The Beethoven Connection Vol.1
Wölfl: Piano Sonata op.33 no.3
Clementi: Piano Sonata op.50 no.1
Hummel: Piano Sonata No.3
Dussek: Piano Sonata No.24
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano) (Chandos)
(scroll down for Engligh review)
Bavouzet在Chandos一早錄了貝多芬鋼琴奏鳴曲全集，貝多芬年他除了推出鋼琴協奏曲全集，去年頭他推出這張「Beethoven Connection」，我都不知怎翻譯這個詞，總之就是排出四位貝多芬同期的作曲家，這張叫做第一集，希望會出下去。
我認為單是對貝多芬有興趣，不一定是Bavouzet演奏這些作曲家的動機，彈貝多芬的人多不勝數，會奏這些作曲家的寥寥可數。貝多芬走得很前，同期者根本跟不上，反而較接近後期的海頓。Bavouzet對上一個系列就是海頓鋼琴奏鳴曲，錄了八張。
四首作品大約在1805年前後創作，當時貝多芬已寫了他三分二的鋼琴奏鳴曲了。Bavouzet將最古典的作品放最前，風格上最大膽的放最後。於是第一首的Wölfl，我聽來就是海頓的晚期風格，工整得來但又沒有海頓的純樸。排第二的Clementi卻頗為賣弄鋼琴技巧，感覺很俗，但從認識鋼琴演奏風格的角度來看，他作為「鋼琴之父」不是浪得虛名，鋼琴音樂的idiom，你說是「招式」又好、「花式」都好，Clementi真的起了關鍵作用。
之後的Hummel及Dussek我就較為欣賞，前者的名字，資歷高一點的樂迷或音樂學生不會陌生，但未必怎聽過他的作品。這首作品絕非庸作（音樂史上庸作多的是），旋律不俗，只是我們的耳朵聽慣經典而已。
Dussek則在近年逐漸多人錄他的作品，例如Alexei Lubimov。他這首作品只有兩個樂章，但巧妙在第一樂章將慢板及快板結合，慢板部份可不是個引子，而是一個真正的慢板，快板則帶着激動情緒，兩者加起來就結合出悲慟之情，因為此曲是寫來悼念一位戰死的貴族：他老闆。
就如我先前想說，不應對這種「貝多芬及同期作曲家」錄音期望過高，貝多芬和別人相近就不是貝多芬。不過此碟一半遠遜貝多芬、一半可以見得人，算是理想比例了。
Bavouvet already did a Beethoven sonata cycle on Chandos. For the Beethoven year he released the concerto cycle but earlier that year he had this “Beethoven Connection Volume One” showcasing four contemporaries of Beethoven.
I don’t believe the love for Beethoven is all it took for him to start this project. Countless pianists play Beethoven but next to none play these composers. Beethoven was simply a league of his own and his contemporaries were probably closer to the late style of Haydn. Bavouzet’s previous series on Chandos turned out to be an eight-disc survey of Haydn piano sonatas.
The four works on this disc were written around 1805. Bavouzet started with the most classical, culminating in the most forward-looking. Wölfl’s sonata, the disc opener, is as neat as Haydn but without the old master’s elegance. The Clementi, on the contrary, is full of piano gymnastics. But it is still educating to see why Clementi is regarded as “the father of the pianoforte”, establishing the idiom of piano writing in the wake of Viennese classicism.
I do like the Hummel and Dussek, music history has an abundance of mediocre pieces and these surely aren’t mediocre. Hummel is no stranger to the more advanced music lover but we seem to forget to listen to his works. This sonata is very well crafted, it’s just that our ears have been raised on the timeless.
Dussek is making a comeback on disc these days, championed by mavericks such as Alexei Lubimov. This sonata has only two movements, the first one combining an adagio with an allegro. No, the adagio isn’t an introduction but a full-blown one. The funereal adagio is a perfect match with the agitated allegro, with this movement Dussek was lamenting his boss who just got killed in the battlefield.
As I said, no one should expect too much of these composers. After all, what makes us love Beethoven precisely sets him apart from his times.