SHARPS & FLATIRONS features Jeri Jorgensen's "Complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas"

HEARING BEETHOVEN, THE 19TH-CENTURY WAY

Jorgensen and Bryant discuss their CD of Beethoven’s violin sonatas, played on period instruments.

By Izzy Fincher Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.

Listening to Beethoven on early 19th-century instruments is the next best thing to time travel.

On their CD recording of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violin (Albany Records TROY 1825–28), released in July 2020, violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant play all 10 sonatas on restored historical instruments, transporting listeners back in time to 19th-century Vienna.

As historical performance practice instrumentalists, Jorgensen, a member of Colorado College’s performance faculty, and Bryant, a chamber musician based in New York, are breaking new ground. They are the first duo from the United States to release Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas on period instruments from an American collection.

Their expertise in classical-era performance practice has led to invitations from the Historical Keyboard Society of North America in 2018 and 2021, performances at the National Music Museum in South Dakota, and an early-piano concert series in North Carolina.

In 2020, the 250th anniversary year of Beethoven’s birth, a year flooded with Beethoven recordings, their interpretation stands out, offering listeners an opportunity to hear Beethoven’s music as it sounded during his lifetime.

On a first or superficial listening, listeners may find the sonic differences between period and modern instruments rather subtle. But after learning about the historical context and the technological developments in instrument making, listeners will be better able to identify and appreciate the musical nuances.

“Playing on period instruments doesn’t lend one to being more academic in one’s interpretation,” Bryant says. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It invites more emotional involvement, and in the case of Beethoven, a little more insanity, a more romantic interpretation.

“The instrument is telling you how to play. It is telling you what it needs to express the music. You don’t play the same (as on modern instruments), and you gain a new insight into what Beethoven was looking for interpretively. It is precious.”

Read the entire article at this link.

TransCentury Media reviews Jerilyn Jorgensen and Cullan Bryant's "The Complete Beethoven Sonatas"

The extent to which historically informed performance has moved into the mainstream is nowhere clearer than in these exceptional readings of Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for violin and piano – which feature Jerilyn Jorgensen playing a 1797 Andrea Carolus Leeb violin using multiple period bows, and Cullan Bryant performing on five different fortepianos of Beethoven’s time that, collectively, sound about as different as it is possible for superficially similar instruments to sound. This Albany Records four-CD set is nothing short of revelatory, not only because of the excellence of the interpretations – and they are excellent – but also because it so seamlessly brings a 21st-century audience into the sound world of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, without in any way compromising the effectiveness of the music. Indeed, one of the elements most worthy of celebration here is that these sonatas are more impressive when heard on appropriate instruments than when performed, as they almost invariably are, on modern ones.

For quite some time after historic-performance practices became a serious element of music around 50 years ago, there was a certain academic quality about many of the readings: they often tended to be on the stiff side, as if somehow the more straitlaced era in which the music was written (especially Baroque music) needed to be reflected in a certain level of care and caution in reproducing what composers wrote. The emotional abandon associated with Romantic and post-Romantic music just seemed inappropriate for the Baroque and Classical eras. But gradually, musicians came to realize that there is no dearth of emotional involvement in pre-Romantic music, which is every bit as expressive as later works – but written for instruments designed to bring forth the emotional content in ways quite different from those of more-modern instruments. Mozart’s horn concertos, for example, are thrilling and amusing in turn, far more so on the natural horn for which they were written than on the much more even-sounding valved horn of today: the sound quality of a run changes during the note sequence, and the sonic environment of the higher notes in Mozart’s time is quite different from that in the lower notes. This is also the case when it comes to keyboard instruments. Mozart and Beethoven wrote for five-to-six-octave-spanning fortepianos with completely different pedal arrangements from those on modern instruments, and with different internal structure, construction materials, key action, and size (hence, sound production). These composers’ music sounds marvelous on modern instruments, but it simply does not sound as the composers intended it to sound – and now that top-notch modern players are thoroughly comfortable with fortepianos, now that violinists know how to handle instruments with different neck sets, differently arched bodies, and a variety of bow designs, it is finally possible to enter the sound world (and thus the emotional world) into which the composers intended to invite listeners.

This world is very different from the one typically associated with the Beethoven violin-and-piano sonatas. Many of the sonatas favor the piano, with the violin taking on more of an obbligato role, but the instrumental balance when the correct instruments are used shows the differentiation between them much more clearly, and leads to a more-even sound for the sonatas even when the piano part is dominant. The three earliest sonatas (Op. 12), which tend to get short shrift from most performers, here sound like works intended for skilled amateurs (which is how Beethoven designed them), but ones that would be quite a stretch for many amateur players using the intended instruments, whose tonal coloration is quite different from that of their more-modern descendants. The A minor sonata, Op. 23, gains considerable heft when heard in this recording, with a level of emotional involvement deepened by the evenness of tone of the violin vs. the differing tonal environments heard from the fortepiano in its different registers and pedaling. The paired F major sonata, Op. 24, known as Frühlingsonate and more popular than the A minor, here complements Op. 23 instead of eclipsing it: the two works do sound like a pair, emphasizing different emotions and moods in a highly complementary way.

The three sonatas of Op. 30 are even fuller of revelatory moments in these readings. No. 1 in A, the least known, turns out to have some distinctive auditory elements in its comparatively straightforward opening movement, and some very clever contrasting of sound, not just rhythm and tempo, in the variations that make up its finale. No. 2 in C minor is better balanced and less dramatically stormy as Jorgensen and Bryant perform it than in readings using the full sonic capabilities of modern violins and pianos, while the exceptional jocularity of No. 3 in G comes through to far better effect here – and far more directness of expression – than it usually does. The Jorgensen/Bryant readings of these three sonatas are impressively eloquent. And the original-instrument approach also serves beautifully in Beethoven’s two last and by far best-known violin sonatas. No. 9 in A, the “Kreutzer” (which Rodolphe Kreutzer never played and appears to have disdained), speaks here with poise, elegance and emotional balance that fully justify the work’s exceptional length of 40-plus minutes. The very opening, with the unaccompanied violin playing double, triple, even quadruple stops in A and the fortepiano strangely responding in C and then D minor, is exceptionally effective in setting the scene for a work that defies expectations again and again, as Beethoven uses the sonic capabilities of the violin and fortepiano to emphasize and de-emphasize structural elements with tremendous skill. To cite just one example, when the composer pushes the violin to its highest range in the second movement, listeners really hear the difference of sound quality, not just tessitura. This is an exceptional performance of an exceptional sonata. And the 10th and final work, whose style was specifically adapted by Beethoven to suit the tastes of the French school of violin playing exemplified by Pierre Rode, sounds exceptionally different from the “Kreutzer,” not only because Beethoven’s compositional style had evolved between 1803 and 1812 but also because the basic sonorities of violin and fortepiano had not changed significantly in that time period – leaving it up to the composer to find new forms of expressiveness within the capabilities of the instruments available to him. The serenity and overall gentleness of this sonata come through with complete clarity in this performance, with the performers’ nuanced sensitivity to the sound of their instruments producing a level of expressive clarity that is simply unavailable when the work is heard on modern instruments. Every reading in this first-rate set is insightful, carefully planned, emotionally satisfying, and true to both the letter and the spirit of Beethoven’s compositional process. These are the Beethoven violin-and-piano sonatas as the composer intended them to be heard, as they deserve to be heard, and as they can now – both “at last” and “again” – be heard to their best advantage and greatest level of communicative expressivity.

Cinemusical reviews Jeri Jorgensen's "The Complete Beethoven Sonatas"

Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Violin and PianoJerilyn Jorgensen, violin. Cullan Bryant, piano.
Albany Records TROY 1825-28
Disc One Total Time:  58:52
Disc Two Total Time: 46:11

Disc Three Total Time: 68:47

Disc Four Total Time: 67:09

Recording:   (*)***/****
Performance: (*)***/****

The violin sonatas of Beethoven tend to be among the lesser known chamber pieces of the composers, with the quartets and piano sonatas often overshadowing these equally important works.  Among them, the ninth (“Kreutzer”) is perhaps the more familiar of the batch of ten sonatas.  That makes the present release an interesting opportunity for those less familiar with these works to explore them but also provides a unique take with its focus on using period instruments.  The recording uses historic pianos found in the Frederick Collection in Ashburnham, MA.  The instruments themselves were selected based on their connection to the period.  Five different instruments are employed for the recording including one that was part of the Esterhazy estate and which may have been one of the last piano’s whose sound Beethoven heard before his deafness took hold.  Two of these are from around 1830.  Interestingly, sometimes one can hear echoes of the harpsichord, especially in the lower registers, or even a lute-like sound quality at times.  Ms. Jorgensen is playing an Andrea Carolus Violin, from Vienna, 1797.  The instrument has a slightly different construction, an earlier style neck set and a flatter arching to lend it a more powerful sound than other instruments of the time.  In addition, Jorgensen has chosen a variety of historical bows.  All of these are detailed in the extensive notes including informative essays for the pianos (by E. Michael Frederick) and the violin and bows (by Stefan Hersh).  The sonatas are organized chronologically across the four discs.  Most of the sonatas adhere to the traditional three-movement structure and also the common movement organization (though here too there are some surprises).  But, unlike those of Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven begins to move the violin away from a duo role to one of prominence, something perhaps lost on modern ears.

This can be heard already in the Opus 12 set of 1797, dedicated to Antonio Salieri.  Already these “Sonatas for pianoforte and violin” make more demands upon the soloist who cannot be a passing amateur.  The first sonata, in D Major, is notable for its theme and variations central movement (which features some rather odd bursts from the piano), moving away from the ternary slow movement.  From the very opening of the movement the violin takes on its more expressive role while the piano provides the forward motion and energy.  The second sonata is also a bit unusual in that thematically it appears to be a bit more obtuse in the opening movement where we get Beethoven exploring smaller parcels of musical material.  The slow movement more than makes up for this with a nice melancholy melody in the parallel minor.  A humorous rondo wraps this up.  The final sonata moves us away from the lighter wit of the central work to one of more heroic grandeur.  Here the piano seems to take on a more prominent role with the violin feeling more like an obbligato partner.  It features one of Beethoven’s very gorgeous adagios and an equally fun rondo that returns to the exploration of segments of a theme.  The performances here are all fine, though sometimes the rapid passage sections at cadences is a bit of a blur (it feels more like an instrument rather than a technique issue).  The crispness of Bryant’s playing is well-aided by these instruments which can be sometimes a bit dampened and less bright than a modern piano.  That makes these a bit warm as one’s ear grows accustomed to the sound.

For Beethoven, three years can be an eternity in development and the two sonatas from 1800 (Op. 23 and 24) are from a very creative period.  Both are dedicated to Moritz Johann Christian Graf vin Fries and the fifth, with its later appellation “Spring”, has become the more popular of the violin sonatas.  That said, we can see Beethoven continuing to play with expectations, often the purview of minor key works (this one is in “a minor”).  From the opening we are in an unusual 6/8-meter choice and the harmonic shift to e-minor instead of E-major is also quite innovative for a second key arrival point.  The sonata-allegro form also uses repeats of both halves of the work—in some respects a throwback to the simpler binary forms.  Here both the exposition and the entire development (which has its own theme!) and recapitulation are repeated.  A telling dying away at the end of the movement comes as an equally unusual dramatic touch.  For contrast, we get a light-hearted scherzoso with interplay between the violin and piano (a nice contrapuntal section) and a later nice lyrical contrasting theme.  The third movement returns us to the depths of the more somber opening key.  Troubled energy moves things forward but all ends in despair as both instruments descend into their own depths.  The more familiar fifth sonata in F Major is interesting for its shift to a four-movement form (though the penultimate scherzo breezes by in a minute).  Things are a bit more carefree here with less conflict.  The second movement features a truly gorgeous lyrical quality often the focus of the piano sonatas.  After the shock of the quick-paced minuetto/scherzo (a reminder at the delicious glee and wit of such musical jokes), we head into a solid rondo, one of the more lyrical of the sonatas.  One can begin to sense in this work a new shift in Beethoven’s style further away from the Classicism of the era into something more personal.  In the fourth sonata, it is quite a mark to hear the emotional shifts handled so beautifully here.  The central movement really is a quite excellent performance with plenty of musical wit captured by both performers.  It is like the one ray of sunshine only to be dispelled in the final movement.  The c. 1795 keyboard used for the recording is perfectly matched to the nuances needed.  There is hefty competition here for the “Spring” sonata, but it works well within this survey of the complete works even if listeners may have a personal interpretation.  A fine case though is made for their approach here all the same.

Disc three brings us a parallel set of three sonatas from the early part of 1802, Op. 30, dedicated to Tsar Alexander of Russia.  Each exhibits a different side of Beethoven, from a more Classical approach in the first, to a more intense second, and a delightfully upbeat third.  The sixth sonata, in A Major, is perhaps the least familiar of these works.  It bears a slight connection to the later “Kreutzer” sonata with an idea for the final movement sketched out, but left to that later work.  Instead the movement is a fine set of theme and variations.  There is also a further elevation of the violin line with both instruments now sharing and interacting with thematic material.  One can here this early on in the opening movement where the stage is set.  The ternary central slow movement is a moment of simple beauty.  In some respects, it may be that this sonata is a reflective look back on where Beethoven had been.  The seventh sonata is the only other one in a minor key, a very stormy c-minor.  Here Beethoven shifts to a four-movement structure adding a further weight to the work.  To further highlight its somewhat experimental nature, Beethoven eschews repeating the exposition and balances this with a more extensive coda.  There is a little martial idea as well in this movement in the heroic key of Eb Major.  The second movement provides a relaxed interlude with a dance-like feel.  Intriguing structural exploration occurs here as well with a varied return to the opening material and a dramatic coda.  Wit and quirkiness abound in the fascinating scherzo which has some canonical writing in the trio section, further finding ways to balance the equality of both instrument’s contribution.  From a murky rumble, the finale moves us into a more intense, emotional exploration that never abandons its tonic minor focus even at the end.  The eighth sonata returns us to a happier time with its G- major mode further highlighting the joy and humor of the work.  The opening helps set this laid back and gentle tone.  The central minuet is filled with plenty of humorous sforzandi.  The finale rondo seems rather innocent, but Beethoven plays some wonderful little jokes as it moves especially into the coda where a rather unusual theme return in a more remote key provides a moment of surprise.  Often called “the charmer” of the set of sonatas, this is indeed makes for a fitting conclusion to this set of three.  In fact, disc three brings us a chance to then also hear the way both performers here must shift emotionally to handle the twists and turns of the dramatic undercurrent of the music.  There can be some moments of hesitation in the thornier parts of the musical discourse, but here both musicians acquit themselves quite well.  It is then further interesting that each of these recordings were recorded in different years.  That is not as noticeable though in the overall sound.  There is s fine sense of comfortability here that comes with both musicians having a strong sense of the music and its performance approaches.  That is the strength of this quarter of the overall set—at least it becomes most apparent in the requirements of these three sonatas.

The final two sonatas bring us to the end of this fine survey beginning with perhaps Beethoven’s most famous violin sonata, the “Kreutzer”, Op. 47.  Though there is no indication that he ever performed it, the work was written for Rodolphe Kreutzer in 1803.  The subtitle of the A Major sonata provides a further window into Beethoven’s thoughts about the type of piece this is as it is both a blend of concertante and concerto.  At 40 minutes playing time, it is the longest of the sonatas, and further illustrates its weightier implications.  The first movement features a variety of advanced technique using double and triple stops.  It also features a slow introduction (borrowing from a similar approach more common in symphonies and quartets).  The piano enters in a rather unusual key area and pushes the harmony into even stranger directions before finally landing in a-minor.  The work’s somewhat “fantasia” opening gives way to an intense presto.  Overall, the movement is among the most virtuosic and demanding of the sonatas.  At the center is the longest movement of any of the sonatas.  Here is a theme and variations that Beethoven has been slowly preparing for with its 54-bar theme subjected to four variations.  Virtuoso technique for both violin and piano is required here too and the range of the violin is further expanded as the movement progresses.  The exciting energy returns to cap an exhilarating tarantella.  The final sonata, Op. 96 in G Major (1812) was dedicated to Beethoven’s patron and student, Archduke Rudolph.  The composer worked as well with the violinist Pierre Rode (1774-1830)—a student of Viotti—whose own sensibility likely impacted some of the compositional choices for the work.  The opening movement has that more serene wistfulness melding folkish material and melodic inventiveness that feels a bit nostalgic.  It is the latter which is part of the gorgeous slow movement. As it dies away, we move immediately into a scherzo with nods towards the landler.  Folkish qualities also inhabit the theme and variation finale, where we find the composer exploring the deconstruction of themes into compact motives.

The album was recorded across several years at the Ashburnham Community Church in Massachusetts.  There is a bit more reverb and slight echo here in the open sound of the acoustic space (this seems to be more an issue in the recordings made at the beginning of the project in 2016, by the 2018 recordings this is less noticeable).  Perhaps this makes for a bit of an adjustment for the occasional rapid decay that happens with the earlier pianos.  It should be noted though that one becomes accustomed to this spatial element early on and it is not a distraction by any means as the set progresses.

Some may recognize Ms. Jorgensen from her recordings of Arthur Foote and Charles Martin Loeffler when she was a member of the Da Vinci Quartet.  Over the last couple of decades, she, along with Bryant, have performed widely exploring historic instruments and practice and are featured performers for the 2021 conference of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America.  The performances here are all solid and allow a more historical perspective to rehear these important works.  The expressiveness of Jorgensen’s playing is quite engaging.  Bryant’s pianistic technique is also well-matched to explore these instruments with a sense of familiarity that makes these natural.  It can take a bit of getting used to with these period keyboards, but it is quite striking how they are so different in often quite slight ways.  They bring their own sense of character to the music itself.  One gets a sense that the careful choices here help equally bring out aspects of the music that may be lost in a more contemporary performance.  Beethoven fans will likely find much to fascinate them as they compare their own favorite interpreters with these performances.  As such, this release will be an interesting addition to Beethoven audiophiles who are perhaps looking for a fresh approach to this music.

Take Effect reviews The Complete Beethoven Sonatas

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

October 19, 2020

Complete Sonatas For Piano & Violin On Historic Instruments

Albany, 2020

9/10

Listen to Complete Sonatas For Piano & Violin On Historic Instruments

Performed by violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullen Bryant, the pair approached this project with as much authenticity as possible, where original instruments from the Frederick Collection are used to build these sonatas from scratch with much attention to detail.

Disc 1 starts with the keys and strings interacting in playful yet sublime ways on the dazzling “Sonata No. 1 In D Major, Op 12/1”, and this meticulousness carries over to the warm piano and graceful violin of the reflective “Sonata No. 2 In A Major Op, 12/1”.

The middle discs offer us the emotive spirit and dreamy climate of “Sonata No. 5 In F Major, Op. 24”, while “Sonata No. 7 In C Minor, Op 30/2” moves swiftly, playfully and with no shortage of dynamic interplay between the esteemed musicians.

The last disc saves some of the best for last, where “Sonata No. 10 In G Minor, Op. 96” moves both firmly and cautiously, as keys sometimes pound and other times dance, and the violin conveys both gloriousness and introspection in its precise capacity.

Bryant uses 5 pianos across this lengthy affair, all of which have a connection to Beethoven, and Jorgensen plays the Andrea Carolus Leeb violin that dates back to 1797 and was built in Vienna. A more powerful violin than its modern counterpart, the nuances of these instruments, combined with the duo’s unparalleled skill, helps make these reworkings nothing short of spellbinding.

CD HotList reviews The Complete Beethoven Sonatas

“Jerilyn Jorgensen and Cullan Bryant provide insightful interpretations of all of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violin, using instruments that were built at the same time the compositions were written (and, mostly, in the same city): the turn of the 19th century. The liner notes include detailed information about the instruments, and while the quality of the performances is more than enough to recommend this set on its own, the information about the instruments used will be of particular interest to libraries supporting academic instruction in period performance. The recording suffers just a bit, in my view, from microphone placement — I wish we could hear the details of the violin’s tone more intimately.”

Violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant release Beethoven's Complete Piano and Violin Sonatas on Albany Records

BEETHOVEN

COMPLETE SONATAS FOR PIANO & VIOLIN ON HISTORIC INSTRUMENTS

Jerilyn Jorgensen, violin

Cullan Bryant, piano

Played on period instruments from the Frederick Collection

Release date: July 31, 2020 on Albany Records

Performed on period instruments of the Frederick Collection, violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant play Beethoven's Complete Piano and Violin Sonatas on Albany Records, (Troy 1825-28, released July 2020).

Ms. Jorgensen and Mr. Bryant took a historically informed approach in their interpretation of these sonatas. "Using original instruments from the Frederick Collection sparked profound insight into Beethoven's intended sound palette", says Ms. Jorgensen. "It brought us renewed commitment to build interpretations of these masterpieces from the ground up." They selected five different keyboards from the most extensive collection of early pianos in the United States. "These instrument choices highlight Beethoven's evolving style," explains Ms. Jorgensen, "bringing the listener on a journey from his crisp earlier works to the brink of his introspective late period."

Acclaimed historical performance practice instrumentalists, Jorgensen and Bryant were featured artists at the Historical Keyboard Society of North America 2018 conference, and were invited back in 2021. They have played at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, the Loring-Greenough House in Boston, at the Frederick Collection, and across the early piano network of university series in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Greenville, North Carolina.

Contact ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com to request a physical or digital copy of this recording.

Instruments used on the Recording

For this recording, Ms. Jorgensen and Mr. Bryant used keyboard instruments from the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos in Ashburnham, MA. Each piano has a rich history and was chosen for its connection to Beethoven himself and his historical period. To learn more about the instruments, read the liner notes.

Casper Katholnig ca.1805-1810, Vienna (Sonatas 3,5,6,7).

This piano had been part of the estate of the Esterházys, at their palace at Eisenstadt. In 1807, Beethoven conducted his mass honoring the wife of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy at Eisenstadt.

The Katholnig represents the last kind of piano sound Beethoven was able to hear clearly before becoming severely deaf. One may suppose his compositions even after this time were conceived for the kind of piano tone Beethoven remembered, rather than for later instruments whose sound he could only imagine.

Other Pianos used in this Recording:

Joseph Brodmann c.1800-1805, Vienna (Sonatas 2,8)

Unsigned Piano c.1795, in Viennese style (Sonatas 1,4)

Johann Nepomuk Tröndlin ca.1830, Leipzig (Sonata 9)

Ignaz Bösendorfer ca. 1830, Vienna (Sonata 10)

Read about the history of each of these instruments in the liner notes

The Violin

Built in Vienna in 1797, the Andrea Carolus Leeb violin played in these recordings is a rare example of an eighteenth century violin that retains an early neck set. In terms of arching this violin is flatter and more powerful than many contemporaneous instruments, reflecting a forward thinking concept for its time. The combination of a rare, intact neck set and powerful arching make this instrument particularly valuable for period-practice informed performances.

Ms. Jorgensen also used a number of historical bows for this recording. More information is in the liner notes.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

THE COMPLETE SONATAS FOR PIANO& VIOLIN ON HISTORIC INSTRUMENTS

Jerilyn Jorgensen, violin

Cullan Bryant, piano

Albany Records: TROY1825-28

Released: July 31, 2020

Download the cover art

Read the liner notes

Jerilyn Jorgensen is an accomplished artist on both modern and period instruments. She is praised for her “taut, confident playing, brimming with thrust and color” by Los Angeles Times, and her “ease, authority, and thoroughgoing excellence” by San Francisco Chronicle. 

Ms. Jorgensen was first violinist of the Da Vinci Quartet (1980-2004). She performed with the quartet throughout the United States for a quarter century, including a national television appearance on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.

Jerilyn Jorgensen is on the performance faculty of Colorado College. She has also held positions at Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver and the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. She is the director and co-founder of the Manitou Chamber Music Festival since 2014. She holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. 

Pianist Cullan Bryant, sought-after for his sensitive and supportive partnership, is an active solo, chamber and collaborative pianist. As a soloist, he has performed on the Piano Lunch series in New York, at the Frederick Collection in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, and at the Long Island Beethoven Festival where he performed 16 Beethoven piano sonatas in a 2-day marathon.

He toured throughout Japan with violinist Midori, and performed in recital with the violinists Emanuel Borok, Oleh Krysa, Mikhail Kopelman, Midori, Peter Rejto, and members of the American and Borromeo Quartets. As a chamber musician, he has appeared with members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, and the Boston Symphony, in venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Insider Interview with violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant

Performed on period instruments of the Frederick Collection, violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant play Beethoven's Complete Piano and Violin Sonatas on Albany Records, (Troy 1825-28, released July 2020). In this Insider Interview we spoke to Ms. Jorgensen and Mr. Bryant about this project, as well as their approach to historical performance practice.

Classical Music Communications: What was your introduction to playing on period instruments and historically informed performance? What about the instruments and performance practices attracts you?

Jeri Jorgensen: I had experimented with Baroque performance practice but my ear fought the very low pitch required to play authentically in that style.  I loved the idea of it, but decided historical performance was not for me. And then I went to a concert and heard Andrew Manze, noted British period violinist, perform a Mozart concerto with a small classical orchestra. It was like a light suddenly went on, and everything fell into place in my mind. Everything about the performance entranced me: the intimacy of the sound, the easily sculpted articulations, the variety and character of the music which came so naturally from these ever-so-slightly different-looking instruments.  I borrowed a modern copy of a classical violin and original bow,  and was astonished at what the instrument suggested to me about how to play the music.  It was like a time machine through which I could glimpse the composer's intentions. I don't know if you've seen those photoshopped renditions of statuary - the marble busts or bronze statues are transformed into realistic pictures that look like photographs of attractive, real people. The person that is so "classically" depicted comes to life with color and motion and personality. It was every bit as startling a transformation as that.

Cullan Bryant: I had heard about the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos from a pianist friend, who took me to see them.  This undiscovered gem, ensconced in a former library in an unassuming town near Boston, is the greatest collection of early European pianos in the United States.  I spent days there, moving from piano to piano, playing snippets of different works on each instrument, utterly immersed in a new, or should I say old, world.  Because of standard manufacturing practices, modern pianos have a homogeneity of sound.  Starting in the late 1700s, piano construction was in an intensely experimental phase and the sound of the instruments differed wildly, depending on both the maker and geographical location.   I was attracted especially to the very early examples and played my first recital there on the Katholnig, which we used extensively in the recordings.  I also played an all-Chopin recital on the Bosendorfer, which we used for the 10th Sonata, but I kept returning to the pianos that were most unlike modern pianos in sound and operation.

CMC: What are some of the biggest differences between playing Beethoven on period instruments and modern ones?

JJ:  The biggest difference is the total lack of necessity for the violin to try to project over the piano.  The differences in the construction of the piano make the sound more incisive and less sustained, so that it is not really possible for the sound of the piano to cover the violin.  There are no balance issues.  So the attention can go to nuance and articulation and the intimacy of expression of chamber music rather than power.  The other variable is the tuning. Because of our experience with a range of original instruments at the Frederick Collection, we like to play Sonatas 1-8 at A430 in a Bach temperament, and Sonatas 9 and 10 at A440 equal temperament.  But it really depends on the instrument where we are playing, and what that particular piano and the piano technician happen to prefer.  So that is something that is continuously unpredictable, and I have had to learn to adjust on the spot.

CB: The touch of the early piano is very light. Control of the voicing and phrase must come from keeping the weight of the hand and arm out of the keys.   Often I have to use a completely different fingering from what I use in the same passage on a modern piano.  One of the surprises when we play on tour is the location of the pedals - before the pedal was standardized to its present position on the ground, it might be a knee lever. Certain things are effortless - it is amazing, for example, the way a sforzando in the bass will pop out of the texture. While reproduction instruments are relatively stable in pitch and action, all of the instruments used on the recording have whole or partially original actions, and 200-year old mechanical objects can be creaky, noisy, and sometimes cranky.  Each instrument has its own personality, and it is important to work with what is presented and find the beauty of sound that is individual to each piano.

CMC: Tell us about the violin you’re playing on this recording. How is it particularly suited to the music of this time period, and specifically to these particular Beethoven works?

JJ: I'm playing a violin by Andrea Carolus Leeb, Viennese, from 1797.  This violin was new when Beethoven was writing his first set of violin sonatas, his Op. 12.  It was just coming out of the shop in the city where he lived.  The instrument retains its original lower-tension neck set, which enables the use of use gut strings.  Their sound is appropriate to the period and compliments the sound of the piano. The biggest difference, however, is in the bow, which was undergoing as rapid a transformation as was the piano during this time period.  The "transitional" bows that I use, so called because they were an intermediate step between the Baroque and modern bow, are a wonder of strokes and nuance.  They suggest a wide range of expression and transparency that spectacularly inform the interpretation.

CMC: Cullan, tell us about the instruments you used on the recording. Why did you use more than one piano for this cycle of sonatas?

CB:  We went through the collection and tried several different pianos with each of the sonatas.  It was a fascinating process.  The choices are all based on the character of the music, not on any pre-conceived historical notion, although we ended up roughly in chronological order. Only Sonata No. 8 is played on a piano used for earlier works- in order to highlight the music's crisply effervescent character.  Interestingly, the pianos we chose as matching Sonatas 9 and 10 were both built in 1830, three years after Beethoven's death and decades after the composition of these sonatas. I can only think that Beethoven, whose hearing was starting to fail as early as 1802, might have imagined the sound of more powerful and singing instruments as he conceptualized these works.

CMC: The world celebrates Beethoven’s 250th birthday this year. Having now completed a major cycle from the composer’s works, what would you say makes his music so timeless?

CB:  The reflection of humanity in Beethoven's music is universal. He wrote music of transformative truth, love, and beauty.  He offers us his humor, pain, and struggle. These emotions and conditions transcend time and place.

CMC: Because this is a “Beethoven Year,” there is a plethora of new recordings of his music available. What distinguishes your recording from others?

JJ:  Our recording is to my knowledge the only widely-available set recorded by Americans on instruments in an American collection.  We were inspired to re-imagine the interpretations of these works because of our access to this amazing resource- the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos.