- Essentials, Vol. 1 · 2020
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 · 2019
- 'Ode to Joy' Final Chorus from Schiller · 1962
- Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 "Pathétique": II. Adagio cantabile - Single · 2023
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125: II. Molto vivace "Choral Symphony" - Single · 2024
- Symphony No.5 (Beethoven) - Single · 2023
- Cavendish Classical presents Cavendish Chorale: A Capella Classics · 2012
- Piano Sonata No.8 in C Minor Op.13 Pathétique II Adagio Cantabile - Single · 2024
- Ode to Joy - Single · 2021
- Moonlighting - Single · 2021
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 · 2021
- Beethoven: Sonatas Vol. 4 · 2024
- Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36 · 2019
Essential Albums
- Beethoven’s colossal contribution to music resulted in every form he tackled being extended, developed and re-invented—and these two works are proof. His most famous piano concerto, No. 5, the Emperor Concerto, crowns his so-called Middle Period, and his Piano Sonata No. 28 (of 32) belongs to a group that transformed the piano sonata into something epic and exploratory. French pianist Hélène Grimaud offers performances marked by delicacy, power, drive and a sense of inevitability: a very modern-sounding Beethoven.
- This is one of those truly classic recordings, as powerful today as the day it was made. It landed in record stores in 1975 and was immediately hailed as an outstanding work. It also established Carlos Kleiber, son of another great conductor, Erich, as a musician of extraordinary talent. Collaborating with an orchestra that knows the work as well as any, Kleiber achieves what every conductor strives for—to make the music sound fresh and new. From the first bar, this performance crackles with electricity, and it surges on, buoyed by a very special magic. The Seventh also receives a performance of tremendous energy and, like the Fifth, it’s stunningly well played.
- Like his late quartets, Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas take form into new territory. The A Major (No. 28) is the most conventional, but you can already feel the ambition of utterance before the onslaught of the mighty “Hammerklavier” (No. 29), which Igor Levit, in his mid-twenties when this recording was made, takes on with astounding confidence. The final three sonatas find Beethoven refining and concentrating, before offering the essence of his message in long, powerful closing movements. By the last sonata—No. 32 in the special key, for him, of C minor—he has reduced the form to two movements and explores a rhythmic language that seems to prefigure jazz. This is sublime music and sublime playing.
- 2019
Artist Playlists
- The drama, the despair, the utter joy—this is Beethoven in all his life-enriching, inventive glory.
- Beyond the classics, Beethoven gave us a huge quantity of wonderful music.
- Take a break from the thunder and fury, and sink into some of the composer’s most beautiful works.
- Beethoven’s world, as seen through the eyes of composers old and new.
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About Ludwig van Beethoven
The most powerful creative force that classical music has ever known, Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, to a father who was a tenor. Having impressed the local nobility and audiences with his prodigious gifts as a pianist and improviser, the young Beethoven was drawn to the greater professional opportunities offered by Vienna. He settled there in 1792, first studying with Haydn and others, then setting himself up as a pianist and composer. Beethoven’s masterly performing skills and his music’s emotional depth and rhythmic energy soon made his name across Europe. The third of his nine symphonies, the “Eroica”, was completed in 1804, hugely expanding the dimensions of the genre. Within the next 10 years, Beethoven had completed an extraordinary body of work. A further five symphonies (Nos. 4-8) and four concertos (two for piano including No. 5, the “Emperor”, the Triple Concerto, and the Violin Concerto) joined his only opera, Fidelio, which he worked on for a decade, as well as additional orchestral, chamber and piano music. His increasing and eventual total deafness would end his appearances as a pianist, yet he found he could still compose; before his death in 1827, he wrote some of his greatest works. Among these were a Ninth Symphony with its unprecedented choral finale, a large-scale Missa Solemnis for chorus and orchestra, and a final sequence of string quartets (Nos. 12-16) and piano sonatas (Nos. 27-32).
- HOMETOWN
- Bonn, Germany
- BORN
- 17 December 1770
- GENRE
- Classical