LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

           

Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol.1

Sonatas op.31 no.1, 2 & 3

 

Paul Lewis, piano

 

‘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 has chosen to inaugurate his complete recording of the sonatas by plunging into the heart of this Tempest.

 

Sonata no.16 in G major

Sol majeur / G-dur op.31 n°1                             

1          I. Allegro vivace                        

2          II. Adagio grazioso                    

3          III. Rondo. Allegretto                 

           

Sonata no.17 in D minor "The Tempest"

ré mineur / d-moll op.31 n°2                              

4          I. Largo. Allegro                        

5          II. Adagio                     

6          III. Allegretto                

           

Sonata no.18 in E flat major

Mi bémol majeur / Es-dur op.31 n°3                                

7          I. Allegro                      

8          II. Scherzo. Allegretto vivace                             

9          III. Menuetto. Moderato e grazioso                     

10         IV. Presto con fuoco

 

Harmonia Mundi HMC901902