Some disc projects – and not the least attractive – are born of an encounter. This 3 CD-box, the first presenting the complete Beethoven sonatas on period instruments, belongs to these. Jorja Fleezanis is a celebrated soloist on the modern violin – she gave the first performance of John Adams’ violin Concerto, a.o. –, a distinguished teacher, the concertmeister of the outstanding Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and is passionate about period instruments. The pianist Cyril Huvé, a French recitalist teaching at Paris Conservatoire, was a pupil of Claudio Arrau and makes a speciality of pianoforte performances. They met thanks to Roger Norrington ten years ago, and soon a real complicity arose between the two interpreters, devoting themselves to Beethoven’s promethean figure. So they arrived to the point of giving the integral sonatas in the United States (thanks to the prestigious Schubert-Club in Minneapolis) and in France (Chaise-Dieu Festival). These recordings, made in 2003 in the little theatre of the castle in Valençay, are an exciting testimony of this artistic encounter: here is a version where the pianoforte, Beethoven’s own instrument, claims for its own rights and duties, in an thrilling dialog with a strong and together light violin. The box is sold at a very gentle price!

DDD
Text by Michael Steinberg in English, French and German
Recorded from 26 to 31 May 2003 in the Castle of Valençay (France)
Producer, sound engineer and digital editing: Simon Fox-Gál (Musica Numeris)