Joseph Woelfl: Piano Music, Volume One
Joseph Woelfl (1773–1812), a friend of the Mozart family from childhood, was one of the best-known musicians of his day: he was regarded as a rival of Beethoven in Vienna and a worthy successor to Haydn in the musical life of London. His late-Classical piano music sits between Mozart, Haydn and Clementi and looks forward to Schubert and Mendelssohn. This first-ever project to examine it in any detail hopes to rescue Woelfl’s once starry reputation from the folds of history.
Adalberto Maria Riva, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Sonate, précédée d’une Introduction et Fugue, in C minor, WoO 113 (c. 1804)
- I. Introduzione: Adagio
- II. Fuga
- III. Allegro molto
- IV. Adagio
- V. Allegretto
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio
- III. Presto
- I. Allegro
- II. Andante
- III. Allegretto
Piano Sonata in B minor, Op. 38 (1808)*
Piano Sonata in F major, Op. 27, No. 2 (1803)*
*First Recordings
Richard Wigmore :
‘Riva plays this thoroughly agreeable music as affectionately as he writes about it. […]
In sum, a disc of gentle pleasures that whets the appetite for future issues in Riva’s Woelfl pilgrimage.’
—Richard Wigmore, Gramophone
Fanfare Magazine :
“So, in his youth virtually a Mozart family member, Woelfl rivaled Beethoven as a pianist and succeeded Haydn in London. … What one hears in these sonatas is a technically accomplished composer, well able to make a complicated fugue unfold naturally. …despite his technical skills, I am most taken by Woelfl’s lighter and more lyrical moments, when his ease and grace are most in evidence. Then he has a distinctive charm. Riva plays a mellow Bösendorfer on these recordings, and he plays extremely well. …many readers will want to hear this well-played recording of forgotten music.”
—Michael Ullman, Fanfare Magazine
MusicWeb International :
‘Riva is a most sensitive and highly-accomplished player, who crafts his melodic lines with flexibility, thereby allowing the music to breathe at all times. He is very much at one with the demands of Woelfl’s style, and while he has the power of a flagship 9’6” (ca. 290 cm) Bösendorfer Imperial Grand at his disposal, never once does he abuse this, nor does the equally-fine recording ever allow the instrument to exceed the dynamic range as indicated in the score itself.
Riva expresses the hope that this and further recordings of Woelfl’s music, with its original and individual style, will confirm that the composer still deserves today the esteem he enjoyed in his own brief life. On the evidence of this debut CD, there is a real solid case for this, and with the Toccata label’s encouragement and support, it should hopefully not be too long before the next Woelfl CD leaves the presses.’
—Philip R Buttall, MusicWeb International
MusicWeb International :
‘Adalbarto Maria Riva plays with real tonal richness, finding plenty of colour in his well recorded Bosendörfer Imperial. This is a fine inaugural volume to what looks like being an intriguing series.’
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International