Luogo e data di registrazione		Teldec Studio, Berlin (Germania) - novembre 1981 (Nr. 24) Kongreßsaal, Villach (Austria) - luglio 1979 (Nr. 25) Kongreßsaal, Villach (Austria) - luglio 1980 (Nr. 19, 20, 15)
	Original Editions		Telefunken | 6.35596 FK - Vol.4 | 3 LPs | LC 0366 | durata: 55' 39" · 42' 47" · 65' 59" | (p) 1982 | ANA | stereo | (Nr. 24) Telefunken | 6.35490 FK - Vol.2 | 3 LPs | LC 0366 | durata: 53' 24" · 41' 14" · 49' 53" | (p) 1981 | ANA | stereo | (Nr. 19, 20, 15) Telefunken | 6.35472 FK - Vol.1 | 3 LPs | LC 0366 | durata: 46' 29" · 43' 17" · 46' 12" | (p) 1981 | ANA | stereo |Nr. 25)
	Edizione CD		Teldec | 8.43478 ZK | 1 CD | LC 3706 | durata: 53' 00" | (c) 1987 | DDD/DMM | stereo
	Executive Producer		Wolfgang Mohr
	Recording Engineer		Martin Fouqué (Nr. 25); Siegbert Ernst (Nr. 19, 20, 15); Eberhard Sengpiel (Nr. 24)
	Cover design		Holger Matthies
	Note		-

THE 32 PIANO SONATAS (10 CDs DMM)		Piano Sonatas Nr. 19 and 20, Op. 49 Nr. 1 and 2 These two pieces were published in 1805 in Vienna under the title ”Deux sonates faciles pour le pianoforte.” Beethoven's brother Carl had already offered them without success to German publishers some years previously, possibly even without the composer's knowledge. They were probably written in 1795 (No. 2) and 1796/98 (No. 1}, and are in essence sonatinas, possibly occasional works written for teaching purposes; with the two Rondos of op. 51, the first of which also dates from 1796, they are Beethoven's technically least demanding piano works. Indeed, Czerny did not include them in the canon of piano sonatas (which he, quite properly from his point of view, treated as consisting of 29 valid works; the subsequent establishment of a canon of 32 sonatas being simply attributable to the opus numbers) and described them all bluntly as being suitable for not particularly expert players. It seemed an obvious move to publish the two pieces of op. 49 together: both are in two movements and represent the major and minor modes of the key of G. Joachim Kaiser has drawn attention to some obvious allusions to Mozart in the Sonatina in G minor, including one to the wellknown "Sonata facile,” K. 545. Shortly afterwards - in 1799 - Beethoven used the theme of the Menuet of Sonata No. 2 for the Menuet of his Septet op. 20. Piano Sonata Nr. 24 Fis-dur, Op. 78 "A Thérèse" This sonata and the sonatina op. 79, both dating from 1809, both very short, are in the nature of light relief overshadowed by greater works: the Choral Fantasia op. 80, the Emperor Concerto, the string quartet op. 75 and the incidental music to ”Egmont”. Op. 78 is dedicated to Countess Therese von Brunsvik, to whom Beethoven was deeply attached. (He was also a close friend of her brother Franz, the dedicatee of the ”Appassionata” and the Fantasia op. 77, he may well have had a love affair with her sister Josephine, the widow of Count Deym.) The short motto which launches the sonata, four bars with the.significant marking ”adagio cantabile", almost gives the impression that it reflects a romantic dedication. (The normally notoriously matter-of-fact Hans von Bülow once went so far as to say that if Beethoven had composed nothing except for these four bars, he would still have been immortal.) Though the motto has no further thematic role to play in the movement, the songlike beginning of the first subject sounds like a continuation of this adagio introduction; indeed, ”cantabile” applies without a doubt to the whole movement, which presages the importance that this expression mark was to assume in the later sonatas, starting with op. 90. The second movement, a lively rondo based once again on the opening bars of the first movement, is, according to Czerny, quite difficult because it is sometimes awkward: full of two-note arpeggios, rapid hand changes in the figuration, as later found in Tchaikowsky, and all that in the cumbersome key of F sharp, which is unique in Beethoven’s piano music. Again according to Czerny, Beethoven was proud of this work: “People are forever on about the sonata in C sharp minor (the “Moonlight”, op. 27, No. 2); I have certainly written better than that. The sonata in F sharp is a different thing altogether. Piano Sonata Nr. 25 (Sonatine), Op. 79 The Sonatina op. 79, written in 1809, is, like a piece of light relief, over-shadowed by greater works: the Choral Fantasia op. 80; the Emperor Concerto; the String Quartet op. 74; the incidental music for ”Egmont” and the Sonata op. 81a "Les Adieux." In a letter to his publishers Beethoven expressly described the work which, incidentally, he wanted published with its predecessor, op. 78, as a ”Sonatine facile." Until the relevant sketches were discovered it was thought that this was an early work which, like the piano sonatas of op. 49 or the Capriccio “The rage over the lost penny," he had simply published much later. Many details, however, militate against this view, for example the not immediately apparent structural and thematic linking of the three movements by the interval of a third, which is common to all of them. As Joachim Kaiser puts it, ”anyone who analyses the sonata carefully should be able to prove without difficulty something that no sensible person would dispute, namely that this work, which is never tediously regular or pedantically dry, obviously comes from the hand of the mature Beethoven.” Incidentally, Czerny omits it from the catalogue of sonatas, as he does both works of op. 49; he therefore, unlike later catalogues, acknowledges not 32 but only 29 "great sonatas, which by themselves would suffice to render his name immortal." Piano Sonata Nr. 15 D-dur, Op. 28 “Pastorale” The fourth piano sonata to appear in 1802, after op. 26 and the two sonatas of op. 27, was op. 28, written in 1801. In comparison with its three predecessors it is doubtless a more lightweight composition, presenting problems neither of form nor of interpretation. Perhaps there is some slight connection between the serenely restrained character of the music and that of the dedicatee, the nobleman Joseph von Sonnenfels, a scholar and statesman already in his seventies, a respected upholder of Enlightenment, whom Beethoven apparently wished to honour; nothing is known of any personal acquaintance. The sonata acquired its nickname quite early on in English editions, even before the Pastoral Symphony (1807/08): it probably derives from the bagpipe-like bass figure in 6/8 time which imparts a characteristic flavour to the last movement. (As late as 1842 Czerny attributed the nickname specifically to the finale: “A cheerful pastorale, jocose and good-natured.”) One should not, however, allow these associations to obscure the fact that the work displays significant structural relationships. The two outer movements are linked by an insistant drone-like D in the bass, lasting almost 40 bars in the first movement, and by the virtually identical beginning of the first subjects of both movements. The link between the first and third movement is provided by a striking rhythmic motif - both movements are in 3/4 time: two crotchets plus a crotchet rest in the epilogue of the first movement and the main theme of the Scherzo, and its inversion in the middle section of the first movement and the Trio of the Scherzo. The three main thematic groupings of the first movement are distinguished by the clear difierences in their rhythmic character; this is paralleled to a certain extent by the pronounced contrast between legato and staccato in the various sections of the second movement. According to Czerny, this movement, an andante, was for many years one of Beethoven's favourite pieces; he often played it just for himself.
1 CD - 8.42761 ZK - (c) 1984 1 CD - 8.43027 ZK - (c) 1984 1 CD - 8.43206 ZK - (p) 1985 1 CD - 8.43415 ZK - (p) 1986 1 CD - 8.43477 ZK - (p) 1987	1 CD - 8.42913 ZK - (c) 1983 1 CD - 8.43111 ZK - (p) 1985 1 CD - 8.43334 ZK - (p) 1986 1 CD - 8.43476 ZK - (p) 1987 1 CD - 8.43478 ZK - (p) 1987