This is Volume 1 in the first complete recorded cycle of Barry Cooper’s new edition of Beethoven’s sonatas by one of Britain’s most prolific recitalists, Martin Roscoe.
Roscoe is a versatile musician who flourishes in performance, whether as a concerto soloist, recitalist, or chamber musician. He is an artist who endeavours always to serve the composer and the music. His enduring popularity and solid reputation are built on a deeply thoughtful musicianship which is allied to an easy rapport with audiences and fellow musicians alike.
Roscoe is now recording the complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas for Deux-Elles and this first disc includes the popular Pathétique Sonata, which he calls ‘a work of peculiar intensity and dynamic energy which can still blow away its listeners with its power and freshness… The Pathétique remains a huge thrill to perform: I’d even say I find it much more exciting now than when I first learnt it some thirty-five years ago!’
"...all delivered with Roscoe’s typically scrupulous attention to detail and emotional truth."
"...Roscoe is assured in his shaping of the music, and there is a confident and unvarnished dynamism that reveals a pianist at the top of his game ... Roscoe brings panache, sensitivity and relish to the task, finding pathos, humour and exuberance ..."
"...leading British pianist makes Beethoven speak with tremendous clarity ...[on] this eloguent recording."
"Coloured perhaps by a personal fondness for Op.10, I think Roscoe’s way with them is nigh-on perfect ... I urge you to especially hear his handling of the C minor Sonata’s ’Adagio’ a heartbreaking cry of regret that only a refined pianist with the wisdom of experience could bring off quite as well as this."
"These are thoroughly musical performances, with particularly fine accounts of the slow movements ... a welcome addition."
