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Sonatas for Piano and Violin Vol. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven

Michael Foyle | Maksim Stsura

Sonatas for Piano and Violin Vol. 1

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917286021
Catnr: CC 72860
Release date: 06 November 2020
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Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917286021
Catalogue number
CC 72860
Release date
06 November 2020

"Without committing any fault of taste, but not very imaginative, the Scottish Michale Foyle and the Estonian Maksim Štšura appear serious and applied in the execution of the Sonatas nos 1, 2, 4 and 5."

Classica, 01-7-2021
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Artist(s)
Composer(s)
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About the album

Michael Foyle: Exploring these Sonatas in 2020 took on a deeper significance beyond the anniversary celebrations. Recording all ten in Mechelen, Belgium, the home of Beethoven’s paternal ancestors, with much of the world’s population in isolation, his works revealed new layers of emotional intensity and psychological relevance.

The Op. 12 Sonatas belong to the last decade of the eighteenth century, a period when Beethoven was conquering Vienna as the foremost keyboard virtuoso of the day but simultaneously seeking to have his compositions published for the first time. In essence, classical duo sonatas for piano and strings had grown from the eighteenth-century ‘accompanied’ sonatas, in which the string instrument provided a supportive role to the keyboard’s dominating textures. Here we witness a gradual incorporation of a ‘dramatic dialogue’ (to borrow Simon P. Keefe’s term) between instruments which had previously been more important in concerto writing.
Beethoven’s Sonata No. 5 in F major Op. 24 is described by musicologist Angus Watson as ‘an exquisite testament to Beethoven’s profoundly religious feeling for the natural world.’
Dit is het eerste deel van een reeks met alle piano- en vioolsonates van Beethoven uitgevoerd door de Britse violist Michael Foyle en de Estse pianist Maksim Štšura. Het is een uitzonderlijk duo dat in de pers geprezen wordt om hun 'overtuigende en pakkende spel' en hun verbazingwekkende gevoel van wederzijds begrip en interactie'. Hun mooie uitvoering op dit album getuigt van een bijzonder inlevingsvermogen.

2020 moest het jaar worden waarin overal ter wereld de 250ste verjaardag van de geboorte van Ludwig van Beethoven uitbundig gevierd zou worden. Dat liep anders. De pandemie en een internationale lockdown brachten musici een nieuwe werkelijkheid. Ze moesten op zoek naar andere manieren om hun publiek te bereiken. Tegelijkertijd was er ruimte om de muziek nog dieper te verkennen.

Zo ook voor Michael Foyle en Maksim Štšura. Het werd hen duidelijk dat Beethovens muziek, juist in deze mondiale situatie, nog krachtiger tot de mensen spreekt. Als er ooit een componist was die wist hoe hij drama, euforie en tragedie in het leven van de mens kon vertolken, was het Beethoven wel. Zijn doofheid sloot ook hem noodgedwongen af van de buitenwereld, familie en vrienden. Veel van zijn composities zijn dan ook gedreven door frustratie over deze scheiding.

Het in 2020 verkennen van Beethovens sonates kreeg een diepere betekenis. Beethovens grootvader, die zanger was en Beethoven van kinds af aan inspireerde, woonde in Mechelen in België. Het opnemen van alle tien sonates in die Vlaamse stad, en met een groot deel van de wereldbevolking in isolatie, brachten nieuwe lagen van intense emotie en psychologische relevantie naar boven. In dit perspectief geeft het nieuwe album Sonatas for Piano and Violin Vol. 1 van Michael Foyle en Maksim Štšura een diepere betekenis aan het Beethoven-jubileum.

De Op. 12 Sonates 1 en 2 stammen uit het laatste decennium van de achttiende eeuw. Een periode waarin Beethoven Wenen veroverde, als verreweg de beste pianovirtuoos van zijn tijd, maar waarin hij ook zijn composities voor het eerst gepubliceerd moest zien te krijgen. De Sonata No. 5. Op. 24, de ‘Frühlingssonate’ wordt door de musicoloog Angus Watson beschreven als “een voortreffelijke getuigenis van Beethovens diepste religieuze gevoelens voor de wereld van de natuur.”

Michael Foyle is voor Nederland geen onbekende. Hij won de Nederlandse vioolcompetitie 2016 met een uitstekende uitvoering van Szymanowksi’s Concerto No.1, samen met het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest. In het seizoen 2017/2018 keerde Foyle terug bij het Rotterdams orkest en trad hij onder andere op met het kerstconcert De Notenkraker. Samen met Maksim Štšura oogst hij wereldwijd bewondering voor hun interpretatie van muziek uit de zeventiende eeuw tot hedendaags werk. Ze wonnen het Concours voor Duo’s van de Beethoven Piano Society of Europe in Londen en het Salieri-Zinetti Kamermuziek Concours in Italië in 2015.

Die Sonaten op. 12 gehören zum letzten Jahrzehnt des 18. Jahrhunderts, einer Zeit, in der Beethoven Wien als der führende Klaviervirtuose seiner Zeit eroberte, gleichzeitig aber auch seine Kompositionen zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht werden sollten. Im Wesentlichen waren die klassischen Duosonaten für Klavier und Streicher aus den "begleiteten" Sonaten des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts hervorgegangen, in denen das Streichinstrument eine unterstützende Rolle für die dominierenden Texturen der Klaviatur spielte. Hier erleben wir die allmähliche Aufnahme eines "dramatischen Dialogs" (um Simon P. Keefe's Begriff zu entlehnen) zwischen Instrumenten, die zuvor im Konzertwesen wichtiger gewesen waren.
Beethovens Sonate Nr. 5 F-Dur op. 24 wird vom Musikwissenschaftler Angus Watson als "ein exquisites Zeugnis von Beethovens zutiefst religiösem Gefühl für die natürliche Welt" beschrieben.


Artist(s)

Maksim Štšura (piano)

Maksim Štšura (piano) won First Prizes at the Beethoven Intercollegiate Piano Competition (2013), the Estonian Piano Competition (2008), the Steinway-Klavierspiel-Wettbewerb in Germany (2004) and the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Estonia (2000). He has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Kammersymphonie and the Chester Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musician he is in great demand, collaborating with Jakobstad Sinfonietta (Finland), Mediterranean Chamber Brass (Spain) and Florin Ensemble (UK) among many others. Maksim studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Ivari Ilja and on exchange at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, before moving to London to complete his Masters and...
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Maksim Štšura (piano) won First Prizes at the Beethoven Intercollegiate Piano Competition (2013), the Estonian Piano Competition (2008), the Steinway-Klavierspiel-Wettbewerb in Germany (2004) and the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Estonia (2000). He has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Kammersymphonie and the Chester Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musician he is in great demand, collaborating with Jakobstad Sinfonietta (Finland), Mediterranean Chamber Brass (Spain) and Florin Ensemble (UK) among many others.
Maksim studied at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Ivari Ilja and on exchange at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, before moving to London to complete his Masters and Artist Diploma degrees with Gordon Fergus-Thompson at the Royal College of Music. He has additionally received masterclasses from Dmitri Bashkirov, Stephan Hough, John Lill and Eliso Virsaladze. Alongside his performing career, Maksim is currently completing a Doctoral course at the RCM, where his research is focused on the piano transcriptions of the contemporary orchestral scores. He is also a Trustee of the Mills Williams Foundation.

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Michael Foyle (violin)

Michael Foyle (violin) won The Netherlands Violin Competition 2016, giving an acclaimed performance of Szymanowksi’s Concerto No.1 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017-18 he returns to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Polish Baltic Philharmonic with Korngold’s Concerto, and makes his Cadogan Hall debut playing Prokofiev’s Concerto No.1 with English Chamber Orchestra. Other London appearances this season include performances of the Beethoven, Dvorak, Elgar and Tchaikovsky concerti. Born in Ayrshire in 1991, Michael gave his concerto debut in Edinburgh Festival Theatre aged eight. He went on to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year Tabor Award 2008 and the Royal Overseas League String Competition 2013, before studying at the Vienna Konservatorium with Pavel Vernikov and in London with Maureen Smith and...
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Michael Foyle (violin) won The Netherlands Violin Competition 2016, giving an acclaimed performance of Szymanowksi’s Concerto No.1 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017-18 he returns to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Polish Baltic Philharmonic with Korngold’s Concerto, and makes his Cadogan Hall debut playing Prokofiev’s Concerto No.1 with English Chamber Orchestra. Other London appearances this season include performances of the Beethoven, Dvorak, Elgar and Tchaikovsky concerti.
Born in Ayrshire in 1991, Michael gave his concerto debut in Edinburgh Festival Theatre aged eight. He went on to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year Tabor Award 2008 and the Royal Overseas League String Competition 2013, before studying at the Vienna Konservatorium with Pavel Vernikov and in London with Maureen Smith and Daniel Rowland. Upon graduation from the Royal Academy of Music, he was awarded the Regency Prize for Excellence and the Roth Prize for the highest violin mark of the year. He has premiered solo and chamber works by over 25 living composers.
Michael plays a Gennaro Gagliano violin (1750) on loan and is represented by Interartists Amsterdam. In addition to his solo and chamber performances this season, he is invited as Guest-Leader of BBC Symphony Orchestra and as Violin Professor at Royal Academy of Music.

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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...
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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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Press

Without committing any fault of taste, but not very imaginative, the Scottish Michale Foyle and the Estonian Maksim Štšura appear serious and applied in the execution of the Sonatas nos 1, 2, 4 and 5.
Classica, 01-7-2021

If their approach turns out to be very neat and elegantly classic, it hardly adds lighting on these famous sonatas.
Diapason, 01-6-2021

Recording Beethoven's complete violin sonatas in Mechelen, the home of Beethoven's forebears, during a period of near-global isolation revealed to this Scottish-Estonian duo 'new layers of emotional and psychological intensity', and you certainly hear this in the rapport between the two players. [...] the personality and the integrity of this duo are evident throughout and it will be fascinating to see what they make of the later sonata masterworks of Opp 47 and 96.
Gramophone, 01-4-2021

Play album Play album
01.
Sonata No. 1 in D Major, Op. 12, No. 1. : I. Allegro con brio
06:32
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
02.
Sonata No. 1 in D Major, Op. 12, No. 1. : II. Tema con Variazioni: Andante con moto
07:01
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
03.
Sonata No. 1 in D Major, Op. 12, No. 1. : III. Rondo: Allegro
05:10
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
04.
Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 2: I. Allegro vivace
04:46
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
05.
Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 2: II. Andante più tosto Allegretto
04:50
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
06.
Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 12, No. 2: III. Allegro piacévole
05:36
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
07.
Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 23: I. Presto
05:20
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
08.
Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 23: II. Andante scherzoso
05:49
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
09.
Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 23: III. Allegro molto
05:55
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
10.
Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ‘Spring’: I. Allegro
07:37
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
11.
Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ‘Spring’: II. Adagio molto espressivo
05:04
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
12.
Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ‘Spring’: III. Scherzo: Allegro molto
01:21
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
13.
Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ‘Spring’: IV. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo
06:37
(Ludwig van Beethoven) Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle
show all tracks

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