• The cover of Steven Osborne’s recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, Op 109 in E major, Op 110 in A flat major and Op 111 in C minor (Hyperion), shows a detail of Rodin’s The Hand of God in marble. Smoothly sculpted fingers clasp a rough clod of earth. It’s an apt simile for these three late works, a summation of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, and written between 1820-22, around the time of the Missa Solemnis.
As in that great choral masterpiece, storm and perdition unite with heaven and serenity. Keys closely linked, moods contrasting, these three sonatas seem to express everything in music, including wit and generosity. Osborne, always a player in absolute service to the composer, captures Beethoven’s humanity, tumult and crazed fervour. This revered Scottish pianist has a special capacity for the ethereal. Check out the opening of the last movement (andante) of Op 109, in the Adagio of Op 110, in the Arietta: Adagio of Op 111.
• All great pianists want to record this music – everyone with something unique to offer, from Mitsuko Uchida to András Schiff or, from another era, Artur Schnabel. The London-based Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin has just released Beethoven’s Op 110, Op 111 and Six Bagatelles Op 126 (BIS), with his own insightful programme essay. His speeds are marginally faster than Osborne’s in the A flat sonata, slower in the C minor, Subdin’s approach more restless and physical, but full of poetry – and its a bonus to have the Bagatelles. In yet another pairing, the US pianist Jonathan Biss, probing and insightful, has included Op 110 in Volume 8 of his nine-volume, nine-year Beethoven series (JB Recordings), which he began in 2011. Each player offers different rewards. Sample them all before deciding. I’m glad to have all three.
• It’s rare to have a music book featured on Radio 4’s Book of the Week. Catch up on iPlayer with Oliver Soden’s epic biography of the composer Michael Tippett, read by the author.
