This second movement of 'String Quartet 2' includes 3 complete iterations of the tune from Donegal known as 'She Moved Through the Fair,' as well as variations and echoes of the tune in other passages.

String Quartet 2 (Ó Éirinn), Mvt 2, 'Cinniúnach' (Tragic) 'She Moved through the Fair' (Completed)

A feeling of freedom and motion through the air.  Syncopated piano theme with various short excursions woven around returns of the theme (or partial returns - and in different keys, like Baroque ritornelli) then a final da capo.  Watch out for the bumpy landing.

Gliding

This performance was relatively unrehearsed, returning to the piece after not playing it for many months. It embodies my take on Beethoven's 'Impassioned Style' as recalled by Czerny.  It also takes account of Czerny's precise instruction that a rit. starts as early as bar 4 (!) and that 'con espressione' is invariably an invitation to play slower, with feeling (Schnabel's edition also bears witness to this in his subtle metronome changes at this point). Not only this but Czerny talks about how emphatic Beethoven's musical rhetoric was, in other pieces pausing on notes in a way that perhaps comes from C.P.E. Bach (there is probably a direct line from there via Czerny to Liszt who was known for this style of rubato).   At the very least this to my mind is a plausible mid-19th-century interpretation.

Beethoven: Op.2 No.1 Allegro

One of the most beautiful Adagios ever written by anyone.

Beethoven Op.2 No.1 (ii)Adagio

Somewhere between a 9/8 jig and a folk tale for piano (2011 revised 2023)

The Spinning Wheel

02 Impromptu In G - Flat Major D. 899 F. Schubert

Franz Schubert - Impromptu in G flat major op.90 No.3
Sofja Gülbadamova (piano)

Franz Schubert - Impromptu Ges-Dur op.90 Nr.3

Radio Recital by Maureen Challinor (1952)

Schubert Impromptu G flat

One of the cantabile gems of his output, played here on a Steinway D.

An Ivory Winter

Yearning (Scarlatti: Sonata In B Minor)

L'isle joyeuse, L. 106 (The Joyful Island) is a solo piano piece composed by Claude Debussy in 1904

Beethoven: Op.2 No.1 Allegro

Charles Tebbs

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