Harmonia Mundi: HMC901902

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Volume 1

‘A little more and I would have ended my life ... only my art held me back’, says Beethoven in his ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’.

Partly contemporary with this key document of summer 1802, these three sonatas open up the ‘new paths’ that were to enable the composer to surmount the prospect of almost total deafness. Paul Lewis chose to inaugurate his complete recording of the sonatas by plunging into the heart of this Tempest.

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Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Volume 1

0794881782925

HMC901902

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas Volume 1

Beethoven:

Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31 No. 1

Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 'Tempest'

Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3 'The Hunt'

Paul Lewis (piano)

“A more auspicious start would be hard to imagine... Lewis's unalloyed musicianship and overall mastery are worth their weight in gold; every bar declares his calibre and generosity of spirit. Harmonia Mundi's sound is excellent and I can scarcely wait to hear the rest of this deeply serious and sensitive young pianist's epic undertaking.” The Gramophone, September 2005

GGramophone Magazine

Editor's Choice - Awards Issue 2005

Harmonia Mundi Paul Lewis Beethoven - HMC901902

(CD)

$17.49

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Press comments:

"Paul Lewis launches his cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas with a triptych of richly varied middle-period masterpieces. A more auspicious start would be hard to imagine. ... Lewis’s unalloyed musicianship and overall mastery are worth their weight in gold; every bar declares his calibre and generosity of spirit." Bryce Morrison - Gramophone Magazine

"There isn’t a bar in any of these sonatas that seem ill-considered or hastily characterised; if tempos are generally on the measured side, Lewis's sense of structure and constant awareness of what the harmonic rhythm is doing allows him to generate tension in the most subtle ways." The Guardian

"This inaugural disc in Paul Lewis's cycle of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas is of such a high order that it promises to make the whole projected series a must for anybody who admires pianism at its most perceptive. Lewis has been living and breathing these sonatas in concert and it shows – he really does have something to say. (…) I, for one, can’t wait for the next instalment.’ BBC Radio 3

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