Beethoven - Variations & Bagatelles (Pletnev)

Ludwig Van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Variations & Bagatelles

Andante Favori in F, WoO 57

Bagatelle in C major, WoO56

Bagatelle in C minor, WoO52

Bagatelles (11), Op. 119

Bagatelles (7), Op. 33

Minuets (6), WoO 10

Polonaise in C major, Op. 89

Rondo in A major, WoO 49

Rondo in C major, Op. 51 No. 1

Rondo in C major, WoO 48

Rondo in G major, Op. 51 No. 2

Variations (12) on the 'Menuet à la Vigano' by Haibel, WoO 68

Variations (24) on Righini's Arietta 'Venni amore,' WoO 65

Variations (6) for Piano on an Original Theme in F major, Op. 34

Variations (6) in F major on a Swiss Song, WoO 64

Variations (6) in G major on the duet 'Nel cor più non mi sento' from the opera La Molinara by Giovanni Paisiello, WoO 70

Variations (9) on a March by Dressler, WoO 63

Mikhail Pletnev (piano)

Recorded: 1997-03

Recording Venue: Friedrich-Ebert-Halle, Hamburg

Mikhail Pletnev's 1997 recording of Beethoven Variations & Bagatelles has now been re-released to join the current flood of parallel shots at these fascinating piano works, but, as one might have predicted, he's still head and shoulders above the competition. The Op.33 and Op.119 bagatelles have never sounded so fresh: Pletnev has an extraordinary musical imagination, and with each short piece takes us into a new soundworld. He brings an unexpectedly tender touch to the wilful angularities of Op.33, and a fluid, singing grace when the score warrants it. But it's with the early rondos and variations that this double-CD breaks new ground. Pletnev takes the most trifling-seeming of Beethoven's teenage works, and lets them expand so that we can see the mature genius lurking beneath the surface. Barry Cooper's excellent liner note reinforces the message--that it was in the variations rather then the sonatas that Beethoven's imagination first took wing. And what a fast worker: the corruscating WoO 70 set (on an operatic theme by Paisiello) were written--to please a desperate client--in the space of a mere day. 

Michael Church