Offering Beethoven's first three sonatas for violin and piano plus the little Rondo in G major, WoO 41, as an encore, this third entry in the complete cycle by historical-performance violinist Hiro Kurosaki and fortepianist Linda Nicholson provides a good introduction to the qualities a listener can expect when hearing Beethoven on the instruments he himself would have imagined. Kurosaki uses an Italian violin from around 1700 with a south German bow from about 1780, "producing a mellow sound," the booklet claims, "that ...
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Offering Beethoven's first three sonatas for violin and piano plus the little Rondo in G major, WoO 41, as an encore, this third entry in the complete cycle by historical-performance violinist Hiro Kurosaki and fortepianist Linda Nicholson provides a good introduction to the qualities a listener can expect when hearing Beethoven on the instruments he himself would have imagined. Kurosaki uses an Italian violin from around 1700 with a south German bow from about 1780, "producing a mellow sound," the booklet claims, "that blends well with the piano's textures." The piano is a Walter instrument, dating perhaps from just before the composition of the three Op. 12. The violin may have a mellow sound compared with other historical instruments, but Kurosaki plays it with a near-total absence of vibrato. Combined with the quick definition of the fortepiano, the effect is to drive the listener's interest toward the passagework in the outer movements and to the harmonic reach contained therein. Encountering...
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