The Final Trinity

Pianist Jonathan Biss shares the wonder of Beethoven's piano sonatas with Donald Macleod. Today they discuss Nos 30 to 32, a high point in Beethoven's keyboard works.

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.

By the year 1820 Beethoven was almost without any hearing. Yet far from being a limitation, this triptych, his final utterances in the sonata genre, are unsurpassed in their variety, structure and invention.

Beethoven: Piano sonata no 30 in E major op 109 (excerpt)
First movement: Vivace ma non troppo – Adagio espressivo
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 31 in A flat major op 110
First movement: Moderato cantabile, molto espressivo
Richard Goode, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 5 in C minor Op 10 no 1
First movement: Allegro molto e con brio
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Piano sonata no 30 in E major op 109
First movement: Vivace ma non troppo – Adagio espressivo
Second movement: Prestissimo
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Piano sonata no 30 in E major op 109
Third movement: Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung
Jonathan Biss, piano