Sonatas for four hands by Marie & Veronica Kuijken

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Marie & Veronica Kuijken

Sonatas for four hands

Price: € 20.95
Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917236323
Catnr: CC 72363
Release date: 07 January 2011
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917236323

Catalogue number
CC 72363

Release date
07 January 2011

"This album should be a favourite in everyone's piano-discotheque."

Piano News, 01-3-2011

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

The four-hand repertoire was certainly not popular during the period that the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his slightly older sister Nannerl would be placed behind a clavier to entertain audiences with four-hand music. Mozart wrote five duet sonatas and several separate works for pianoforte four-hand. On this CD, the four-hand pieces are Mozart’s two last and most monumental sonatas. They explore the limits of the pianoforte, both literally and regarding sound volume. Mozart did not shy away from giving both players an independent and often complicated and technically demanding part.

Sonata in F, K. 497:Mozart’s way of exploiting the opportunities inherent in the four-hand repertoire was pioneering and led to impressive results. This sonata reminds one not only of his symphonic music and operas but also his sometimes highly virtuosic pieces and concertos for pianoforte.

Sonata in C K 521: Instead of the tight interweaving of the four hands of K 497, this sonata establishes a more competitive relationship between the two performers. Many are the passages where they
imitate each other (with deviations).

The Sonata in D K 448 similar to the K 521 sonata. Here, too, scores of virtuosic figures are passed back and forth by the performers.(Source: linernotes of the CD 'Sonatas for four hands'- Il Pulcini - Marie & Veronika Kuijken)

Twee natuurtalenten verleggen de grenzen van de pianoforte
In de periode dat de jonge Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart en zijn zus Nannerl het publiek vermaakten met muziek voor vier handen was dit repertoire zeker niet populair. Desondanks waren er al veel composities voor twee of meer toetsinstrumenten, onder andere werken van Mattheson, Händel en Johann Sebastian Bach. Muziek waarin twee mensen één instrument bespelen ontstond pas later.

Mozart componeerde zelf vijf sonates en verschillende losse werken voor vier handen. De werken voor vier handen op dit album zijn Mozarts twee laatste en meest monumentale sonates. Daarnaast bevat het album ook de Sonate in D groot (KV 448) voor twee pianofortes. De sonates verkennen de grenzen van de pianoforte, niet alleen letterlijk, maar ook wat betreft het volume. Mozart schrok er niet van terug om beide spelers een onafhankelijke en technisch veeleisende partij te geven.

Marie en Veronica Kuijken zijn twee dochters van de beroemde violist en dirigent Sigiswald Kuijken. Ze zijn opgegroeid met de pianoforte. Het is goed te horen dat hun talent voor het bespelen van dit instrument in hun genen zit. De zussen zijn bijzonder goed op elkaar afgestemd een vormen een prachtige eenheid.

De zussen hebben besloten om voor de opnames op dit album gebruik te maken van twee kopieën van een Johann Andreas Stein pianoforte uit 1788, gemaakt door de Belgische pianobouwer Claude Kelekom.

Marie und Veronica Kuijken sind Töchter des Geigers und Dirigenten Sigiswald Kuijken und haben 1989 spontan begonnen, zusammen vierhändige Klaviermusik zu spielen. Im Laufe der Zeit haben sie ihre Zusammenarbeit erweitert und vertieft und ein breites gemeinsames Repertoire von Barockmusik bis zu Stravinsky aufgebaut. Die vorliegenden Mozart-Werke spielen sie auf zwei Kopien von einem Pianoforte aus dem Jahr 1788 von Johann Andreas Stein, die der belgische Klavierbauer Claude Kelekom anfertigte.

Artist(s)

Marie Kuijken

Marie Kuijken studied Piano, Chamber Music and Keyboard Accompaniment at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. In this same period she studied voice with Louis Devos, Margreet Honig (Amsterdam) and with Lena Lootens. As a soprano, Marie Kuijken works often together with La Petite Bande, in productions such as the Passions of J.S.Bach, Vesperi della beata Vergine Maria of Monteverdi and some intermezzi buffi in which she sings de female part. As pianist she specializes in the Mozart repertoire on pianoforte (copy of Stein). In the Lied repertoire she is accompanied by her sister Veronica; recently they performed Schumanns 'Frauenliebe und Leben'. In Italy, where she lives, Marie Kuijken is part of the baroque ensemble Il Fabbro Armonioso. She...

Marie Kuijken studied Piano, Chamber Music and Keyboard Accompaniment at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. In this same period she studied voice with Louis Devos, Margreet Honig (Amsterdam) and with Lena Lootens. As a soprano, Marie Kuijken works often together with La Petite Bande, in productions such as the Passions of J.S.Bach, Vesperi della beata Vergine Maria of Monteverdi and some intermezzi buffi in which she sings de female part. As pianist she specializes in the Mozart repertoire on pianoforte (copy of Stein). In the Lied repertoire she is accompanied by her sister Veronica; recently they performed Schumanns "Frauenliebe und Leben". In Italy, where she lives, Marie Kuijken is part of the baroque ensemble Il Fabbro Armonioso. She also continues the vocal study with L.Napoli. She was a guest of the Festival Barocco di Viterbo and the Festival 900 in Pescara. With cembalo player G.Catalucci she frequently performs in Amelia. She has been assigned to the Conservatory of Salerno as teacher in diction of foreign languages.

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Veronica Kuijken

Veronica Kuijken (1978) started to play piano at age six and violin at age eight. She went to the Brussels conservatory at the age of 16 in the piano class of Daniel Blumenthal. There she took her master's degree in piano cum laude in June 1999. After two years of violin lessons, and privately tutoring for seven years she continued her studies in London and obtained a master's degree in violin in September 1998 (via the Central Examining Committee of the Flemish Community). She has been studying at the Musikhochschule in Winterthur (Switzerland) since October 1999. In 1997 Veronica was selected as a violinist in the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, Semyon Bychkov and Pierre Boulez....

Veronica Kuijken (1978) started to play piano at age six and violin at age eight. She went to the Brussels conservatory at the age of 16 in the piano class of Daniel Blumenthal. There she took her master's degree in piano cum laude in June 1999. After two years of violin lessons, and privately tutoring for seven years she continued her studies in London and obtained a master's degree in violin in September 1998 (via the Central Examining Committee of the Flemish Community). She has been studying at the Musikhochschule in Winterthur (Switzerland) since October 1999. In 1997 Veronica was selected as a violinist in the European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer, Semyon Bychkov and Pierre Boulez. Alongside her studies, Veronica Kuijken and her sister Marie (soprano and pianist) have performed since 1993 as the 'I Pulcini' duo. Veronica has regularly played with the Kammerorchester Basel since 2000, and holds a part-time position as piano accompanist with the Conservatory of Music in Lausanne and as harpsichord accompanist in the Geneva Conservatory.

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Composer(s)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose actual name is Joannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a composer, pianist, violinist and conductor from the classical period, born in Salzburg. Mozart was a child prodigy. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all of music's history. Within the classical tradition, he was able to develop new musical concepts which left an everlasting impression on all the composers that came after him. Together with Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven he is part of the First Viennese School. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. From 1763 he traveled with his family through all of Europe for three years and from 1769 he traveled to Italy and France with his father Leopold after which he took residence in Paris. On July 3rd, 1778, his mother passed away and after a short stay in Munich with the Weber family, his father urged him to return to Salzburg, where he was once again hired by the Bishop. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death.

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