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Track(s) taken from CDA67814

Piano Sonata in C major, Op 34 No 1

composer

Howard Shelley (piano)
Recording details: October 2009
St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Annabel Connellan
Engineered by Ben Connellan
Release date: May 2010
Total duration: 18 minutes 31 seconds

Cover artwork: Roman Capriccio by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765)
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘Volume 5 of Howard Shelley's exemplary survey brings us sonatas from the late 1790s … several of the works in Vol 4 had a Haydnesque feel but here there seems to be a more personal style on show, busy with up-to-date, complex keyboard figuration yet also displaying natural shapeliness, as well as some moments of memorable individuality … clearly played, intelligently detailed and perfectly recorded’ (Gramophone)

‘Shelley's playing is exemplary, with a gloriously fluent technique and a most perceptive interpretational approach … the Six Sonatinas here prove particularly nostalgic, core repertoire from many a pianist's childhood and perfect miniature paradigms of classical sonata form … Shelley is creating a benchmark for Clementi's solo piano music which I doubt will be moved in the foreseeable future and this volume's two-discs-for-the-price-of-one is an irresistible offering’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘You won't often hear [the Op 36 Sonatinas] played as skilfully as here … along with his best-known works, the 12 on this set include some of Clementi's best, the two sonatas of his Op 34, pieces that attracted the attention of pianists of the calibre of Horowitz and Gilels before the clear and disciplined Shelley. Prepare to be surprised by the strength of musical argument’ (The Irish Times)
According to later testimony of Clementi’s student Ludwig Berger, the C major Sonata Op 34 No 1 was originally a concerto (and Op 34 No 2 a symphony). The former, the Sonata in C major, has wide-ranging keyboard figurations, some for the left hand, that would be quite at home in a piano concerto; but the big cadential patterns marking off the exchanges of solo and orchestra are missing. If this was once a concerto, Clementi took pains to conceal these origins. The second movement of the sonata, in F major, is particularly memorable: its atmospheric first section anticipates the manner of Clementi’s student John Field—and ultimately Chopin—to which the high drama of the contrasting middle section in the parallel minor offers an effective foil.

from notes by Leon Plantinga © 2010

Selon le témoignage tardif de Ludwig Berger, en ancien élève de Clementi, la Sonate en ut majeur op. 34 no 1 fut d’abord un concerto et la no 2 une symphonie. La première a d’amples figurations claviéristiques dont certaines, pour la main gauche, sont parfaites pour un concerto pianistique, mais il manque les grands modèles cadentiels marquant les échanges entre le soliste et l’orchestre. Si elle fut bel et bien d’abord un concerto, Clementi a tout fait pour le cacher. Son deuxième mouvement, en fa majeur, est particulièrement mémorable: sa première section, chargée d’atmosphère, anticipe la manière de John Field—et, en fin de compte, de Chopin—, qui étudia avec Clementi, manière à laquelle le drame aigu de la section médiane contrastive, dans le mode mineur parallèle, fait un impressionnant repoussoir.

extrait des notes rédigées par Leon Plantinga © 2010
Français: Hypérion

Clementis Schüler Ludwig Berger erklärte später, die Sonate in C-Dur op. 34 Nr. 1 sei ursprünglich ein Konzert und die op. 34 Nr. 2 eine Sinfonie gewesen. Erstere hat weitreichende Klavierfigurationen, zum Teil in der linken Hand, die recht passend für ein Klavierkonzert sind, doch fehlen groß angelegte Kadenzmuster für den Austausch zwischen Solist und Orchester. Falls dies einst ein Konzert gewesen sein sollte, hat Clementi sich viel Mühe gegeben, die Herkunft zu verschleiern. Besonders erinnernswert ist der zweite Satz der Sonate in F-Dur, dessen atmosphärischer erster Teil den Stil von Clementis Schüler John Field und letztlich den von Chopin vorwegnimmt und zu dem die hohe Dramatik des Mittelteils in der parallelen Molltonart einen wirksamen Kontrast bietet.

aus dem Begleittext von Leon Plantinga © 2010
Deutsch: Henning Weber

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