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VIOLIN SONATAS OP. 6
MDG Sep 2014
SACD
$24.99

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Barsanti: 6 Sonatas, Op. 2
Brilliant Classics Jul 2025
CD
~~$12.99~~ $9.99

PIANO SONATAS 6
HYPERION Jul 2016
CD
$18.33

Shostakovich: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 / Suite, Op. 6
Capriccio Jan 2006
CD
$14.99

Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 2, 3, 6 / Gottlieb Wallisch

Naxos

$19.99 Mar 21, 2006

The second volume in Naxos' survey of Schubert's 12 piano sonatas surviving in fragmentary form offers three works whose harmonic adventurousness and memorable melodic content will appeal to anyone who loves this composer. More often than not, the music provides interesting contexts in relation to more familiar works. For example, I can't help but notice how the C major D. 279 sonata's bold first-movement opening theme and declamatory trills foreshadow the Wanderer Fantasy's finale. And listening to the E minor D. 566/506's Allegretto, with its songful lyricism and rolling left-hand accompaniment, I wonder if Schubert knew the finale of Beethoven's Op. 90 sonata, one of the latter composer's most "Schubertian" utterances! As before, pianist Gottlieb Wallisch turns in affectionate, idiomatic, and warmly phrased performances that are hard to beat. His energy often surpasses Wilhelm Kempff's heavier gait while steering clear of András Schiff's occasional mannerisms (such as breaking the hands in the E major D. 459's first Scherzo). Also as before, Wallisch provides informative, well-written booklet notes. A lovely disc.--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

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Schubert: Piano Sonatas No 2, 3, 6 / Gottlieb Wallisch
Naxos Mar 2006
CD
$19.99

Saint-Saëns: Cello Sonatas no 1 & 2, etc / Kliegel, et al

Naxos

$19.99 Jan 30, 2007

SAINT-SAËNS Cello Sonatas: No. 1 in c; No. 2 in F. Suite for Cello and Piano • Maria Kliegel (vc); François-Joël Thiollier (pn) • NAXOS 8.557880 (77:32)

It has been previously noted that Saint-Saëns’s four major works for cello were composed more or less in tandem pairs. 1872–73 saw the twin births of the C-Minor Sonata, op. 32, and the A-Minor Concerto, op. 33. The composer was approaching 40 at the time; yet for a man who lived to 86, these may still be regarded as fairly early works. Not until nearly 30 years later did Saint-Saëns turn again to the cello, this time composing in reverse order the D-Minor Concerto, op. 119, in 1902, followed in 1905 by the Sonata in F Major, op. 123.

My only grumble about Jamie Walton’s Saint-Saëns CD (reviewed in 29:6) was that had he omitted “The Swan” movement from The Carnival of the Animals , there would have been just enough room on the disc to include the Second Sonata, thereby giving us all four of the composer’s major works for cello on a single disc. It turns out that in writing that review, I overlooked the even earlier, but hardly insignificant, 1862 Suite for Cello and Piano, op. 16, which, at 23 minutes’ duration, is even longer than the First Sonata and certainly qualifies as a “major” work.

With the current release, cellist Maria Kliegel and pianist François-Joël Thiollier fill in the blanks, offering us, along with the C-Minor Sonata, the earlier Suite and the later F-Major Sonata, both of which were absent from Walton’s entry. The juxtaposition of these works on the same disc affords us the opportunity to hear for ourselves the evolution, both professional and personal, of a man whose interior life may have been more complex than received opinion about him has otherwise led us to believe.

The five-movement Suite makes no pretense to a refracted antique or neo-Baroque style—as some of the composer’s early works do—despite note writer Keith Anderson’s assertion that its Prelude loosely resembles the arpeggio Praeludium of Bach’s G-Major Solo Cello Suite. Saint-Saëns’s Suite is an ardent, effusive romantic outpouring that has more in common with the young, though never youthful, Brahms than it has with anything from an earlier time.

The C-Minor Sonata, though coming 10 years after the Suite, is all surface Sturm und Drang somewhat reminiscent of Mendelssohn. It was works such as this that earned Saint-Saëns his reputation as an arch-conservative in thrall to German models and aesthetics.

The F-Major Sonata, written when he was 70, has clearly evolved away from the composer’s earlier, more immediately recognizable profile. Though still adhering to the principles of sonata form, the piece has about it a more through-composed feeling that is carried forward by a gorgeous rippling piano part rather in the manner of the composer’s own student, Fauré. More significant, however, is the genuine expressiveness and depth of the music, which clearly belie the notion that Saint-Saëns was but an extremely gifted tunesmith and facile craftsman with an uncanny instinct for writing music devoid of any meaningful substance.

Maria Kliegel can be heard in a wide range of repertoire that she has recorded for Naxos; with over 50 entries in their catalog, she is perhaps the company’s leading “stable” cellist, a term that unfortunately carries certain uncomplimentary connotations. Be assured that in Kliegel’s case they are not deserved, for she is a fantastic player with solid technique, spot-on intonation, and robust tone, which she projects with a great deal of confidence and authority. If her delivery is not quite as smooth and refined as that of the aforementioned Jamie Walton, my sense is that she wants us to perceive Saint-Saëns as both more serious and more substantive than he is often taken to be.

François-Joël Thiollier has also recorded extensively for Naxos, having made a specialty of the French piano repertoire. His partnering with Kliegel is a natural. For the excellent performances, fine sound, budget price, and smart programming, I’m inclined to call this disc indispensable for lovers of chamber music for cello and piano.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Saint-Saëns: Cello Sonatas no 1 & 2, etc / Kliegel, et al
Naxos Jan 2007
CD
$19.99

SONATAS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO
Haenssler Classic Mar 2004
CD
$20.99

MOZART: COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS VOL. 2

ORCHID CLASSICS

$16.49 Jun 05, 2026

In the second volume of his complete Mozart piano sonata cycle, Jae-Hyuck Cho continues his exploration of Mozart's keyboard writing as a living, singing voice. Four sonatas trace a journey from warmth and intimacy to outward brilliance, revealing the composer's remarkable gift for dialogue and character. From the graceful charm of the Sonata in B-flat major, K.281 to the broader expressive range of the Sonata in F major, K.332, the programme moves through the poised intimacy of K.282 before concluding with the theatrical sparkle of the Sonata in C major, K.309. Part of a five-volume series for Orchid Classics, Cho's interpretations emphasise clarity and vocal phrasing, reflecting the operatic spirit at the heart of Mozart's keyboard writing.

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MOZART: COMPLETE PIANO SONATAS VOL. 2
ORCHID CLASSICS Jun 2026
CD
$16.49

Mix & Match

RACHMANINOV: PIANO SONATA NO. 2

RUBICON

$20.17 Jun 25, 2021

Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Sonata was extensively revised by the composer in 1931, and the revised version is tighter and thinner in texture than the original version of 1913. It represents a supreme challenge to the pianist in either version, and has all the hallmarks of the composer at the height of his powers. The 6 Moments Musicaux Op.16 are early works which exhibit the flamboyance of the youthful virtuoso. Sonya Bach includes three of the Preludes from the Op.23 set.

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RACHMANINOV: PIANO SONATA NO. 2
RUBICON Jun 2021
CD
$20.17

Piano Sonatas

Prospero Classical

$20.99 Feb 06, 2026

In his new CD recording, Swiss pianist Christian Chamorel focuses on four key works for solo piano by W.A. Mozart: the sonatas in C minor, K. 457; B-flat major, K. 333; and D major, K. 576; as well as the expressive Fantasy in C minor, K. 475, which originate from very different creative phases. Chamorel succeeds in creating a subtle interpretation that brings Mozart's music to life from within. Every phrase, every change in dynamics, articulation, and tempo seems like the result of a well-considered artistic decision and, at the same time, like a spontaneous impulse born directly from the moment.

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Piano Sonatas
Prospero Classical Feb 2026
CD
$20.99

Mix & Match

Beethoven: Sonatas, Op. 2

Challenge Classics

$16.99 Nov 15, 2024

I do not believe that there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' instrument on which to perform Beethoven's Sonatas Opus 2. What matters is the musical result. It depends on the alchemy that is created between the performer and the instrument. I extensively tried various modern copies of fortepianos from 1795 - 1800, trying to get closer to the sound and expressive world of early Beethoven. However, with the opportunity of having a Graf fortepiano (No. 429) in my studio, restored in 2023, I was able to prepare this recording on that instrument, playing it regularly for a year and achieving a kind of familiarity with it's action and timbral response that I have grown fond of - Roberto Prosseda.

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Beethoven: Sonatas, Op. 2
Challenge Classics Nov 2024
CD
$16.99

Bonporti: Sonatas, Op. 6 for 2 Violins & B.C. / Labirinti Armonici

Brilliant Classics

$6.99 ~~$13.99~~ Save 50% Oct 27, 2023

Volume 4 in a critically acclaimed survey of Bonporti’s music reaches Op.6, perhaps the most overlooked treasure in the output of the ‘gentleman from Trento’. This was the nickname bestowed on himself by Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672 - 1749), who was born in the northern Italian city, and made his career as a musician in the surrounding region before dying in Padova.

The Opus 6 collection of trio sonatas was published in 1705, and dedicated to the Roman prince Carlo Colonna, who had played a pivotal role in the career of the young Handel as his patron. Perhaps it has been comparatively neglected because of its relatively archaic form: by 1705, a collection of trio sonatas amounted to a tribute to the past, a kind of rite of passage through which every young composer of distinction should pass, before moving on to the more overtly impressive and demanding genres of concerto and solo sonata. Inevitably, the model for any composer of Bonporti’s era was the Op.1 collection of trio sonatas by Arcangelo Corelli. Bonporti’s Op.6 proves itself a worthy successor.

All ten sonatas are arranged in a three-movement form, mostly opening with a Prelude and then a pair of Baroque dances: courantes, gigues, gavottes and sarabandes, though now so stylised as to be distant from their original purpose. This somewhat minimalist form of trio sonata does not employ the theatrical devices heard in some Italian chamber music of the time; there is even a sense of melancholy restraint about Bonporti’s language in Op.6, as though he was straining towards an expressive freedom which emerges in later opus numbers. This tension is held in balance, however, and poured into a harmonic language of delicately placed suspensions which reach a highpoint in the chromatic opening prelude to the Seventh Sonata.

Reviewing Bonporti’s Op.2 Sonatas on Brilliant Classics with Labirinti Armonici (95718), Raymond Tuttle in Fanfare concluded, ‘These performances are excellent, ideally balancing energy and gracefulness… I can think of nothing bad to say about these sonatas and these performances. This disc has raised my curiosity about Bonporti, and I think that is recommendation enough.’

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Bonporti: Sonatas, Op. 6 for 2 Violins & B.C. / Labirinti Armonici
Brilliant Classics Oct 2023
CD
~~$13.99~~ $6.99

Schubert: Fantasie in F minor - Sonata in C major / Farmer, Callaghan

Nimbus

$20.99 Jan 07, 2022

The late eighteenth century witnessed an explosion in the number of works written for multiple pianists, most of them for two players using one instrument. The majority were predestined for the domestic market, social gatherings or for pedagogical purposes, but some, including the two works featured on this album, were intended for performance beyond the salon and ventured into the realms of virtuosity. The genre was to blossom further as a pedagogical tool by which generations of pianists became acquainted with the larger-scale, mainstream repertoire via transcriptions and arrangements of symphonies and other orchestral works, operas and chamber music.

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Schubert: Fantasie in F minor - Sonata in C major / Farmer, Callaghan
Nimbus Jan 2022
CD
$20.99

Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 1 - Schubert: Fantasy in C / Kantorow

BIS

SACD

$19.79 ~~$21.99~~ Save 10% Nov 01, 2024

Although by no means Brahms’s very first composition, the Sonata in C bears the number ‘Op. 1’ and is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant débuts in musical history. No wonder no less than Robert Schumann saw Brahms as the savior of German music. To accompany what is in every respect a dazzling work, another masterpiece was needed, and what better than Franz Schubert’s famous ‘Wanderer Fantasy,’ the most virtuosic composition in his entire output. With it, Schubert opened up new expressive possibilities with his ‘orchestral’ writing, leaving Beethoven in the shade and seeming to anticipate Franz Liszt. The latter composer-pianist, with his transcendental virtuosity, also had to be present on this disc, and we find him with his masterly transcriptions for piano of five Schubert lieder.

In 2019, when Alexandre Kantorow, at the age of 22, became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky competition, his program included no fewer than three works by Johannes Brahms. So it was with great anticipation that we were looking forward to his recording of the German composer’s works. With this release, Kantorow concludes his cycle dedicated to Brahms’s piano sonatas, the previous installments of which garnered the highest praise from the music press around the world, as well as the most prestigious awards, such as Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice, Diapason d’Or, and Choc from Classica.

REVIEWS:

Kantorow’s playing can be torrential but it’s never reckless; his sound can be full but his playing is often laced with delicacy; and because of his uncanny ability to balance inner lines, he manages to untangle Brahms’s thickest passages.

— Gramophone, Editor's Choice - November 2024

It is nice to hear how Kantorow can channel Schubert’s lighthearted humor just as successfully as he can evoke deeper emotions. In all of his previous recordings, he has proven more than able to integrate musicality and artistry with fine technique and virtuosity. This album continues the trend, and wonderfully so.

— TheClassicReview.com

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Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 1 - Schubert: Fantasy in C / Kantorow
BIS Nov 2024
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $19.79

Recent Favorite

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No.

DUX

$24.99 Aug 21, 2026

This album brings together two of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas, performed here for the first time on record by pianist Maria Korecka-Soszkowska, for whom Beethoven has long remained a central and deeply cherished composer. Though commonly known by the evocative titles Moonlight and Pastoral, neither nickname originated with the composer himself. The celebrated Sonata quasi una fantasia in C-sharp minor opens the recording with one of the most iconic movements in all classical music: a work of restrained passion and inward drama, often associated with Beethoven's unfulfilled love for one of his pupils. The later Sonata in D major unfolds in a more pastoral atmosphere, coloured by echoes of rural life and subtle allusions to folk music. Both sonatas reveal Beethoven's gift for expanding classical form through slow introductions, shifting moods, and a narrative tension that grows organically from within. In Maria Korecka-Soszkowska's interpretation, these familiar masterpieces regain their freshness, intimacy, and poetic depth.

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Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No.
DUX Aug 2026
CD
$24.99

Mix & Match

Handel: Op. 2 Trios Sonatas
SOMM Recordings Mar 2009
CD
$20.99

Feinberg: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-6 / Hamelin

HYPERION

$18.49 Feb 28, 2020

This album's program represents one phenomenal composer-pianist's homage to another. Marc-André Hamelin has long been a champion of the music of Samuil Feinberg. Hamelin's performances are sensitive to all it's shadows and anxieties while being fully equal to the prodigious technical demands.

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Feinberg: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-6 / Hamelin
HYPERION Feb 2020
CD
$18.49

BOCCHERINI: 3 Cello Sonatas / FACCO: Balletto in C major / P
Naxos Aug 2005
CD
$19.99

Sinding: Piano Sonata / Clementi: Piano Sonatas
BIS May 1994
CD
$21.99

Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 / Etudes-Tableaux, O
BIS Mar 2000
CD
$21.99

Boismortier: 6 Sonatas for 2 Pardessus de viole, Op. 63

First Hand Records

$21.99 Jul 04, 2025

This abum contains the premiere recording of 6 Sonatas, Op. 63, originally published in 1737 (edition published by Atelier Philidor in 2021). The compositions are exquisite and expressive and have not been heard since the mid- 18th century since the engraved score has only recently been discovered. They are quintessentially French in their general musical style, making extensive use of prescribed ornamentation. The pardessus de viole enjoyed a considerable vogue in France towards the middle of the 18th century. For too long the pardessus de viole, which has an almost indentical range to the violin, has been commonly regarded - even without being heard - as a kind of toy instrument. Now we know otherwise after experiencing how similar, except for it's different register, the pardessus instrument is to all the other members of it's family, including the familiar bass viol. The recent discovery of Boismortier's Op. 63 for two 6-string pardessus de viole is an exciting and important find and FHR are very happy to publish the first recording.

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Boismortier: 6 Sonatas for 2 Pardessus de viole, Op. 63
First Hand Records Jul 2025
CD
$21.99

Jadin: Piano Sonatas, Op. 4-6 / Toporowski

Brilliant Classics

$12.99 ~~$16.99~~ Save 25% Jun 23, 2023

New recordings of signature works by a young and tragically short-lived lion of the keyboard in late 18th-century France. This is the most extensive set of records ever dedicated to the music of Hyacinthe Jadin, sure to attract the attention of all aficionados of keyboard rarities, especially as performed by the Polish harpsichordist and pianist Marek Toporowski, with his encyclopedic understanding of Baroque and early-Classical repertoire. Born in Versailles in 1776, Jadin grew up in a musical family and was educated in both the French and German traditions, something unusual at the time. His professional career was brief; he was appointed to the Conservatoire in 1795 as one of its first professors of piano, and fell ill from the tuberculosis that would take his life in 1800. Jadin’s surviving output includes six quartets, four piano concertos, and several violin sonatas. From the evidence of these nine piano sonatas – three for each published opus number – we may hear in Jadin an astonishingly gifted composer whose music foreshadows the Romantic era – even at points the expressive poignancy of Schubert. Writing in major keys, Jadin’s elegant facility belongs to his own Classical age; it is when he ventures into remote minortonalities, such as the F sharp minor Sonata Op.4 No.2, that he seems to look forward to another, more personal age of expression. In all cases, however, Jadin evidently took Haydn as a model, for his themes are unfailingly compact and elegantly conceived for the keyboard, his development sections are likewise concise while enlivened with touches of ingenious modulation between keys. In his booklet essay, introducing Jadin’s life and work, Marek Toporowski makes the case for the composer as a French-born Dussek, an outstandingly original figure and one of the great ‘might-have-beens’ of musical history. His stylish performances on a modern copy of a Walter fortepiano support such a claim, as well as affording much delight in their own right.

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Jadin: Piano Sonatas, Op. 4-6 / Toporowski
Brilliant Classics Jun 2023
CD
~~$16.99~~ $12.99

Saint-Saens: Violin Sonata No. 2; Suite In D Minor; The Swan / Clamagirand, Cohen

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 24, 2013

Much of the music here would have been more familiar 75 years ago than it is today; Jascha Heifetz, in particular, championed the Saint-Saëns violin sonatas. But now that self-serving ideas of straight-line musical progress have been put to rest, Saint-Saëns is benefiting from something of a comeback, with the Naxos label and others putting out intelligently programmed selections of his music. This one, by French violinist Fanny Clamagirand and pianist Vanya Cohen, is delightful. It features a performance of the Violin Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 102, overflowing with melody in the slow movement, as well as some even less familiar music. The opening Suite in D minor for violin and piano, Op. 16, is fascinating. Composed in 1862, it represents Saint-Saëns take on the Baroque suite, and one might even say the French neo-classicism began here. There is also a violin sonata Saint-Saëns wrote at the age of 13, a charming piece of juvenilia, and two short works in contrasting modes, a Romance in C major, Op. 48, on the melodic side and a Méditation in quasi-operatic mode. The only really famous tune here is the arrangement for violin and piano of Le Cygne (The Swan), from The Carnival of the Animals; it serves as a kind of encore. As she did on her earlier recording of Saint-Saëns' chamber music, Clamagirand cultivates a lyrical attitude and a gorgeous tone that are the essence of the French school. Naxos deserves kudos for the sound this time out; the music is recorded in a superb (and non-French) venue, the UK's Wyastone Concert Hall, and the performers are up close but not overbearing.

-- James Manheim, All Music Guide

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Saint-Saens: Violin Sonata No. 2; Suite In D Minor; The Swan / Clamagirand, Cohen
Naxos Sep 2013
CD
$19.99

Cheron: Sonatas, Op. 2 / Ensemble Matis

Ars Produktion

$32.99 Jun 22, 2018

Andre Cheron was an influential musical personality in Paris during the mid-eighteenth century. He worked at the Paris Opera as a harpsichordist and inspecteur de l’orchestre de l’Opera. In this capacity he supervised several premieres of Rameau’s operas and the controversial performance of Pergolesi’s intermezzo La serva padrona. With his 1729 sonata collection, André Cheron (1695-1766) cultivates the “Corelli” notation, which was so highly regarded in the French Régence. Ensemble Matis is made up of young musicians of various nationalities who originally met at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya in Barcelona, and ultimately came together to form the current group at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. Since the ensemble’s inception in the autumn of 2012, they have worked together intensively in formations contingent on the repertoire and have attempted to share and expand upon their experiences in their joint music-making. With Japan, Switzerland, and South Kroea, many different cultures are represented in the ensemble, which enriches and consistently makes the collaboration exciting. The ensemble has specialized in the performance of Baroque chamber music and, as the name “Matis” implies, pays special attention to small details, nuances, and timbres in the music and in ensemble playing. The ensemble’s goal is to bring the music with its wealth of color closer to the audience and to bring to life different expressive values.

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Cheron: Sonatas, Op. 2 / Ensemble Matis
Ars Produktion Jun 2018
CD
$32.99