Piano Sonata in B minor, Op.5
1. I.Allegro molto appassionat
2. II.Adagio cantabile
3. lll.Scherzo. Presto – Trio. Un poco più lento
4. IV.Finale. Allegretto vivo
Five Piano Pieces, Op. 3
5. No. 1: Andante
6. No. 2: Allegro vivace scherzando
7. No. 3: Largo
8. No. 4: Allegro molto
9. No. 5: Allegro marcatissimo
Stimmungsbilder (Mood Paintings), Op. 9
10. Auf stillem Waldespfad (In silent forests)
11. An einsamer Quelle (At the spring)
12. Intermezzo
13. Träumerei (Reverie)
14. Heidebild (The Heath)
Richard Strauss Piano Music ©
by Kim E. Sommerschield
“They are minor miracles: as refined, as polished, as anything Mendelssohn did in his teenage years”.
Perhaps not everyone would concur with these descriptions of Richard Strauss’piano works Opp. 3 and 5 by that inveterate provocateur Glenn Gould in an interview given shortly before his death in 1982 (the Sonata Op. 5 was indeed the last work the pianist ever recorded). And others still might demur when Gould claims that “with the exception of Mendelssohn, no
sixteen-year-old has ever written with such craft and assurance and I am not forgetting Mozart ” (his italics).
Still, Gould the performer had an uncanny ability to make second-rate music sound first rate, and as someone who labelled himself “an incurabie romantic” it was natural that he nurtured a particular affection for Strauss’ piano compositions.
RELEASE DATE: August 1997
CATALOGUE NUMBER.: DACOCD 440
EAN: 5709499440001
