Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas

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.