From the early Op. 2 set of sonatas to the famous 'Moonlight', find out why Beethoven's piano sonatas broke the mould - and hear from pianists themselves about how they approach performing them.

American pianist Jonathan Biss, who is recording the Beethoven sonatas at the pace of one disc a year, has a good way with words. The fact that Beethoven's Sonata in E flat, Op 7, and the Moonlight ...

Even as he struggled with the onset of deafness, Beethoven took the piano sonata into new realms of expressive power and beauty. Beethoven composed his Moonlight Sonata in 1801, the same year that — A ...

The popular nickname of the 'Moonlight' for the second sonata of Op. 27 may be a fair title for the first movement, but the rest of the work contains some of the most turbulent music Beethoven ever ...

Performances in N.Y.C. Advertisement Supported by critic’s notebook Our chief classical critic took on the daunting Opus 110 in college, and now relishes risky recordings. By Anthony Tommasini For my ...

Beethoven wrote piano sonatas throughout his life, from the early pieces he wrote as virtuoso vehicles for himself to the highly distilled essays he crafted after deafness had put an end to his ...

Beethoven's output for cello and piano spanned his lifetime -- starting with the two sonatas he composed in 1796; two near ...

Writing a warm if inevitably parti pris appreciation of Stephen Kovacevich’s nine-CD and 12-year project, producer John Fraser speaks of ‘an artist of almost self-punishing honesty and integrity’.

'There’s no denying his clarity: fingerwork is immaculate (passagework, trills and tremolos are unfailingly neat) and textures are lucid' Beethoven Piano Sonatas – No 30 in E, Op 109; No 31 in A flat, ...

Beethoven's second compositional phase, often known as his heroic period, is most obviously exemplified in the Eroica Symphony of 1803-4. But, as the slow movement of his Op. 26 Piano Sonata shows, ...

Jane Jones has a glimpse into the heart of the contradictory composer. When I skipped practice and decided that I wasn’t made for music, I reckoned without Beethoven. It’s years since my schooldays ...