Listeners may be wondering which Beethoven works for guitar and piano are referred to in the title of this release by the husband-and-wife team of guitarist Franz Halász and pianist Débora Halász, who have performed often as the Halász Duo. Beethoven wrote nothing for the guitar. He did compose several works for the mandolin, however, all of which are included here in transcriptions for guitar and piano by Débora Halász. The program is filled out with variation sets and other early Beethoven works transcribed in the same ...
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Listeners may be wondering which Beethoven works for guitar and piano are referred to in the title of this release by the husband-and-wife team of guitarist Franz Halász and pianist Débora Halász, who have performed often as the Halász Duo. Beethoven wrote nothing for the guitar. He did compose several works for the mandolin, however, all of which are included here in transcriptions for guitar and piano by Débora Halász. The program is filled out with variation sets and other early Beethoven works transcribed in the same way. The mandolin pieces are pretty rare themselves, and even rarer are the Five Pieces for mechanical clock, WoO 33. One work, the 12 Variations on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen," Op. 66, was transcribed not by Halász but by Ferdinando Carulli, an Italian guitarist of the period, and this indeed suggests that the Duo Halász was not going far beyond what would have been expected in Beethoven's time. The mechanical clock pieces lose the strange sound that would have been their primary...
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