Haydn: Piano Sonatas

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Haydn: Piano Sonatas

Binding: Audio CD
Published: 2007-04-10

$20.98

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Haydn: Piano Sonatas

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Haydn Meets the 21rst Century:

I can't quit listening to these performances. I love them.
It is very interesting to read so many divergent reviews. That tells you something about the performance; and it is this: These are Sonatas by Marc-Andre Hamelin, based, note for note, on Haydn. And that's the kind of playing some will like very much and some will equally dislike. Glenn Gould, more than any other pianist, typified this sort of interpretation. At the extreme were his interpretations of Mozart and the late Beethoven sonatas. I... more info

Cardboard, dinky, and silly:

Mr. Grabowski wrote a decent review (September 18, 2007) of this CD. Except that I think both his comments and rating were a little too kind. This playing is vapid, senseless, and just plain silly in the extreme.
The tempos are so fast as to be downright silly. The reviewer who commented that there was no limit to presto doesn't seem to understand the classic-period definition of the term: to indicate a division of two beats per measure (whether 6/8, 2/4, etc.) in a fast movement. A presto in a Haydn... more info

Gorgeous playing:

I can't believe the negative reviews here - I'm so glad I was not swayed by them. This CD is GORGEOUS. Elegance, humor, finesse, sensitivity, style, virtuosity, sense of form... it's all here. The slow movements are breathtakingly and achingly beautiful. I think Haydn's piano sonatas are sorely underrated - listen to these and hear why.

Exquisite Haydn:

For the life of me I cannot understand the reviews of these cds that claim Hamelin plays them too fast and mechanically. What exactly is too fast here? The slow movements and minuets are played, if anything, a little slower than usual. As for the finales, most of them are marked presto. How exactly do you play a presto movement too fast? I suppose they're referring to the opening movements, some of which are faster than usual. But what difference does a little extra speed make when it is balanced by such... more info

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