Olivier Cavé HAYDN - BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas

Ludwig van Beethoven was just twenty years old when he first met Joseph Haydn, in 1790. Two years later, the young composer joined the Viennese master’s numerous pupils. But, weary of his teacher’s frequent absences and stung by his criticisms, he soon broke off his lessons, declaring bitterly some years later ‘I never learnt anything from Haydn’. It is this distance, this difference of style and ambition between Beethoven and his former teacher that are to be heard in this new recording by Olivier Cavé, the award-winning Swiss pianist who is a regular guest at the leading festivals. Whereas Haydn’s Sonata Hob. XVI:32 (1776) aims for a classical but vigorous style, Hob.XVI:48, composed only four years later, is more subdued and academic. Beethoven sought to break with this classicism, allowing himself greater expressive scope and replacing the traditional third-movement minuet with a scherzo in his Sonata no.2, a clear sign of his revolutionary spirit.

Olivier Cavé JOSEPH HAYDN - DOMENICO SCARLATTI Chiaro e Scuro

 

The booklet for this release on France's Outhere label devotes considerable space to trying to demonstrate that Joseph Haydn might have known the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. The argument isn't implausible-several of the paths lead through the opera librettist Pietro Metastasio, who threw work the young Haydn's way and apparently had a collection of Scarlatti pieces-but it's at least partly irrelevant. There may be a "shared artistic sensibility" between Scarlatti and Haydn, based on a certain bent toward the unexpected, but in terms of technical structure the analogy doesn't hold up: Scarlatti uses two-part texture because that was a common way of writing keyboard music in the Baroque, while Haydn uses it because he was writing technically simple music for pianists of modest means, including himself. The Scarlatti sonatas interspersed among the multi-movement Haydn pieces on the album come off not as manifestations of a shared sensibility but as brilliant virtuoso pieces juxtaposed with placid, even if inventive, Classical ones. All this said, the performances by French pianist Olivier Cavé are sharp, and the contrast is an unusual one, effectively carrying something of the great shift from Baroque to Classical sensibilities. The Haydn sonatas are early pieces (one called a Divertimento, another a Partita), and Cavé is among the pianists who are finding striking things in the keyboard music of the first part of Haydn's career by applying a modicum of seriousness to the music. The excellent studio sound from the Bremen Sendesaal is a major attraction. Recommended for sheer novelty and for some great music that's not so often played. (James Manheim)

Olivier Cavé / Divertissement / Rinaldo Alessandrini MOZART Piano Concertos K. 415, 175, 503

Having studied under Nelson Goerner, Maria Tipo and Aldo Ciccolini, Olivier Cavé gave his first concert with the Camerata Lysy under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin in September of 1991. He performed as a soloist in recitals and with orchestra throughout Europe.

His career took a turn in September 2008 upon the release of a first recording for Aeon, which features sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. Critics across Europe praised the Swiss pianist with Neapolitan roots for having returned to the source. Dedicated to Muzio Clementi, Cavé’s second recording is even more striking than his first. Released in the autumn of 2010, the CD was given a 5 Diapason rating, 4 Stars from Classica and the highest award from the Japanese magazine Geijutsu Records. This success also led to invitations to perform at prestigious locations throughout the world, such as the Teatro Olimpico in Rome, the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Phillips Collection in Washington.

His tour along the American eastern seaboard, during which he presented a program entitled “Il Pianoforte Italiano” and gave master classes at Duke and West Virginia Universities, was a success and preceded his debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in February 2012 under the direction of Rinaldo Alessandrini, where the pianist was praised as a “model of refinement behind the keyboard”. The performances drew wide attention from both public and press.

In August 2012, Olivier Cavé made a remarkable debut at La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival in France. He released his third disc with Aeon in May 2013, dedicated the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and entitled, ‘Concerti, Capriccio e Aria - Nel gusto italiano,’ a program which the pianist interpreted this year at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice. Cavé made a second appearance at La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival this summer where he was hailed as “a revelation of the 33rd edition”, after which he debuted with the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in August.