Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Volume 3

This is the fifth volume of Angela Hewitt’s cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and she is recording a full set of Mozart’s concertos too; and yet she is still probably best known for her Bach. So perhaps it’s no surprise that it’s when Beethoven slips into Bach-style fugues in the final movement of Op 110 that Hewitt sounds most masterful. Elsewhere she is incisive and thoughtful too, even if the two earliest works here, Op 2 no 2 and Op 10 no 1, demand a certain lightness of touch that they don’t quite get – the flurries and flourishes sound like collections of notes rather than single, self-propelling gestures. The second movement of Op 78 is a deft dialogue of question and answer, and Hewitt brings an inevitability to Op 110 that makes sense of its changes of direction even if she doesn’t obviously revel in the full extent and novelty of its inspiration.

This new release is the penultimate volume in this acclaimed series of Medtner's Complete Piano Sonatas performed by series pianist Paul Stewart. Medtner's 14 piano sonatas, the most significant achievement in this genre by any major composer since Beethoven, span his career. The Sonata-Ballade explores a tempestuous musical allegory - the triumph of Light over Darkness, of Faith over Doubt; while the Sonata in A minor is cast in a single, terse movement, with folkloric elements and frequent use of bell-like features that exude Russianness. By contrast, the 'Night Wind' Sonata is a monumental epic of exceptional complexity that stunned Rachmaninov and led composer and critic Sorabji to call it 'the greatest piano sonata of modern times.'

For this super audio disc from Channel Classics, Dejan Lazic's live performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major is programmed with his solo recordings of the Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, "Moonlight," and the Sonata No. 31 in A flat major. Ostensibly, this is a sonic showcase for Lazic and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, under Richard Tognetti, and the state-of-the-art technology brings out the best in the musicians, giving the pianist an intimate presence without crowding him or artificially boosting his volume, while at the same time lending the orchestra a spaciousness that really opens it up.

Jonathan Biss concludes his nine-year, nine-volume exploration of Beethoven’s piano sonatas with a recording for our times, one that asks profound questions about mankind’s fragile existence. The final album in his critically acclaimed cycle, set for release on Orchid Classics, brings together three works that each stand as the last of a group of three sonatas. The American pianist begins with a masterwork of Beethoven’s early creative period, the Sonata No.7 in D major, Op.10 No.3. Its stop-start finale, punctuated by silences, prefaces a compelling interpretation of the Sonata No.18 in E flat major, Op.31 No.3, a work that blends unsettling introspection and playful high spirits. Biss ends his Beethoven odyssey with the Sonata No.32 in C minor Op.111, the composer’s farewell to the genre.