Wilhelm Backhaus

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 111

• Maestoso - Allegro con brio ed appassionato

• Arietta. Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile

Recorded in March 1954.

Wilhelm Backhaus

Born Leipzig 1884, died Villach, Austria 1969. Began studying in 1891 at the Leipzig conservatoire with Alois Reckendorf, later with Eugen d’Albert in Frankfurt. Met Brahms in 1895. Public début in London, 1900. Played Brahms’ B flat major Concerto under Hans Richter, 1902. Won the Rubinstein competition in Paris in 1905 (Bartók was a runner-up). Temporarily interrupted his performing career, to teach at the Royal College of Music in Manchester. First complete gramophone recording ever of a piano concerto (Grieg), 1910. Career as a concert pianist lasting decades, with many international tours. His recording career stretched from the phonograph to the age of the stereo LP. Settled in Lugano after the Second World War. In 1953 he was awarded the Bösendorfer Ring of Vienna. Active in the concert hall and the recording studio until a great age. Backhaus devoted himself primarily to the German Romantic repertory and is ranked as an outstanding exponent of Beethoven’s piano works. Unlike other important pianists he did not found a “school”.

Contents of CD 1

Ludwig van Beethoven:

• Piano Sonata Op. 13 “Pathétique”

• Piano Sonata Op. 31 n. 2 “Tempest”

• Piano Sonata Op. 81a “Das Lebewohl”

• Piano Sonata Op. 111

Contents of CD 2

Ludwig van Beethoven:

• Piano Sonatina Op. 79

Franz Schubert:

• Impromptu D 935 n. 2

Robert Schumann:

• Warum? (Fantasiesthucke Op. 12 n. 3)

Franz Liszt:

• Soirées de Vienne. Valse caprice n. 6

Frédéric Chopin:

• Etude Op. 25 n. 2

Johannes Brahms:

• Klavierstuecke Op. 119 n. 3

• Piano Concerto Op. 83