Beethoven

The first of the Artemis Quartet’s Virgin Classics CDs of Beethoven Quartets was released in Autumn 2005. Now, nearly six years later, the complete Beethoven cycle becomes available in a box of 7 CDs which includes two previously unreleased items: the quartet No 10, op 74, known as the ‘Harp’, and a transcription for string quartet, proudly made by Beethoven himself, of the Piano Sonata No 9, op 14.

To run parallel with his complete Haydn series, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is now starting a complete, chronological cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. This first set covers the sonatas composed in the 1790s. Two further volumes, of middle and late sonatas, will follow in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Cellist Yegor Dyachkov and pianist Jean Saulnier present Beethoven’s complete Sonatas and Variations for Cello and Piano in digital and physical formats. Comprising works from the composer’s Op. 5, Op. 17, Op. 66, and Op. 102, the complete sonatas will be released as a three-CD box set on October 28, 2022. Spanning the composer’s three creative periods, Beethoven’s sonatas for cello and piano constitute a unique group within his oeuvre. “Recording the complete sonatas marks a milestone in an artistic career,” says cellist Yegor Dyachkov. “Most artists undertake such a project only once, and only after having spent a long time in the company of these works, so that the various possible interpretive paths reach a kind of equilibrium.”