The Hammerklavier is often taken to signify the start of Beethoven’s Late Period. 2, and Cooper rehearses again his very strong arguments for doing so (pp. The second was a survey of Baroque music. If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated. Hans von Bülow called them "The New Testament" of the piano literature (Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier being "The Old Testament"). Spanning several decades of his life as a composer, the sonatas soon came to be seen as the first body of substantial serious works for piano suited to performance in large concert halls seating hundreds of … Although listening and reviewing a nine disc set may seem daunting or even onerous, when it’s the greatest set of music in the Western canon, no problem. The Beethoven took about 11.5 hours while the Baroque tour I … The first was all 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. Piano Sonatas, opp.109, 110, 111. Deutsche Grammophon had one debt in Maurizio Pollini’s Beethoven cycle, released in 2014 and contained recordings from the late 1970s to the 2010s. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 32 piano sonatas between 1795 and 1822. Already in Beethoven (Oxford, 2000, p. 11) he had complained that their omission from ‘supposedly complete editions and recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas is quite unjustifiable’; accordingly, this new book starts with WoO 47 and not Op. The late piano sonatas, no 28-32 were still in analog recording, when some of the sonatas were re-recorded in digital before the release of the full cycle. Beethoven’s piano sonatas form one of the most important collections of works in the whole history of music. Image: Cosimo Filippini. The 32 piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven together form one of the most vital bodies of work in the instrument’s history. Although originally not intended to be a meaningful whole, as a set they comprise one of the most important collections of works in the history of music. Certainly everything that now follows – Missa Solemnis, Ninth Symphony, Piano Sonatas, String Quartets – are on an entirely different plane to what has gone before. This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them. These complete recordings of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are always welcome, especially this year during the 250th anniversary of the great composer’s birth.. 17–18).