Wilhelm Kempff - Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas (Remastered) (2019) [Hi-Res]

Beethoven's creativity as a composer was nurtured at the keyboard. Among his early works, those for solo piano are generally regarded as the most original, pointing the way to new means of expression that he was to develop more consistently after 1800. This helps to explain the difficulty in establishing antecedents for his keyboard style. The most vital features of hispiano works are better explained from within the music itself, rather than as the result of outside influences. The impression made by Wilhelm Kempff'sperformances of Beethoven is that of an embodiment of Beethoven's remark that music must strike fire from the spirit of mankind.

Kempff brought to the Sonatas a sense of fantasy and improvisation. Improvising at the keyboard was Beethoven's passion, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to describe his sonatas as fantasies which he worked out and wrote down, fair copies of piano monologues, improvisations ordered in cogent form.

"At his best, he played more beautifully than any of us." (Alfred Brendel)

"Kempff'sperformances of all the great named sonatas [...] are triumphs of communicative music-making." (Gramophone)

Wilhelm Kempff, piano

Digitally remastered