Jimin Oh-Havenith - Variations - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This new recording by Jimin Oh-Havenith presents three of Beethoven's most famous, beautiful, but also most demanding piano sonatas. In addition to the dramatic F minor Sonata, Op. 57 ('Appassionata'), the pianist plays the late Sonatas in E major, Op. 109, and C minor, Op. 111, the last of the 32 piano sonatas. The exploration and crossing of boundaries can be seen as a central motif in Beethoven's compositions in general, and in his piano music in particular. While the variation movement in the 'Appassionata' is flanked by rugged outer movements and the ending is a lively dance, Opp. 109 and 111 close with extended, expressive variation movements. In the finale of Op. 109 and in the simple, yet rapturously poignant Arietta of Op. 111 with the metamorphoses in it's five variations, Beethoven enters uncharted territory. Here, Beethoven not only reaches expressive extremes, but also challenges his instrument the keyboard range is stretched to the limit. The listener experiences the end of the C minor Sonata as a farewell to the world and to the genre of the sonata itself, but also as a beginning of something new and unknown. Jimin Oh-Havenith's interpretation convinces through carefully chosen tempi, which facilitate a vivid and transparent presentation of the thematic structures and internal developments. The clarity and expressiveness of her playing provides an immediate experience of Beethoven's inexhaustible imaginative power and the transformation of the poetic idea.

The music of the Yorkshire-born Arnold Cooke (1906-2005) - inventively contrapuntal, lyrical and energetic in turns - does not deserve the neglect it suffered even in it's composer's lifetime. This second album of two presenting all five of Cooke's string quartets underlines his reputation for resourceful craftsmanship, presented in a style which sits downstream from Hindemith, with whom he studied in Berlin, and from Bartok. There is also a surprisingly strong dance element in all three works heard here, though tempered, even in their lighter moments, by something of the emotional reticence of Britten's quartets.

Jimin Oh-Havenith's third album album for audite - following her recordings of great classical and romantic piano sonatas (Schubert, Liszt / Beethoven) - is dedicated to a completely different aspect in the immense world of piano music different formats, such as a theme for variations, single sonata movements, the etude, the character piece and the free piece. These works span 250 years, from the early eighteenth century until 1976, comprising the baroque, classical, romantic, modern and post-modern styles. Pieces familiar to every piano student, such as Bach's C major Prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier, the Turkish March from Mozart's Piano Sonata in A major, K. 331, and Beethoven's Für Elise, are contrasted with virtuoso works such as Liszt's Etude La campanella, Ravel's Jeux d'eau and - with a nod towards the New World - Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Le bananier. There is, of course, a programmatic structure connecting these 21 pieces to one another, hinted at by the title of the album, known / now well-known and world-famous pieces on the one hand, and more obscure, though no less original, works on the other, creating a dialogue. Illuminating and informing each other, they gain aesthetic presence in Jimin Oh-Havenith's sensitive interpretations.