Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, John O'Conor :: Beethoven: Bagatelles

Everything but Fur Elise

D. Seymour | Atlanta, GA USA | 03/19/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Let's face it. Beethoven's bagatelles are not the brooding, electric show-pieces as are his sonotas. They are 180 degrees different: delightfully light-hearted and free-spirited. They are so delicate that, except for the technique, you wouldn't think they sprung from the agitated mind of Beethoven. The lovely, but ubiquitous, Fur Elise is not among this set. That's fine with me, but if you like the playful, tender style of Fur Elise, then the 26 pieces found here will be right up your alley. Telarc has always been exceptional when capturing the piano on disc. O'conor's light touch gives the bagatelles the appropriate weight and he breezes through them like the wind through the leaves. This collection is one of my favorite piano recordings. Rather like champagne bubbles, these pieces gently tickle your senses."

Some of Beethoven's Most Interesting Piano Pieces Played Gor

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 10/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Beethoven's piano sonatas loom above all else he wrote for the piano and as a consequence not a lot of attention is paid to his bagatelles, a group of twenty-six short pieces which he wrote over a very long period, the earliest begun in 1783, the last six (Op. 126) in 1824, the last piano pieces he wrote before his final piano work, the Diabelli Variations. The term 'bagatelle', denoting a short piece, was apparently first used by Couperin in 1717. Beethoven's use of the term however is a little surprising, as there was no common use of the term in Austro-German music during his time. But his bagatelles set the stage for one of the most important genres of piano music in the 19th century, the so-called 'character piece', including such things as Mendelssohn's 'Songs Without Words' and Schumann's sets such as 'Kinderszenen'.



Beethoven's bagatelles do not attempt to limn particular scenes or moods, and none has a descriptive title, but each tends nonetheless to convey a general feeling. The first, for instance, is a graceful ABA trifle in E Flat which seems to depict a gentle, even playful, scene. The second is a Scherzo in C major, its first section followed at once by a section in A minor. Its Trio has passages of ascending thirds followed by a final syncopated version of the first material. And so it goes throughout all three sets of bagatelles (Opps 33, 119, 126). Each has its own character, each has its own charms. There are some notable things along the way. For instance, the second of the Op. 119 set has hand-crossing (both right over left, and left over right) à la Scarlatti. The tenth of that set is furiously fast and syncopated, lasting only about twelve seconds! The Op. 126 set, which Beethoven described as 'the best things of that kind' he had ever done, is often played as a unified set and indeed the key relationships and characters of the individual pieces lend themselves to that approach.



I have only recently come to understand what a marvelous player, particularly of Beethoven, that John O'Conor is. His recordings of the complete set of Beethoven sonatas has come in for a lot of praise from cognoscenti. And this set of the Bagatelles is of a piece with that. His playing is subtle, nuanced, and tends to be rather less dramatic than, say, the playing of Stephen Kovacevich in his well-regarded recording of the Bagatelles. My own view is that this is a preferable approach. In addition he is playing a magnificently regulated Hamburg Steinway whose tone is velvety and slightly soft-grained yet perfectly clear. Telarc's engineers have given the disc a limpid and lifelike sound. This is a set to treasure.



Scott Morrison

"

O'conor's Beethoven is Consistent

Henry Schlinger | Los Angeles, CA United States | 03/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"O'conor's Beethoven disks are consistently good. He doesn't overplay the Bagatelles (or the sonatas) but gives them the warmth and richness they deserve. Of course, the Telarc recording and the Hamburg Steinway don't hurt."