Martin Helmchen

Frank Peter Zimmermann & Martin Helmchen – Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 8 – 10 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:55 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BnF Collection

Previous instalments of the Beethoven sonata cycle from Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen have met with wide acclaim. Described as ‘conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ in BBC Music Magazine, the discs have received a Choc in Classica and the recommendation of German website klassik.com, respectively. This the third and final volume brings together Beethoven’s last three works in the genre, composed between 1801 and 1812. The centre-piece is the ninth sonata, the famed ‘Kreutzer Sonata’. The title page of the first edition described the sonata as ‘written in a highly concertante style’ and it does indeed surpass everything that had previously been written in the genre, in terms of scale as well as technical and compositional complexity.

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Frank Peter Zimmermann & Martin Helmchen – Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5-7 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:15 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

2020 saw the release of the first instalment in this three-album traversal of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas – a recording that has garnered many distinctions. As Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen open the second step, they do so with the iconic “Spring” Sonata, Op. 24. Completed in 1801, the work proved immediately popular with a second edition appearing only months after the first publication. There were also numerous arrangements for a variety of forces – including a song based on motifs from the sonata’s slow movement.

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