Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Paul Lewis
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalogue: HMC901902
Release: 2005
Size: 222 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31 No. 1
01. I. Allegro vivace
02. II. Adagio grazioso
03. III. Rondo – Allegretto
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 ‘Tempest’
04. I. Largo – Allegro
05. II. Adagio
06. III. Allegretto
Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31 No. 3 ‘The Hunt’
07. I. Allegro
08. II. Scherzo – Allegretto vivace
09. III. Menuetto – Moderato e grazioso
10. IV. Presto con fuoco
‘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.