Sterkel: Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin Els Biesemans & Meret Lüthi

• Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750 - 1817): Sonata in F Major, Op. 33 No. 1, StWV 198:
• 1 Sonata in F Major, Op. 33 No. 1, StWV 198: I. Allegro 11:10
• 2 Sonata in F Major, Op. 33 No. 1, StWV 198: II. Andante con variazioni 09:26
• Fantasia in A Minor, Op. 45, StWV 226:
• 3 Fantasia in A Minor, Op. 45, StWV 226: Andante con un poco di moto ma con grazia ed espressione 06:57
• Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op. 25, StWV 194:
• 4 Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op. 25, StWV 194: I. Allegro cantabile 13:14
• 5 Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op. 25, StWV 194: II. Cantabile 06:49
• 6 Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op. 25, StWV 194: III. Allegro cantabile 06:51
• Romance in F Major, Op. 24 No. 3, StWV 219:
• 7 Romance in F Major, Op. 24 No. 3, StWV 219: Andantino 02:47
• Sonata in A Major, Op. 33 No. 3, StWV 198:
• 8 Sonata in A Major, Op. 33 No. 3, StWV 198: I. Allegro 08:55
• 9 Sonata in A Major, Op. 33 No. 3, StWV 198: II. Rondo 08:08
• Total Runtime 01:14:17

Info zu Sterkel: Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin

A once-celebrated contemporary of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and a precursor of Schubert in the domain of the lied, Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750–1817) is today almost unknown to the general public. Given the great success of his symphonies at the Concert Spirituel, he was probably the composer most frequently performed in Paris between 1777 and 1779. This famous and highly influential pianist and composer spent most of his working life at the court of Mainz, where his reputation attracted rising young talents like Beethoven and Weber, and wrote more than 700 works, including 400 German and Italian songs. Els Biesemans and Meret Lüthi present a world premiere recording of some of his sonatas for fortepiano and violin, utterly disarming in their charm, inventiveness and refinement.

Els Biesemans, fortepiano
Meret Luthi, violin

Els Biesemans
was born in Antwerp in 1978, and studied piano, organ and chamber music at the Belgian Conservatory in Leuven. In 2001 she was awarded a Master of Music with Honours. In 2005 Andrea Marcon, recognizing that she was a great artist, invited her to continue her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis where she specialized in 18th- and 19th-century keyboard music under Jesper Christensen. ​

Her love of period instruments emerged at an early age. She began playing the organ at seven and soon learned to adapt to new instruments and changing acoustic conditions. She developed a deep relationship with instruments built to withstand the test of time and to outlast many generations. This experience sharpened her ear and laid the foundations for a lively, complex keyboard technique that is essential for playing period instruments. ​

Els Biesemans has won countless international competitions in Bruges, Paris, Prague, Tokyo and Montreal, winning the Ciurlionis Competition in Vilnius and the ‘Arp Schnitger’ competition in Bremen. She has performed as a solo artist all over Europe, in the U.S., Canada and Japan and has regularly appeared on stage in concert halls such as the Philharmonie Berlin, the Philharmonie Essen, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Salle Philharmonique Liège, the BOZAR in Brussel and AMUZ in Antwerp, Philharmonie Ekaterinburg and Omsk, Maison de la Radio France in Paris and in the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao.

Her musical partners include the singers Julian Prégardien, Christian Immler, violin players Chouchane Siranossian and Mayumi Harasaki, as well as the orchestra La Cetra, conducted by Andrea Marcon.

Together with her Ensemble Elsewhere, Els Biesemans has continuously expanded her repertoire, focusing in particular on music that has sunk into oblivion. Her love for forgotten music inspired the first-ever recording on CD of Franz Xaver Sterkel’s violin and piano sonatas (released in 2017).

An overwhelmingly positive press response greeted her CD recordings of Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn’s «Das Jahr» piano suite (issued by Genuin in 2012) and of the Liszt transcriptions of Franz Schubert’s «Winterreise» song cycle (issued by Genuin in 2014), pieces that she played for the first time ever on a period piano. Further recordings of symphonic organ music such as the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé round off her discography.

Els Biesemans often plays her own instruments during her concert tours. Her private collection includes a Brodmann grand (c. 1825), an 1836 Pleyel grand, a square piano from 1851 by Pleyel as well as a reproduction of an early Viennese piano (1805) built by Paul McNulty. She lives with her family of instruments in Zurich where she founded a fortepiano festival called “Flügelschläge”, directing it with great dedication.

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