Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

The inimitable young British pianist James Rhodes returns with his second recital album. Since the release of his first album last year, Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos, James’ career has moved from strength to strength. Sales of his debut album rocketed him to the top of the UK iTunes classical chart after Stephen Fry championed him on Twitter, and he has since built a strong following of fans in concert halls and online.

He has filmed a new series for BBC4 on Chopin, which is due for broadcast in March 2010. This disc features a bonus disc of 2 Chopin pieces and video footage of a live performance from the Roundhouse in Camden, London.

Each of Beethoven's 32 sonatas has its own special character. And, modest though they are in their aims and dimensions, the Bagatelles show the composer at his very greatest. Andrei Korobeinikov, born in Moscow in 1986, has performed in more than 20 countries all over the world and won more than 20 prizes in national and international competitions, among them the Alexander Scriabin International Piano Competition in 2004 and the Rachmaninov Piano Competition in Los Angeles in 2005, where he also received the Audience Prize.

At the age of 19, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with an exceptional award as 'best student of the decade'. In 2005 he pursued his studies at the Royal College of Music in London with the aid of a Scholarship. Now regularly invited over the world, he has appeared at Festival International de Piano de La Roque d'Anthéron, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Wigmore Hall and the Chipping Campden Festival in London, the Gstaad Festival, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and the Performing Arts Center in Washington.

The 3rd volume of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, of which Gieseking was in the middle of recording with EMI when he died.

The Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot is regarded as one of the greatest 20th century musicians, especially renowned for his poetic insight into the Romantic period piano works and is particularly associated with those of Chopin. A must for enthusiasts of piano music and great performances.

The release of the last two volumes of Schiff’s complete Beethoven Sonatas this autumn finally offers the opportunity to view, and hear, the pianist’s approach to this unique repertoire segment in total. Volume VIII, recorded at the Reitstadl in Neumarkt, Germany rather than the Tonhalle Zurich used for all the previous instalments, includes the Sonatas Nos. 30, 31 and 32. “This was a Beethoven which transfixed the audience with its Apollonian balance, its subtly hued sonic and dynamic differentiation, depth of thought and technical command…The three sonatas sounded like a quintessence of pure late style, otherworldly as if made from precious marble”, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reviewing Schiff in concert. The booklet for this final volume includes not only an extensive interview with the pianist on the recorded sonatas but also a performer’s note about his personal approach to and experiences with Beethoven.

This disc presents three sonatas, No. 1, No. 23 (Appassionata"), and No. 30, performed by 2008 Grammy-winning pianist, Garrick Ohlsson. In the words of annotator Frank Cooper, “Three stages of greatness- exploratory, revolutionary, visionary- are represented here…”

“The god of inspiration sprints hand in hand with Garrick Ohlsson” Classics Today on a previous volume