This album features a fabulous recording of Beethoven’s often overlooked 6 bagatelles, performed by the great pianist Yevgeny Subdin. These little pieces give the listener a full serving of Beethoven’s deep musical approach. Ludwig van Beethoven was far more avant garde, experimental, and progressive than many listeners realize. All of his music, but in particular his piano music and string quartets, pushed boundaries and stretched the ears and minds of the listeners of his time.
These six bagatelles give an image of Beethoven’s intense creativity, his lyrical melodies, his inventive harmonic progressions, and his often sudden and violent outbursts of new or unexpected musical material.
Beethoven was famous for heavily revising his works time and time again in the composition process – wrestling with his creative mind to weave passionate musical ideas together into one cohesive piece of music.
The direct result of this labor is the emotional depth of Beethoven’s music – we can all hear the internal struggle going on. This is particularly evident in these pieces, and much of Beethoven’s other works written later in his life. When you’ve finished listening to Beethoven (be it a bagatelle, a sonata, or a symphony), you feel satisfied and complete - as if you’ve accomplished something.