Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3

Emil Gilels in a pure Beethoven concert FROM 1980, the late phase of his artistic development. His musicianship is experienced in this late concert, performed five years before his death. An evening of the highest artistic intensity, a mature Beethoven interpretation.

Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras. Early in his career, Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition becoming the first African-American classical instrumentalist to win first prize in this international competition. Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, his second release from EMI Classics, Pratt tackles Beethoven’s late piano sonatas with a robust freshness and unaffected musicality. The result is intimate, playful, and charming.

Mari Kodama continues her cycle of piano sonatas. "What really comes across, is her affection for the music, her wish to give it time so that we may enjoy its shape, harmonies and details." International Record Review

Anika Vavić has performed in the some of the world’s most established concert halls including Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw. She has worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev and Paavo Järvi. Her other great passion is literature and she has written a novel.

Confidence, energy, brashness, terseness and humour: these five words succinctly characterize Beethoven's early piano sonatas. However, with Op. 10 No. 3's D minor Largo e mesto, a new quality - soul-bearing depth - comes into play - and settles in for the remainder of Beethoven's creative life. During the late 1970s, when VladimirAshkenazy's integral Beethoven sonata project for Decca neared completion, the pianist decided to remake several works that had been recorded and released earlier on. As a result, the cycle included Ashkenazy's 1978 version of the 'Appassionata', 1979 version of Op. 10 No. 3 and 1980 version of the 'Pathetique', but not the earlier traversals reissued here for the first time on CD. These earlier readings - Op. 10 No. 3 and the 'Appassionata' were recorded in 1970 and the 'Pathetique' in 1972 - can be more impetuous, with greater rhetorical freedom and more liberal inflections. Their kinetic power and dynamism are hard to resist.

Murray Perahia is a master interpreter of Beethoven. Here are his recordings of three Piano Sonatas that prompted the Penguin Guide to proclaim Perhaia “an authoritative and sensitive interpreter of Beethoven”.