Seven Bagatelles Op 33[20’00]
1
No 1 in E flat major: Andante grazioso, quasi allegretto[3’46]
2
No 2 in C major: Scherzo. Allegro – Trio[3’11]
3
No 3 in F major: Allegretto[1’48]
4
No 4 in A major: Andante[3’23]
5
No 5 in C major: Allegro ma non troppo[3’21]
6
No 6 in D major: Allegretto quasi andante[2’35]
7
No 7 in A flat major: Presto[1’56]
Eleven Bagatelles Op 119[13’36]
8
No 1 in G minor: Allegretto[2’01]
9
No 2 in C major: Andante con moto[1’03]
10
No 3 in D major: À l’Allemande[1’43]
11
No 4 in A major: Andante cantabile[1’45]
12
No 5 in C minor: Risoluto[0’57]
13
No 6 in G major: Andante – Allegretto[1’30]
14
No 7 in C major: Allegro ma non troppo[0’52]
15
No 8 in C major: Moderato cantabile[1’18]
16
No 9 in A minor: Vivace moderato[0’37]
17
No 10 in A major: Allegramente[0’12]
18
No 11 in B flat major: Andante ma non troppo[1’38]
Six Bagatelles Op 126[19’13]
19
No 1 in G major: Andante con moto[2’48]
20
No 2 in G minor: Allegro[2’52]
21
No 3 in E flat major: Andante[2’24]
22
No 4 in B minor: Presto[4’11]
23
No 5 in G major: Quasi allegretto[2’44]
24
No 6 in E flat major: Presto – Andante amabile e con moto – Tempo I[4’14]
25
Allegretto quasi andante in G minor WoO61a[0’31]
26
Allegretto in C major WoO56[2’25]
27
Presto in C minor WoO52[4’08]
28
Bagatelle in B flat major WoO60[1’08]
29
Allegretto in B minor WoO61[2’35]
30
Klavierstück in A minor ‘Für Elise’ WoO59[3’26]
Following his highly acclaimed Beethoven ‘Moonlight’, ‘Pathétique’ and ‘Waldstein’ Sonatas release, Hyperion’s Gramophone-award-winning artist Steven Osborne turns his talents to Beethoven’s complete Bagatelles. Though the composer himself referred to these thirty short piano works, which he penned throughout his life, as ‘trifles’, these are nonetheless trifles from the mind of a genius. In this polished album, Osborne lends his remarkable artistry to everything from the Six Bagatelles of Op 126, which at times occupy the same rarefied spiritual world as the late quartets and were the very last works Beethoven ever wrote for the piano, to the composer’s most famous stand-alone piano piece, the mysterious little A minor Bagatelle known to all the world as ‘Für Elise’.