Following the internationally acclaimed first instalment of Alfredo Perl’s three-part complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano works, the second box set spans the years 1801–1814. Musicological literature has long referred to this period as Beethoven’s “middle” or “classical” phase; yet such labels risk obscuring a compositional and aesthetic practice fundamentally defined by recourse to the past as well as foreshadowings of the future, and by Beethoven’s profound identification with his instrument. For him, the piano was a medium of self-exploration and of engagement with the world, a means of articulating the most intimate personal experience on the one hand and of responding to collective historical and political upheaval on the other.

Of the fourteen sonatas included here, at least six belong to the core repertoire of every pianist. Their popularity is reflected in the sobriquets – mostly not of Beethoven’s own invention – by which they are known: the “Moonlight”, op.27 no.2, “Pastoral”, op.28, “Tempest”, op.31 no.2, “Waldstein”, op.53, “Appassionata”, op.57, and “Les Adieux”, op.81a. Among the variation sets, the “Eroica” Variations, op.35, and the C minor Variations, WoO80, have long held a special fascination for performers and audiences alike. Yet most famous of all is the piano piece “Für Elise”, composed in 1810. For Beethoven it may have amounted to little more than a finger exercise, but it nonetheless demonstrates his ability to conjure an entire musical world out of the simplest motifs and gestures. This spectrum of elemental expressive power to unprecedented virtuosity makes clear why Beethoven’s piano works from this period represent a milestone in the history of the instrument’s repertoire.