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Continuing our series of rare European early vinyl releases
Notes on the recording: Once again, we're grateful to Brussels-based collector Jean-François Lambert for digging through his 30,000+ collection of classical LPs to find some of the finest and rarest European releases never since reissued. These two recordings would have been amongst the first vinyl issues of these two well-known and much-loved sonatas - they would soon be joined by many more, but there is a magic to be found here which makes these long-lost recordings particularly worthwhile. At the time of recording, Kann was regarded as one of the finest of as new generation of post-war pianists, a reputation that can only have been enhanced by this disc. From a technical perspective, Kann was particularly well-recorded for his era; the main shortcoming of the disc itself was a pressing which left a considerable degree of distortion to deal with during louder sections. This was more pronounced at the end of the first side - fortunately it has been possible to make considerable inroads in the reduction of this, and I've been able to achieve a sound which is both crisp and clean (far more so than I thought possible), and maintains a surprisingly wide dynamic range for any recording of this age. A highly recommended find!
Notes on the 24-bit download: Please see this page for test files and further information regarding this format. Although restoration work is done at a sample rate of 44.1kHz, we have upsampled the final 24-bit master to 48kHz for additional replay compatibility of our FLAC download. Our twenty-four bit FLAC downloads can be replayed in full quality using a standard DVD video player, a DVD writer and an inexpensive piece of PC software - see here for more information about replay from Video DVD discs.
The Music and Performer notes from Wikipedia
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, opus 57, colloquially known as the Appassionata, is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period (the others being the Waldstein sonata, opus 53 and Les Adieux, Opus 81a). It was composed during 1803, 1804, 1805, and perhaps 1806, and is dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna. Like the early Sonata No. 8, Pathétique, the Appassionata was not named by the composer, but was so labeled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work. The Appassionata was considered by Beethoven to be his stormiest piano sonata until the Hammerklavier, being described as a "brilliantly executed display of emotion and music". 1803 was the year Beethoven came to grips with his complete deafness, and the Appassionata clearly reflects the emotional turmoil he felt during its composition. An average performance of all three movements of the Appassionata sonata lasts about 23 minutes.
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is popularly known as the "Moonlight" Sonata (Mondscheinsonate in German). The work was completed in 1801 and rumored to be dedicated to his pupil, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom Beethoven was, or had been, in love. The name "Moonlight" Sonata derives from an 1832 description of the first movement by music critic Ludwig Rellstab, who compared it to moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne. Beethoven included the phrase "Quasi una fantasia" (Italian: Almost a fantasy) in the title partly because the sonata does not follow the traditional sonata pattern where the first movement is in regular sonata form, and where the three or four movements are arranged in a fast-slow-[fast]-fast sequence. Instead, the Moonlight sonata possesses an end-weighted trajectory; the climax is held off until the third movement. To be sure, the deviation from traditional sonata form is intentional. In his analysis of the Moonlight sonata, German critic Paul Bekker states that “The opening sonata-allegro movement gave the work a definite character from the beginning…which succeeding movements could supplement but not change. Beethoven rebelled against this determinative quality in the first movement. He wanted a prelude, an introduction, not a proposition.” By placing the most dramatic form (sonata form) at the end of the piece, Beethoven could magnify the drama inherent in the form. The work is possibly the most familiar of all Beethoven's piano sonatas, and is widely performed and recorded. It is so popular that it has been referenced to in video games. For example, the piece is played in the original Resident Evil game as part of a puzzle.
Hans Kann (born February 14. 1927 in Vienna; died June 24. 2005) was an Austrian pianist and composer. He taught music in his native Austria and in Japanese schools such as the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. He was described in the original MMS sleevenotes thus:
Notes from Wikipedia:
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