Description:

The first recording of Tetzlaff's Beethoven sonatas. The three pieces selected for this anniversary year show Tetzlaff's empathy for the "human Beethoven. Tetzlaff's repertoire is centered on German music from Bach to Brahms, and he has recorded Beethoven's violin concertos three times, but until this recording, there had been no recording of his violin sonatas. The repertoire chosen for the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth is not "Spring," "Kreutzer," or No. 10, but the three pieces from Op. 30. Tetzlaff, in his commentary on the original recording, says that although Beethoven is often associated with heroism and the struggle and triumph from darkness to light in his Symphonies No. 3 and No. 5, he actually had a sense of humor as well as folksy sorrow and joy, and that he felt that the Op. 30 depicted various aspects of his mind in a life-sized manner, which deepened his sympathy. The reason for the selection of this piece is that he felt that the various aspects of his heart were portrayed in a life-size manner in this work. (C)RS