大象传媒

Pianist Jonathan Biss shares the wonder of Beethoven's piano sonatas with Donald Macleod. Today they're discussing the Tempest sonata and how Beethoven ripped up the rule book.

Biss has just completed a nine-year odyssey to record all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas. It's been a revelatory experience, and his relationship with Beethoven remains far from over. These works are so remarkable, he says, they changed the course of musical history, and beyond that as a performer, they demand that he continues to play them for the rest of his life.

Recorded at the piano, in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Jonathan shares his life-long passion for Beethoven with Donald. As they talk, he demonstrates how and why Beethoven's piano sonatas advanced the genre far beyond anything that anyone had ever achieved previously. As they talk each day we will gain a performer's perspective of Beethoven's developmental trajectory. Together they'll unpack some of Jonathan's personal favourites, among them the Appassionata, the Tempest, No 27 in E minor op 90 and No 30 in E major op 109.

Following in the footsteps of Haydn and Mozart, the wealth of ideas that Beethoven had on the subject of form can be found in all their infinite possibilities in his piano sonatas.

Beethoven: Sonata no 12 in A flat major, op 26
Fourth movement: Allegro
Wilhelm Kempff, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 17 in D minor, op 31 no 2 (The Tempest)
First movement: Largo-Allegro
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 17 in D minor, op 31 no 2 (The Tempest) (excerpt)
Second movement: Adagio
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 17 in D minor, Op 31 no 2 (The Tempest)
3rd movement: Allegretto
Jonathan Biss, piano

Sonata 鈥渜uasi una fantasia鈥� op 27 (Moonlight)
Rudolf Serkin, piano