Artur Pereira / Beethoven: Piano Sonatas – CD

Pianist Artur Pereira presents historically informed performances of three piano sonatas by Beethoven: Op. 31 no. 2 (‘Tempest’), WoO 47 no. 2, and Op. 110.

The Manchester-based pianist and author Artur Pereira has gone to the original source material to present the piano sonatas as Beethoven originally composed them. The speeds are as Beethoven intended, the dynamic markings as he wrote them. So the slow movement of the Appassionata is not presented as a slow and sentimental hymn-like offering. And as Beethoven wrote new clefs and key signatures before variations 1&2, Pereira inserts tiny pauses, almost certainly as Beethoven intended. And in Op.110, instead of the rather easy-going, almost joyful, performances by others, Pereira finds a sense of loss which Beethoven felt so keenly at this late stage in his life. Pereira will record the complete set of the 35 — yes 35 — sonatas. An essential addition to any Beethoven library.

Piano Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31 No. 2, “Tempest”:

I. Largo – Allegro

II. Adagio

III. Allegretto

Piano Sonata in F Minor, WoO 47 No. 2:

I. Larghetto maestoso – Allegro assai

II. Andante

III. Presto

Piano Sonata in A-Flat Major, Op. 110:

I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo

II. Allegro molto