Beethoven Trilogy 2: Childhood (2021)

Part of a trilogy of albums by pianist See Siang Wong covering little-known Beethoven works from various perspectives, this release features Beethoven piano works mostly from the 1780s, the composer's teenage years. Beethoven wasn't a child prodigy like Mozart, and the works heard here aren't often played, the general perception being that he didn't hit his stride until his mid-20s. The most common of them is probably the Piano Concerto in E flat major, WoO 4, of 1784, which survives only in a piano score with orchestral ... Read More

Part of a trilogy of albums by pianist See Siang Wong covering little-known Beethoven works from various perspectives, this release features Beethoven piano works mostly from the 1780s, the composer's teenage years. Beethoven wasn't a child prodigy like Mozart, and the works heard here aren't often played, the general perception being that he didn't hit his stride until his mid-20s. The most common of them is probably the Piano Concerto in E flat major, WoO 4, of 1784, which survives only in a piano score with orchestral cues; that work is heard here in a completion by fortepianist Ronald Brautigam. It's a relatively competent student essay in the Classical concerto style, but here, Wong makes a strong case for Beethoven's early solo piano music, which turns out to be more distinctive. The highlights are the three so-called Kurfürstensonaten of WoO 47, begun when Beethoven was 12; they are just about pure Beethoven, serious and formally free. Consider the first movement of the F minor sonata, with its... Read Less