Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight' (Mondschein Sonata)

Iconic pianist Radu Lupu has been an exclusive DECCA artist for 40 years. This all-new collection brings together for the first time all of his published solo recordings for DECCA as an integral set. It features those composers with which Lupu's name has been so closely linked throughout his career and for which he has achieved worldwide acclaim: Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann.

A special bonus is the inclusion of Radu Lupu's first concerto recording - Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto - made in 1970 with the London Symphony under the direction of Lawrence Foster. It was this concerto that Lupu had played to massive acclaim when he won the 1969 Leeds Piano Competition.

2010 marks the 40th anniversary of Lupu's association with Decca and in November he celebrates his 65th birthday.

Although he has publicly expressed his dislike of the recording process and has not agreed to make any recordings in recent years, Radu Lupu continues to give recitals and perform concertos in important venues throughout the world and many of his recordings have achieved reference status.

Paul Lewis performed all the Beethoven piano sonatas on tour in the USA and Europe between the 2005 and 2007 seasons, in parallel with this complete recording of the cycle for harmonia mundi, now available as a boxed set for the first time.

(Volume 4 of the Sonatas received two Gramophone Awards in 2008 for Recording of the Year and Best Instrumental Recording.)

"one of the most highly prized recording marathons of recent years…an unmissable benchmark."Gramophone

This collection was recorded live across eight concerts at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Berlin in June and July 2005.

Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas have been at the heart of Daniel Barenboim’s musical life since childhood and through his remarkable career, Barenboim has gained a unique understanding of Beethoven’s music. Having performed much of the composer’s solo, chamber, orchestral and operatic repertoire, Barenboim’s performances of these varied and complex works give a fascinating perspective into one of music’s greatest geniuses from one of the most gifted and complete musicians of our time.

Having first performed a complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in Tel Aviv in 1960, Barenboim has repeated the feat many times around the world, most recently at the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, in 2002, at the Vienna Musikverein in 2004 (when he also conducted the Palestine Youth Orchestra in its inaugural concert and played a Beethoven sonatas concert in Ramallah), at the Berlin Staatsoper in 2005, and at both La Scala, Milan, and London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2008.

Barenboim says of the Beethoven piano sonatas: “This music encompasses everything that a great human being is capable of – in thought, in feeling, in intuition, in temperament, in character. All the different attributes of the human condition are contained in this music.”

Alfred Brendel's digital cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas now available at budget price. The set has now been rebranded as a DECCA release. Recorded in various locations between 1992 and 1996