Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Piano Sonata no. 31 in A flat major, Op.110

An ambitious programme demonstrated the musical passions and prowess of this most sought-after pianist, holding the Halloween audience in his devilish spell.

Early and late Beethoven in the closing two recitals of Wigmore Hall's Beethoven Festival Weekend. 

A programme of late Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert explores music at the limits.

Igor Levit, praised for his distinctive and sometimes unconventional approach to Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, brought his cycle to a close with a concert of profound philosophy and bold contrasts.

With thought-inspiring programming, Schiff played the penultimate sonatas of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert.

Sir András Schiff is traversing the final three piano sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in concerts which celebrate the sonata form and explore the notion of "late style" in relation to these composers.

Maria João Pires showcases a young pianist who steals the show.

Paul Lewis gave a noteworthy piano recital in Leeds, presenting the three last Beethoven piano sonatas. 

Richard Goode returned to Amsterdam with a wonderful performance of Beethoven's final piano sonatas refreshingly performed with six bagatelles from the same period. 

Paul Lewis gives a magnificent rendition of the last three sonatas by Beethoven in Dublin. 

Angela Cheng’s recital featured a potentially intimidating quartet of sonatas by the Viennese masters, but under her hands the music was anything but intimidating.

The eagerly awaited second Sydney concert in Angela Hewitt’s current Musica Viva tour began with the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, one of Bach’s most popular individual keyboard works. Both the improvisatory first section and the fugal section proper make extensive use of notes not found in the D minor scale, hence the description “chromatic”, meaning “coloured”.

Igor Levit’s star is rising fast: a BBC New Generation Artist, an exclusive recording deal with Sony Classics, and a debut CD of Beethoven’s late piano sonatas have already brought this 26-year-old pianist attention and acclaim, and on Tuesday evening he opened the 2013/14 International Piano Series at London’s Southbank Centre with a performance of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas to a full h

A concert of the Op. 109, Op. 110, and Op. 111 piano sonatas could very easily be delivered with the kind of self-seriousness that turns Beethoven into the Beethoven of legend, a daunting, impenetrable titan, the kind of Beethoven consecrated high on the proscenium arches of so many American concert halls.

In the week when Culture Secretary Maria Miller told arts organisations across the UK to show her the money, it seems inappropriate to begin this review by commenting on the length of concert intervals – they are, after all, vital for venues to make a few pounds selling drinks to a culture-thirsty clientele.

This was Nikolay Khozyainov’s first return visit to Dublin after having deservedly won first prize in the Dublin International Piano Competition last year. I particularly recall a brilliant and compelling interpretation of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 3 in the final. Consequently, expectations were very high for this evening’s performance.

Bringing with them the exuberance of youthful passion and prodigious energy, the students of the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove in Cornwall transformed a starkly unaccommodating town hall into one which thrilled to the talents of classical music's heirs.

Piotr Anderszewski gibt ein umjubeltes Rezital mit Bach, Schumann und Beethoven in Hamburg.

Nul ne peut rester indifférent face à une telle imagination musicale. Retour sur le récital marquant du pianiste russe Daniil Trifonov à la Philharmonie dans un magnifique programme réunissant Scriabine, Beethoven, Borodine et Prokofiev. 

Igor Levit livre un récital Beethoven travaillé et déroutant. Somptueuses, les Sonates opus 109 et opus 110 paraissent néanmoins factices, privilégiant l'instant à la grande trajectoire... que l'on trouve heureusement dans les Diabelli.

À la Philharmonie, Nelson Freire a donné un récital magistral, une leçon d'interprétation, de poésie et de lumière.

Ce dimanche, on découvrait deux valeurs parmi les plus sûres du piano français au Festival Solistes à Bagatelle : Sélim Mazari et Jean-Paul Gasparian.

Qui a dit qu'il fallait avoir une vie derrière soi pour oser jouer les dernières sonates de Beethoven ? Des « idiots bêtes » comme disent les petits enfants. 

Varvara Nepomnyashchaya ofreció un recital en el Palau de la Música con un complejo porgrama que viajó desde la polifonía de Bach al virtuosismo de Cuadros de una exposición.

Stephen Kovacevich war wohl nie ein typischer Tastenlöwe, vielmehr ein feinsinniger Musiker - und das ist er noch immer.

Igor Levit, ein Meister der leisen, verhaltenen Töne, berührte das Publikum in der Zürcher Tonhalle mit drei Beethoven-Sonaten, einer Partita von Bach und Busonis Fantasia nach J.S. Bach.