Tuesday 11 May 2010

Beethoven - Violin Sonata 9 [Nishizaki/ Jando]

Takako Nishizaki is Japanese, she's married to the Naxos Record Label owner, so it's probably been easy for her to get some recordings, her Beethoven Sonatas are very good, and even though i'm a bit adverse to the Naxos label, this is one of the better issues the company have released.

The booklet cover is extremely poor, Naxos have a knack of creating uninspiring covers, maybe they should win an award for their lack of creativity [this is the main reason i try to steer clear of Naxos].

Again the second movement variations are endlessly entertaining, and i have written timings for the variations on the back of the inlay tray, i just love so much the coda at the end [12:58+], such sublime playing, fun and virtuosity are put aside for something more deeper, more serious, it's that bittersweetness that gets me, Beethoven is so skillful at bringing out such an emotion, a lovely set of variations.

Here's Rachel Barton Pine playing the second half of these variations on YouTube, including the coda passage mentioned above, starting at 3:11.

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