Search - Thomas Sauer :: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op.31: Sonata No.16, Sonata No.17 The Tempest, Sonata No.18

After publishing the three Piano Sonatas Op. 31 his seventh collection of three instrumental works Beethoven issued just one more such grouping, the three String Quartets Op. 59. Since the beginning of instrumental music publishing in the first years of the eighteenth century, it had been commonplace to present works in groups of twelve, six, and later three. Why did Beethoven stray from this practice? While he undoubtedly earned more money selling single works to publishers, he may ultimately have been destined to change prevailing market practices for artistic reasons. Present already in the three Piano Trios Op. 1 and amply evident in the sonatas on this disc is Beethoven s tendency to differentiate character and rhetoric especially strongly in works that he composed concurrently. In this connection, Charles Rosen is undoubtedly on the mark when he characterizes the three sonatas of Op. 31 in turn as comic, tragic and lyric. American pianist Thomas Sauer is highly sought after as soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Sauer s recent appearances include concerto performances with the Quad-City Symphony and Greenwich Village Orchestra; solo-recital performances at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), Merkin Concert Hall, Rockefeller University, and St. John s College, Oxford; appearances on Broadway as the pianist in 33 Variations, a play about Beethoven s Diabelli Variations; and performances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. With his long-time duo partner Colin Carr, Sauer has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Holywell Music Room in Oxford, the Musikgebouw in Amsterdam, Bargemusic in New York and at Princeton University, among others. He has also given duo recitals with Midori at the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, performed with members of the Juilliard String Quartet at the Library of Congress and given numerous concerts with the Brentano String Quartet. Sauer has performed at many of the leading festivals in the United States and abroad, including Marlboro, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, El Paso Pro Musica, and the Chamber Music Festivals of Seattle, Taos, Four Seasons in North Carolina, Portland and Salt Bay in Maine, as well as Lake District Summer Music in the UK and Festival des Consonances in France. In recent seasons, Sauer has premiered works by Philippe Bodin, Robert Cuckson, Sebastian Currier, Keith Fitch, David Loeb, Donald Martino and David Tcimpidis. His varied discography includes Haydn piano sonatas (MSR), Hindemith sonatas with violist Misha Amory (MHS), Britten and Schnittke with cellist Wilhelmina Smith (Arabesque), music of Ross Lee Finney with violinist Miranda Cuckson (Centaur) and Mozart violin sonatas with Aaron Berofsky (Blue Griffin). Currently a member of Vassar College s music faculty and Mannes College s piano faculty, Sauer is the founder and director of the Mannes Beethoven Institute. His major teachers included Jorge Bolet, Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter.