Beethoven: Bagatelles l'intégrale Tanguy de Williencourt

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): 7 Bagatelles, Op.33:
• 1 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: I. Andante grazioso quasi allegretto 03:45
• 2 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: II. Scherzo. Allegro 02:46
• 3 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: III. Allegretto 02:23
• 4 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: IV. Andante 03:03
• 5 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: V. Allegro ma non troppo 02:57
• 6 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: VI. Allegretto quasi andante 02:43
• 7 7 Bagatelles, Op.33: VII. Presto 01:54
• Ludwig van Beethoven:
• 8 Allegretto, WoO 53 03:35
• 9 Bagatelle, WoO 54 01:47
• 10 Bagatelle, WoO 52 03:28
• 11 Bagatelle, WoO 56 01:33
• 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119:
• 12 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: I. Allegretto 02:14
• 13 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: II. Andante con moto 01:02
• 14 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: III. à l'Allamende 01:42
• 15 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: IV. Andante cantabile 01:36
• 16 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: V. Risoluto 01:11
• 17 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: VI. Andante. Allegretto 01:45
• 18 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: VII. Allegro ma non troppo 01:08
• 19 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: VIII. Moderato cantabile 01:44
• 20 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: IX. Vivace moderato 00:33
• 21 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: X. Allegramente 00:14
• 22 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119: XI. Andante ma non troppo 01:46
• Ludwig van Beethoven:
• 23 Für Elise, WoO 59 03:09
• 24 Bagatelle in B-Flat Major, WoO 60 01:13
• 25 Allegretto, WoO 61 02:24
• 26 Bagatelle, WoO 61a 00:43
• 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126:
• 27 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126: I. Andante con moto. Cantabile e con piacevole 03:04
• 28 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126: II. Allegro 02:44
• 29 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126: III. Andante, Cantabile ed espressivo 02:48
• 30 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126: VI. Presto 03:44
• 31 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126: V. Quasi allegretto (G major) 02:08
• 32 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126: VI. Presto. Andante amabile e con moto 04:10
• Total Runtime 01:10:56

Info for Beethoven: Bagatelles l'intégrale

Beethoven’s trifles illuminate his work in a new way: through these short pieces of only a few minutes one encounters the multiple aspects of his abundant and complex musical personality, such as the diary of a Beethoven of the miniature.

A different Beethoven: When the figure of Beethoven is mentioned, the image of a demiurge immediately springs to mind. Greatness, genius, heroism: such grandiose terms cannot but impose themselves when we listen to his most famous works. How can we imagine that the composer of such emblematic music could also have written these bagatelles, these ‘trifles’ (Kleinigkeiten), as he himself called them?

These miniatures, only a few minutes long, may at first seem minor compared to his piano sonatas or symphonies. Yet if one looks at them more closely, they paint an intimate and penetrating portrait of a Beethoven who is all the greater for the capacity for innovation he displays there. All his genius is evident in them, with each bagatelle revealing a different facet of their composer’s rich and multiple personality.

The bagatelles, which are spread over Beethoven’s whole creative life, bear witness to the evolution of his style: initially imbued with the Classicism of Haydn and Mozart, they manifest little by little an emerging Romanticism, sometimes prefiguring Schubert, or indeed Schumann or Brahms. Some of them may even be said to have propelled compositional style towards a radical modernity, which was to influence such figures as Bartók, Berg and Webern.

The thirty-two bagatelles recorded here, then, bear discreet witness to a life wholly devoted to the quest for a powerful musical engagement. As such, they form a group of pure masterpieces.

Tanguy de Williencourt, piano

Tanguy de Williencourt
has received the highest accolades from the press in his native country: ‘a complete musician’ (Michel Le Naour, Concertclassic), ‘pianistic authority and rich colours’ (Alain Cochard) while La Croix predicted him to become one of the ‘future greats of the piano’.

Tanguy has since pursued a very active career, both in France and abroad: Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium de Radio France, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Musée d’Orsay, Collège des Bernardins, Opéra de Lille, Auditorium de Bordeaux, Grand Théâtre de Provence, St-Petersburg Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Bonn Opera, Palazetto Bru-Zane, Sala Sao Paulo, and festivals such as Yehudi Menuhin in Gstaad, Chopin in Nohant, Radio France in Montpellier, Pablo Casals in Prades, La Chaise-Dieu, Chorégies in Orange, Abbaye de Royaumont, La Folle Journée in Nantes, Tokyo, Ekaterinburg and Warsaw, Lille Piano Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron and Victoires de la Musique on French television.

Tanguy de Williencourt records extensively: his newest CD for Mirare includes both solo and orchestral works by César Franck (“CHOC” Classica) after the complete piano transcriptions by Wagner/Liszt and all of Beethoven’s Bagatelles, all released to great critical acclaim. Tanguy de Williencourt will soon record his fourth CD together with cellist Bruno Philippe for harmonia mundi, a label for which he has also worked on a Berlioz album with mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d’Oustrac and was the featured pianist of CD ‘Debussy: the late works’, which received the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Gramophone Award in 2019. The latest one, a collaborative CD ‘Proust’, recorded with violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte, was one of Gramophone’s CDs of the year in 2021. He performed with Renée Fleming in a film shot at the Théâtre du Châtelet, which was shown worldwide in IMAX cinemas in 2022.

After graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in piano, chamber music, accompaniment and vocal coaching, Tanguy de Williencourt had the privilege to work closely with Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Stephen Kovacevich and Paul Badura-Skoda and has been supported by both the Blüthner and Banque Populaire Foundations. He also received a collection of Prizes: Société des Arts de Genève, ADAMI (Classical révélation 2016), SPEDIDAM and Play-Direct competition at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2017.

Tanguy de Williencourt teaches piano at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris since 2021 and has been appointed as vocal coach by Gustavo Dudamel at Opera de Paris in 2022.

Booklet for Beethoven: Bagatelles l'intégrale