Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 109 (Denis Matthews)

Denis Matthews

Happy New Year! For my first post of 2018, I offer the first recording by Denis Matthews of a piano sonata by Beethoven, one of two composers with which he was most closely associated (the other being Mozart):

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109
and
Purcell: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Z. 661
Denis Matthews, piano
Recorded May 15 and 31, 1946
Columbia DX 1509 through DX 1511, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 57.34 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 37.02 MB)

As always, I didn't mean to be away from blogging quite so long! It's true that I haven't been acquiring records lately, certainly not at anything like my old rate, but I haven't been idle with respect to my record hobby - far from it! I was sidetracked, just before Christmas, with the exciting discovery (for me) that two vintage record magazines are now available online from the Internet Archive, both published by the H. Royer Smith Company of Philadelphia - Disques (1930-33) and The New Records (1933-56). (Granted, this is not a complete run of the latter, but it at least takes one well into the mono LP era.) So I have spent most of my free time perusing these. Particularly exciting is the chance to obtain issue dates for American Columbia releases of the early and middle 1930s, information about this period being rather hard to come by. I have updated my three Columbia discographical files to reflect what I have found:

Columbia Masterworks Sets
Columbia Blue Label -D Series
Columbia Celebrity -M Series

For the first two of these, only the information on issue dates has had to be updated, but for the Celebrity Series I have added a few actual titles of whose existence I was previously unaware.

Perhaps some day I will do a series on month-by-month issue dates of Columbia Masterworks sets in the USA.

Happy Birthday, Denis Matthews!

Monday marks the 92nd birth anniversary of the British pianist Denis Matthews, who came to a sad end - he committed suicide on Christmas Day, 1988.  He was most famous for his recordings of Mozart and Beethoven, with at least eight of Mozart's concertos in his discography.  Here is the first of these, made in 1944, when he was in R.A.F. uniform:

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488
Denis Matthews with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by George Weldon
Recorded August 28, 1944
English Columbia DX 1167 through DX 1169, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 64.79 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 27.79 MB)

A little over a year ago, I presented several single discs of Matthews playing solo works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and John Field.  Here is another to add to that collection:

Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in E-Flat minor (Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I)
Denis Matthews, piano
Recorded April 25, 1949
English Columbia DX 1635, one 78-rpm record
Link (FLAC file, 21.54 MB)
Link (MP3 file, 9.66 MB)

According to CHARM, Matthews recorded at least five of the Bach "Well-Tempered Clavier" preludes and fugues, but only this one and the No. 1 in C were actually issued.  Matthews' Bach discography is rather meager, but it does include a fine version of the Triple Concerto in C, BWV 1064, with Edwin Fischer and Ronald Smith, from the Bach anniversary year of 1950, available on an EMI CD.

Denis Matthews in Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven

The British pianist and musicologist Denis Matthews (1919-1988) was most closely associated with the music of the great Viennese Classical masters, especially Mozart and Beethoven.  Perhaps his most famous recording is that of the Beethoven Horn Sonata, made in 1944 with Dennis Brain, both Den(n)ises being in R.A.F. uniform at the session; this has been reissued on a Testament CD along with an equally fine Beethoven Clarinet Trio featuring Matthews, Reginald Kell and Anthony Pini.  But I present here a trio of single 78-rpm records, each featuring a solo piano work by a member of the First Viennese School:

Haydn: Sonata in E, Hob.XVI:31
Recorded April 25, 1949
English Columbia DX 1655, one 78-rpm record

Mozart: Fantasia and Fugue in C, K. 394
Recorded September 16, 1942
English Columbia DX 1095, one 78-rpm record

Beethoven: Rondo in G, Op. 51, No. 2
Recorded April 25, 1949
English Columbia DX 1595, one 78-rpm record

All played by Denis Matthews, pianist
Link (FLAC files, 65.28 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 28.78 MB)

Denis Matthews, along with Myra Hess, Louis Kentner and Frank Merrick, made pioneering recordings of the piano music of John Field.  Last summer, just before starting this blog, I transferred his record of two John Field nocturnes; this is still available, and I have just added FLAC files as well:

John Field: Nocturne in E minor and "Midi" Rondo in E
Denis Matthews, pianist
Recorded June 22, 1945
Columbia 72525-D, one 78-rpm record
Link (FLAC files, 20.18 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 8.23 MB)

At the same time I made available a "John Field Suite" orchestrated by Sir Hamilton Harty, one of whose movements is the same "Midi" Rondo that Matthews recorded.  This is also still available, as are new FLAC files:

Harty: A John Field Suite and
Elgar: Serious Doll (from "Nursery Suite")
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Recorded March 15 and May 7, 1943
English Columbia DX 1118-20, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 54.25 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 22.89 MB)