Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Op. 12 No. 3 & Op 47 'Kreutzer'

Product description Classica da camera Violino e piano - BEETHOVEN Ludwig van: Sonata per violino e piano n.3 op 12 n.3 (1797 98); Sonata per violino e piano n.9 op 47 'Kreutzer' Review Among mainstream big-name violin soloists, Viktoria Mullova is rare in her enthusiasm for period style and historical practice. For her first recording of Beethoven violin sonatas, she has chosen one of the foremost, and arguably the most brilliant, of today's period fortepiano players, the South African Kristian Bezuidenhout. He uses a beautiful, crisp, clear 'Hammerklavier' built by Anton Walter und Sohn in 1822, while Mullova has re-stringed her Guadagnini violin with gut, which she plays with 'lighter, transitional bow' (that is, of the classical period). It would be wrong to say that she adopts wholesale the stylistic manners of 'baroque to classical' specialists: these are big boned, exciting readings, played in a modern style, but profiting from the more transparent sound of the gut-stringed instrument and light bow, enabling a perfect balance with the delicate fortepiano. In the earlier sonata - designated for piano and violin, with the keyboard instrument, Beethoven's own, having very much the upper hand(s) - Mullova defers to Bezuidenhout's mercurial brilliance, but she greedily embraces every opportunity to display her bravura technique in the Kreutzer, written for the extraordinary mulatto player George Polgreen Bridgetower, from whom Beethoven later withdrew the dedication in favour of the French virtuoso Rodolphe Kreutzer. Mullova's drama in the grand concerto-like opening movement is offset by the supple lyricism of the andante variations and the irresistible brio and wit of the presto . Sheer delight. **** --Hugh Canning ,Sunday Times Period instruments relocate these two works in a darkly Romantic sound world.The sound has a startling clarity and range of colour.The Adagio (is) elegantly played and with beautiful tone. --Gramophone,Sept 2010 By now music lovers should be used to the sound of the violinist Viktoria Mullova playing with gut strings and an antique-style bow. A tone gritty but bright, note and phrases crackling with fire:for six years or so these have been regular features of her recordings and concerts with period instrument musicians. It seems strange to recall that the music industry once dubbed her the 'Ice Queen' for the chilled beauty of her playing and her immobile onstage posture. But now Mullova is older, independent and liberated. She's not the only source of sparks in this CD of two Beethoven violin sonatas, the Kreutzer (the greatest of all) and the early. boisterous Op12 No.3. Please welcome Kristian Bezuidenhout, from South Africa, a fortepiano specialist of sparkling powers, who plays an extremely characterful 1822 instrument from the Vienese company of Anton Walter. Down at the bottom it growls like a bear, up at the top it sings like a bird. In the middle it's a velvet red wine. The piano's clipped attack is amazing:when Bezuidenhout prances through Beethoven's fancy runs you almost feel giddy. And, being a studio recording, we're spared the fortepiano's chief downside:the need for constant retuning. Time and again the two players strike the most telling contrasts. Take the adagio movement in Op12 No3, in which the wiry sunshine of Mullova's 1750 Guadagnini comes gorgeously cradled in the piano's cotton wool. Mullova and Bezuidenhout work just as well making their tones blend:the central variation movement in the Kreutzer rejoices in the most delicate colouring, the subtlest of touches. Above all, the fortepiano and the gut-stringed violin bring extra excitement, danger even , to Beethoven's music, never designed for purring quietly on a shelf. the nervous quality in Mullova's playing helps the first movement of the Kreutzer to gallop ahead, tense and turbulent. Bezuidenhout's fortepiano, extremely agile, almost frighteningly clear, makes its own match with the composer's volatility. After the ear-opening CD conventional Beethoven performances with a Steinway a --Geoff Brown. The times 11/06/10 Even today there appear to be few star violinists prepared to give gut strings and a 'period'approach a try.Yet Viktoria Mullova has not only been doing this for years but also shows a profoundly un-diva-ish appreciation of the way the relationship between the violin and piano changes in these two Sonatas. Performance **** Recording **** --BBC Music Magazine,Sept 2010 By now music lovers should be used to the sound of the violinist Viktoria Mullova playing with gut strings and an antique-style bow. A tone gritty but bright, note and phrases crackling with fire:for six years or so these have been regular features of her recordings and concerts with period instrument musicians. It seems strange to recall that the music industry once dubbed her the 'Ice Queen' for the chilled beauty of her playing and her immobile onstage posture. But now Mullova is older, independent and liberated. S