Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 19, 29

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Beethoven
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat, the 'Hammerklavier,' has long been considered a monument: one of the most path-breaking, large-scale and technically daunting sonatas of the Classical period, a work that only select pianists attempt. In performance it often sounds just as hard as it is. But not on the new recording by François-Frédéric Guy. This 37-year-old French pianist captures the audaciousness and wild flights of the score and plays brilliantly. Yet there is remarkable clarity and poise in his performance. Textures are clear; every note speaks; no detail is fudged. … Mr. Guy maintains a vibrant clip, with plenty of room for phrases to breathe and transitions to ease from one to the next. He brings mischievous humor and crisp articulation to the Scherzo and a searching pensiveness to the great Adagio sostenuto. … [H]e precedes the 'Hammerklavier' with a noble account of the 'Pathétique' Sonata and follows it with, of all things, the Sonata No. 19 in G minor. … And in Mr. Guy's elegant account this moody work … seems anything but complicated" (1/7/07).