven and Hummel resurrects a real-life musical rivalry… Equally bold are the timbres displayed by this vividly imaginative trio of period instrumentalists.” --Gramophone Magazine, March 2008

Detail: Beethoven & Hummel: Piano Trios

0 Beethoven: Violin Sonatas No 4 & 7, Variations

“Fortunately, the players don’t seem in the least bit fazed by the accumulated layers of musical history, and they give admirably dramatic performances, with all the urgency and passion Beethoven’s two minor-key violin sonatas demand.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2006 *****

“Beethoven’s fiery dramatics sound more audacious than ever…Fantastic playing, and a fascinating release.” --The Times

“…performances of unusual verve and spontaneity.” --Gramophone Magazine, October 2006

 “The novel feature here is that Daniel Sepec's violin is one of a set presented to Beethoven in 1800 by Prince Lichnowsky. Made in Salzburg around 1700 and restored to its original condition, its whereabouts were unknown until 10 years ago, when it was presented to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. In Sepec's hands it has a sweet, expressive tone, an important element in these remarkably imaginative, stimulating performances. Andreas Staier plays a Graf pianoforte from the 1820s, of a type Beethoven was familiar with, though not at the time he wrote these sonatas. But if it has a smoother sound and wider dynamic range than earlier instruments, it's still able to present Beethoven's keyboard textures with perfect clarity. Staier's enthusiastic approach occasionally swamps the violin – but one can easily imagine the young Beethoven doing the same.

Staier and Sepec take us a long way beyond the concept of historically informed playing as simply avoiding anachronism. In the first movement of Sonata No 7, Sepec introduces expressive portamenti, as well as the kind of rubato where he momentarily lags behind the piano's rhythm. In the following Adagio, Staier makes highly expressive use of spread chords, and throughout the CD there are instances of subtle tempo variation and added dynamics, for example the beautiful shaping of the main theme in No 4's second movement. In the Variations, Staier makes full use of the Graf's range of sonorities, including a remarkable percussive surprise! Yet these 'authentic' features all stem from a clear view of the music's expressive qualities and result in performances of unusual verve and spontaneity.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

Detail: Beethoven: Violin Sonatas No 4 & 7, Variations

0 The Very Best Of Beethoven

Beethoven was a musical giant. He wasn't taller or fatter than everyone else, but his music is big and his name is important. Beethoven is like the Olympic champion of classical music. Some of the music he wrote is strong and serious, and some of it is very gentle. Listen here to orchestras, pianos, violins and other instruments playing some of the most famous pieces of all.

Detail: The Very Best Of Beethoven

0 Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Volume 1

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

 

“Muted beginnings from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet...Make no mistake, his playing is immaculate. Yet in a number of sonatas his is, mostly, an immaculate presentation of their structural logic...The tide with Op. 10. Excellent pianism now gets bedded into genuine interpretation. Bavouzet jettisons fastidious reserve for a personal perspicacity that reaches deep into the music...Bavouzet when performing at his finest is the thing here.” --Gramophone, August 2012

“Bavouzet's performances are distinguished and virtuosic, but he does overemphasise the storminess of some passages, the results sounding perilously close to self-parody...But Bavouzet is quite marvellous in the many quirky, violent and mischievous movements, and in the slow movements where he does not seek to be intensely expressive...so all told this is a most desirable set overall.” --International Record Review, June 2012
   

“Throughout these discs, Bavouzet enhances his interpretations with pianism of a virtuosity familiar from his earlier recordings...with sound as clear and realistic as one previous Chandos releases...On the basis of this first instalment, he has much to say about this music that is relevant and necessary: one can only look forward to the continuation of this cycle.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ****beetho

Detail: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Volume 1

0 Beethoven: Choral Fantasia

“with the aid of a strong team of soloists, Hilary Davan Wetton makes as strong a case as possible for [Der glorreiche Augenblick]...The performance [of the Choral Fantasy] here benefits greatly from the contribution of Leon McCawley, whose account of the long opening piano solo has just the right degree of dramatic intensity and improvisatory freedom. With first-rate recorded sound, the disc is strongly recommended.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 *****

“Davan Wetton rouses his forces to hymn the praises of Vienna and Emperor Franz of Austria, drawing from the City of London Choir the full-bodied outpouring that one expects at celebratory occasions. The Westminster Boys Choir adds pristine treble tones to the concluding chorus. The Royal Philharmonic plays with relish in both the cantata and the Fantasia” --International Record Review, May 2012

“[Wetton] has a comprehensive grasp of the score [of Der glorreiche Augenblick]. From grandeur to contemplation, the mix of many elements is persuasively interpreted...Leon McCawley plays the 26-bar solo introduction [to the Choral Fantasia] with a sense of ad-lib abandon, coruscating in the hailstorm of notes at its fortissimo climax.” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“The choirs are consistently excellent and they make light of Beethoven’s demanding vocal writing. The playing of the Royal Philharmonic is first-rate in every way, revealing an adoption of historically informed performance practice. Hilary Davan Wetton’s enthusiasm and love for both works is obvious” --MusicWeb International, July 2012

Detail: Beethoven: Choral Fantasia

0 Beethoven: Chamber Music for Winds

In the early sixties the clarinettist Dieter Klöcker founded the Consortium Classicum - a German chambermusic ensemble - which not only cultivated the standard repertory, but also brought back to life rediscovered musical masterworks. The instrumentation of these works include wind instruments only as well as the combination of woodwinds and strings up to a nonette. 

The members of the Ensemble are all solists, professors from music academies and leaders from first class orchestras, who uphold the Ensemble's concept in a very individual and consistent manner. International appearances in concerts, honorable awards and invitations to famous festivals - including the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival and the Berlin festival etc. - as well as numerous records, radio and TV productions, all go to confirm the extraordinary status of this unique ensemble.

Detail: Beethoven: Chamber Music for Winds