Beethoven: Early Piano Sonatas Opp. 2-7-10

An experienced early-keyboard specialist brings his expertise to the 'New Testament' of the piano repertoire.

'Period' performances of Beethoven sonatas have become relatively mainstream during the present century, through artists such as Robert Levin and Ronald Brautigam. Through them, we have learnt, or rediscovered, that the turns of phrase in Beethoven's musical thinking take on a particular shape and agility when played and heard on the kind of instrument for which he was writing.

All the same, most modern fortepianos are exactly that: modern. In this bold new project, Simone Pierini presents the first nine of Beethoven's sonatas - from Op.2 to Op.10 - on fully original instruments of the period. These instruments are identified as the work of piano-makers Johann Haselmann (end of 18th century-early 19th century), Matthias Müller (1822) and Conrad Graf (1830).

Simone Pierini complements the sonatas with several standalone pieces: the Allegretto in C minor, WoO53, Andante favori, WoO57, Bagatelle in B flat, WoO60, the Rondos, op.51, Variations in D, op.76, and the Polonaise in C, op.89. The set thus surveys the first 20 years of Beethoven's career as a composer, from the Op.2 sonatas of 1795 to the Polonaise which he wrote in 1814-15.

During those two decades, his style underwent far-reaching changes, which in themselves have come to define the passage from the Classical to the Romantic style in music. All the same, Beethoven was and is Beethoven all the way through, as inimitable and distinct in the coursing momentum and sometimes surprising breadth of Op.2 as in the inward gaze of the Andante favori and the sideways look at popular dances in the Polonaise: all of them, in their way, inheritances from and developments of Haydn's style.

Simone Pierini's previous fortepiano albums for Brilliant Classics include sets of sonatas by Luigi Cherubini, J.B. Cramer (Beethoven's publisher in London) and Hélène de Montgeroult. He brings to this repertoire a deep understanding of both its context and the nature of the instruments on which these composers were working at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries: equipped with a lighter touch than many modern pianos, and a more intimate tone. Reviewing the album of de Montgeroult, the Fanfare critic remarked that Pierini 'plays with tremendous energy and conviction'.