Help Shuann Chai – fortepiano & Shunske Sato – viool, alle 10 Beethoven Sonatas op CD te zetten!

Twee ons zeer dierbare muzikale vrienden, fortepianiste Shuann Chai (vele malen opgetreden op het Geelvinck podium) en violist Shunske Sato (All of Bach Channel, Concerto Köln etc.) hebben een groots en ambitieus project voor ogen: het opnemen van alle TIEN Beethoven Sonatas voor viool en piano.

Voor de Kunst: alle 10 Beethoven Sonatas op CD

Wij willen deze twee topmusici van wereldfaam helpen, hun droom te verwezenlijken door hier hun crowdfunding project onder zo breed mogelijke aandacht te brengen. Er is al een substantieel deel van het benodigde geld bijeengebracht; ze zijn ruim over de helft! Nu resten er nog enige dagen om de actie op het ‘Voor de Kunst’ platform tot een goed einde te brengen. Klik hier voor de link!

Lees de overtuigende redenen, die Shuann en Shunske op hun eigen humorvolle wijze aanvoeren, waarom deze set CD’s er MOET komen:

Another recording of the Beethoven violin sonatas? For goodness’ sake, why?

Because, as far as we can tell, there isn’t a Beethoven sonata set that sounds like ours.

We have spent an inordinate amount of time delving into historical sources and old recordings, and playing the pieces themselves to make them truly our own. Thankfully, there is ample information to be found about Beethoven, his life and music – from his aesthetics and personality to his standards of hygiene. Our conclusion is that his music is as full of contradictions as he was: boundary-challenging, improvisatory, tightly constructed, whimsical, earthy, intense, sincere and confronting. This is what we wanted our Beethoven sonatas to become.

These pieces have occupied a special place on our music stands for a very long time – in fact, the Kreutzer sonata (Op. 47) was the very first piece we ever played together (and may therefore be responsible for the fact that we eventually got married…). The motivation to record the complete sonatas arose when we played them all as a mini-marathon in concert for the first time. While preparing, we were unsure if both we and the audience would survive – it is 10 sonatas after all, totalling about 220 minutes of music. It turned out to be a worthy endeavor: not only did we survive, but we also got tremendously positive feedback. Making this recording, we thought, would allow us to share “our” Beethoven with even more people.

The first four recording days out of 12 are already behind us, and we’re already thrilled about some of the takes that we have put into the “can” . To finish it however, we need financial help… quite badly!