Sonatas Op. 2 by Roberto Prosseda

Ludwig van Beethoven

Roberto Prosseda

Sonatas Op. 2

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917298024
Catnr: CC 72980
Release date: 04 October 2024
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917298024

Catalogue number
CC 72980

Release date
04 October 2024

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Can something new, interesting and ‘true’ still be said about the interpretation of Beethoven’s sonatas? I believe so, provided we break out of the conventions created by the tradition of interpretation and discography, where in 98% of cases a modern piano is used. Therefore, I thought that the choice of recording Beethoven on a historical instrument could also be a way for a more individual interpretative investigation, free from the models that listening to famous recordings on a modern piano risks accustoming us to. I do not believe that there is a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ instrument on which to perform Beethoven’s Sonatas Opus 2. What matters is the musical result. It depends on the alchemy that is created between the performer and the instrument. Before I came to choose the Graf No. 429, I tried at length various modern copies of fortepiano from 1795 - 1800, trying to get closer to the sound and expressive world of early Beethoven. However, having the opportunity of having a Graf fortepiano (No. 429) in my studio, restored in 2023, I was able to prepare this recording on that instrument, playing it regularly for a year, achieving a kind of familiarity with its action and timbral response that I have grown fond of.
- from the liner notes of the album, by Roberto Prosseda

Kann man noch etwas Neues, Interessantes und „Wahres“ über die Interpretation von Beethovens Sonaten sagen? Ich glaube ja, vorausgesetzt, wir brechen aus den Konventionen aus, die von der Tradition der Interpretation und der Diskographie geschaffen wurden, bei der in 98 % der Fälle ein modernes Klavier verwendet wird. Daher dachte ich, dass die Entscheidung, Beethoven auf einem historischen Instrument aufzunehmen, auch ein Weg für eine individuellere interpretatorische Untersuchung sein könnte, frei von den Modellen, an die man sich beim Hören berühmter Aufnahmen auf einem modernen Klavier zu gewöhnen droht. Ich glaube nicht, dass es ein 'richtiges' und ein 'falsches' Instrument gibt, auf dem man Beethovens Sonaten Opus 2 spielen kann. Was zählt, ist das musikalische Ergebnis. Es hängt von der Alchemie ab, die zwischen dem Interpreten und dem Instrument entsteht. Bevor ich mich für den Graf Nr. 429 entschied, probierte ich ausgiebig verschiedene moderne Kopien von Hammerflügeln aus den Jahren 1795 bis 1800 aus, um der Klang- und Ausdruckswelt des frühen Beethoven näher zu kommen. Da ich jedoch die Möglichkeit hatte, einen Graf-Fortepiano (Nr. 429) in meinem Studio zu haben, der 2023 restauriert wurde, konnte ich diese Aufnahme auf diesem Instrument vorbereiten, indem ich es ein Jahr lang regelmäßig spielte und so eine Vertrautheit mit seiner Mechanik und Klangreaktion erlangte, die mir ans Herz gewachsen ist.

Artist(s)

Roberto Prosseda (fortepiano)

Roberto Prosseda, born in Latina in 1975, is one of the most active and versatile Italian musicians on the current international scene. He gained international fame following his Decca CDs dedicated to the piano music of Felix Mendelssohn, which he recorded in full on 10 CDs (2005 - 2014), published in a single box set in 2017 ('Mendelssohn Complete Piano Works') . Over the past twenty years Roberto has performed regularly with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Brussels Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, Netherlands Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Weimar, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus. He has performed under the baton of David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Christian...

Over the past twenty years Roberto has performed regularly with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Brussels Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, Netherlands Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Weimar, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus. He has performed under the baton of David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Christian Arming, Harry Bickett, Oleg Caetani, Riccardo Chailly, Pietari Inkinen, Yannik Nezeit-Seguin, George Pehlivanian, Dennis Russel-Davies, Tugan Sokhiev, Jurai Valcuha, Jan Willem de Vriend. With the Gewandhaus Orchester conducted by Riccardo Chailly, he recorded the unpublished Concerto in E minor by Mendelssohn, published by Decca in September 2009. In Italy he is a regular guest of the major concert institutions, including the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro alla Scala, the Unione Musicale of Turin, the Teatro la Fenice, the Accademia Chigiana of Siena, the Teatro Comunale of Bologna. Roberto is also particularly appreciated in the interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, authors to whom he has also dedicated himself in his most recent Decca recordings. His recording of Mozart Sonatas, recorded on Fazioli piano with unmatched Vallotti tuning (6 Decca CDs, 2015-18), has received considerable international acclaim. In 2022 Roberto completed the recording of Mozarts’ complete piano works in 11 CDs.

In 2010 Deutsche Grammophon selected twelve recordings by Prosseda to include them in the "Classic Gold" box set, published in May 2010. Since 2011, he has also played the piano-pedalier in public, having rediscovered and presented in modern premieres various pieces by Alkan and the Concert by Charles Gounod for piano-pedalier and orchestra with the Toscanini Philharmonic of Parma, which he has re-performed with the Berliner Symphoniker, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Lahti Philharmonic, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and recorded the 4 pieces by Charles Gounod for Pedal Piano and orchestra with Orchestra della Radio Svizzera Italiana and Howard Shelley for Hyperion. Roberto Prosseda gave 100 concerts with the pedal piano, contributing to the rediscovery of the instrument and its repertoire. Roberto Prosseda is equally active as a music writer and author Radio and TV project, being also the creator of innovative musical programs of international scope. He conceived three TV documentaries, directed by Angelo Bozzolini, about Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt, produced by RAI and worldwide distributed by Euroarts.

His book "Il Pianoforte”, a listening guide to piano repertoire, was publushed by Curci in 2013.

Roberto is currently artistic director of Cremona Musica International Exhibitions, of Ascoli Piceno Festival, of Patmos Chamber Music Festival and musical consultant of Teatro “Verdi” in Pordenone.

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Composer(s)

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. Together with Mozart and Haydn, he was part of the First Viennese School. Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn, and gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life.

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