Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-32 (Complete)

Director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle

New Release on Euroarts's new sub-label: Recorded Excellence – Historical Value. The aim of the new series is to make accessible to music lovers and collectors top-quality recordings documenting extra-special concert performances that were hitherto unreleased or were no longer available, either for the first time or as re-releases on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The main focus is on artists and repertoire. The new series will showcase defining concert moments of music history.

True HD picture! Digitally remastered and restored from 35mm film. Including intensive and high-quality audio and visual restoration.

In this recording, seven-time GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim tackles the so-called 'New Testament' of music, Ludwig van Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas.

Composed over twenty-five years and embodying the shift of musical taste from the Classic to the Romantic, their performance requires a musician of extraordinary versatility.

Daniel Barenboim is one such pianist – his recordings run the gamut from Bach and Mozart to Bruckner and Bartók. In following in the footsteps of such masters as Artur Schnabel, Barenboim truly shows himself to be among the greatest living musicians.

Bonus: 10 min. Interview with Daniel Barenboim, Vienna 2012, about the recording and the production of the complete Beethoven Sonatas Cycle 1980 - 1984.

Special Digipak packaging in a luxury slipcase.

Picture format: 1080i Full HD 16:9

Sound format: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 724 mins (714 mins Concert + 10 mins Interview)

Recording dates: 1952 (No. 29 - mono recording)

1958 (Nos. 8, 14, 21, 23)

1961 Nos. 15, 26, 30, 32)

1963 (Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7, 12, 17, 18, 25, 28, 31)

1966 (No. 4)

1968 (Nos. 2, 9, 10, 11, 19, 20)

1969 (Nos. 3, 13, 16, 22, 24, 27)

Recording and performing the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas has long been the reserve for the Grand Master or Mistress, a reward for expert hands, following long and storied careers. Here, in a bold and controversial new recording project, the 24 year-old HJ Lim will prove that she is ready now. Lim, who has already performed the sonatas in critically acclaimed 8-day concert series in France, Germany and Japan, will release the complete sonatas in a deluxe, 8-CD slipcased edition.

“I view these sonatas by Beethoven as the most intense diary, in which genius expresses, or even illustrates, all the facets of a life that is sometimes sublimated, and idealized, and often deeply moving by its realism.

To perform Beethoven's sonatas is not just to interpret music, but is also an attempt to understand the multi-faceted psychology of a human being. It is, in any case, an attempt to bring to light one's own truth. If Beethoven's music can help us understand the human being that he was, so can entering Beethoven's life help us understand his music.”

“All these reflections would not be valid without a source coming from Beethoven himself or from one of his close contemporaries, the many accounts from his close relations that we have, also the letters and personal notes are therefore very important. It does indeed help us place ourselves within the composer's lifetime and cancel as much as possible of the distance that separates us from him. As Beethoven's music is profoundly human, we can today still understand it with our hearts. And yet there is a crucial element that as an interpreter we must urgently work on, which is to "re-actualize" the impact and shock that this music could create at the time. Each sonata should be conveyed with all the freshness and innovatory inspiration it could produce in the eyes of Beethoven's contemporaries. This is the difficult role and heavy responsibility of the interpreter.

All composers need the indispensable assistance of interpreters in order to survive and communicate their ideas to a larger number, and for that their "divinity" could be transmitted to the public. However, I feel that I, as interpreter, I am not only serving the composer, but I am using myself in my turn, composers as my intermediary, as the interpreters of the divinity, to get myself closer to the Muse.” HJ Lim

NB Lim has chosen to omit the two small Op. 49 sonatas on the grounds that Beethoven didn't intend them for publication

Maria Grinberg’s performances of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas are still benchmark recordings and are here released for the first time as a 9 CD box set.

Recorded live at the Semper Opera, Dresden across 7 concerts during Buchbinder’s 2010-2011 residency with the Staatskapelle Dresden this recording is Buchbinder’s second complete Beethoven cycle, the first being a studio version from 1981 and is his first live version.

"With this new complete Beethoven cycle, I was first and foremost concerned with its musical spirit“ explained Rudolf Buchbinder whilst talking about the special character of his new recording. "It only appears when the musician is making music right there live in front of the audience. When you record in the studio, you are less nervous, you play in a more controlled way and are more focussed on other issues than when you perform on the concert platform“.

His intense focus on the works of Beethoven as well as the second recording of the complete Beethoven cycle has also influenced Rudolf Buchbinder’s concert schedule, performing his works in over 40 cities, including Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich, Buenos Aires, St Petersberg and Milan.