“Melodiya” paid tribute to the memory of Beethoven on the day of the composer’s anniversary

“Melodiya” record firm celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven – December 16, 2020 – with the release of three digital albums by the renowned composer. These included all the piano concertos as well as the “triple” concerto; all sonatas for cello and piano (recorded in 2020); fragments from symphonies, sonatas, concerts, chamber instrumental ensembles, overtures, songs and pieces for piano (total playing time – eight hours).

The albums also include piano concerts (recorded in 1958–1988, remastered in 2020) performed by the greatest Soviet pianists of the 20th century: Svyatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Maria Grinberg, Rudolf Kerer and Bella Davidovich. The cello sonatas were recorded in 2020 specially for the Beethoven anniversary by Russian cellist Alexander Zagorinsky and Norwegian pianist Einar Steen-Nockleberg. The eight-hour album (recorded in 1958–2019, remastered in 2020) is composed of 50 tracks: parts of symphonies, concerts, piano sonatas, quartets and other chamber instrumental opuses; overtures, songs, piano bagatelle, fragments of the “Solemn Mass”. Many of the works from this album were released only in Soviet times on vinyl. Particular attention is to be paid to the concert recording of the Ninth Symphony (with a concluding chorus on an ode to F. Schiller “To Joy”) performed by Tamara Milashkina, Elena Obraztsova, Alexey Maslennikov, Yevgeny Nesterenko, the Bolshoi Theater Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yuri Simonov. In the section of piano music (from the popular piece “Für Elise” to pieces of large form – sonatas and 32 variations), there are interpretations of Svyatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Van Cliburn; among them is the representative of the modern piano school Andrey Gugnin.

In addition, the collection contains recordings of Beethoven’s works performed by David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Vadim Repin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Elena Obraztsova, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Herbert von Karayan, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Rudolf Barshai, Neeme Yarvi, Yuri Simonov, – and these are not all the performers of the eight-hour album. The editors of the program presented some compositions in several versions: for example, fragments of the Fifth Symphony are conducted by Herbert von Karajan and Yevgeny Svetlanov. The albums are available on all digital platforms.