Rameau: Sibaris CD

Rameau: Sibaris  

Rameau: Sibaris  

Rameau: Sibaris  

Rameau: Sibaris  

Rameau: Sibaris  

Rameau: Sibaris The Sonata op. 13 in C minor, composed in 1778 when the composer was 27 years old, is the most successful work from his first composing period. The publisher of the sonata was so impressed by its tragic sonorities that he proposed Beethoven the name Pathetique. Beethoven liked the title "Grande Sonate Pathetique" in the meaning of "pathetique" as the poet Schiller used it from the greek athetikos, "subject to and capable of feeling, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart towards "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life. It appear to me that Beethoven's Pathetique may have been inspired by the Bach Partita No. 2 in C Minor BWV 826 as they share the same key and dramatic slow introductory theme, marked Grave. The first and third Movements are dark and violent, surrounding with impressive contrast intimacy of the famous cantabile melody of the Adagio movement. A sort of resigned meditation on the dramatic discovery of his irreversible deteriorating hearing. The Sonata in F minor Op. 57, colloquially known as the Appassionata, was composed during 1804 and 1805 at the age of 34. Dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick it is for many intended as a dedication to the Count' s sister, after being refused to marry her by her aristocratic family. Published in February 1807 in Vienna, it was labeled "Appassionata" in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hands arrangement, as it rendered the richness of nature's forces and the immense power of man who manages to overcome it. The Appassionata was considered by Beethoven to be his most tempestuous piano sonata. As in the Pathetique Sonata, the unraveling dark forces of the First and Last movements surround an Andante con moto full of warmth, kindness and intimacy. The ending is a powerful moto perpetuum that brings the listener in an atmosphere of fierce struggle with the forces of nature out of which man will once more be victorious. 32 Variations in C minor WoO 80 was composed in 1806 and became a huge success in the second half of the 19th Century thanks to its relationship with the Chacconne for Violin by Bach: an eight-bar main theme, a "basso ostinato" , a stubborn motif which is persistently repeated in the left hand based upon a descending chromatic bass. Composed soon after the Appassionata, in the same C minor Key of the Pathetique ( the only other dramatic Sonata by Beethoven) and with the same Bach inspirations, it looks to me as the perfect circle conclusion of Beethoven's expression of the supernatural human feelings of this program. [Notes by S.Passamonte] Recording information: Master Chord Studio, London, England (02/13/2010).

Rameau: Sibaris  

Rameau: Sibaris