HAYDN Complete Piano Sonatas (12 discs, London) JOHN McCABE piano

Description: McCabe first became known as a pianist. His repertoire was wide, from pre-classical to modern composers. He specialised in 20th century music, particularly in English composers. He performed the UK premiere of John Corigliano's Piano Concerto. He also specialised in the music of Haydn, with Gramophone Magazine praising McCabe's 1970s-era recording of Haydn's piano sonatas as "definitive" and "one of the great recorded monuments of the keyboard repertoire". Haydn was not a pianist of any distinction, nor a very successful composer of instrumental concertos, but his piano sonatas--and there are more than 60 of them--are much finer than those of Mozart, who was one of his era's greatest keyboard virtuosos. The reason for this is simple. Mozart wrote his keyboard concertos for himself and his sonatas for students. Haydn, on the other hand, was constantly stimulated to write piano music for gifted amateurs, though in those days amateurs were often as good as the professionals, particularly women for whom a concert career was out of the question. This is great music then, charming but never trivial, and John McCabe plays it with impressive style and vigor. --David Hurwitz

Price: 85 USD

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

End Time: 2024-12-30T18:28:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD