Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Piano Sonata no. 32 in C minor, Op.111

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

Hugo Ticciati and Víkingur Ólafsson explore notions of time, but a lesson in mindful performance comes from the gravity-defying Sanddorn Balance act.  

Colours poured in through a metaphorical stained glass window in Verbier's church.

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.

To celebrate a popular thinker's influence across the breadth of the arts in a single concert is clearly no small ambition. This programme sagged under the weight of its disparate components, but the individual works shone brilliantly.

Lars Vogt and Royal Northern Sinfonia end their explorations of Mozart and Sibelius with the composers' final works.

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

Sir András Schiff delivers deeply profound performances of the final piano sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert.

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

With expressive playing of Brahms's miniatures and solid performances of two of Beethoven's late piano sonatas, Paul Lewis' recital in Sydney was musically satisfying if not transcendent.

Darkness and light were the main focus of Jeremy Denk's debut at the Chamber Proms in a programme which opened with Scriabin’s demonic  “Black Mass” piano sonata and closed with Beethoven’s otherworldly Op.111.

François-Frédéric Guy proves the ideal Beethoven interpreter is his "It's All About the Piano" recital at the Institut français in Kensington. 

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. 

Teacher and pupil took the stage at London’s Wigmore Hall in a joint concert by pianists Maria João Pires and Pavel Kolesnikov, which revealed the pianists' individual and combined talents in works by Schubert, Beethoven and Schumann.

Occasionally one comes across an artist who seems so at one with the music, that one can almost hear the composer at the artist’s shoulder saying ”yes, that is what I meant”.

Saturday's opening concert of the Oslo Chamber Music Festival was something of a lukewarm experience, yet it occasionally shone with ravishing Beethoven and deeply engaging Bartók.

András Schiff takes on, and astonishes with, the last sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

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

Evgeny Kissin is more than a collection of bones and flesh and crazy hair: he is a sensation. Every May for the past several years, the pianist has performed a recital on the Perelman stage at Carnegie Hall, and every year the tickets have sold out by mid-October, seven or eight months in advance. These recitals are the pinnacle of any concert-goer’s season.

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.

Let me first describe the sound of the applause: taut, front-heavy, explosive. This was before Evgeny Kissin played his first note at Symphony Hall this past Sunday. It was a packed house, with an audience that spilled out of the choir loft and onto several rows of chairs wrapped around the piano.

On Wednesday night the Turkish-born star pianist, all-rounder musician Fazil Say returned to the Konzerthaus in Berlin shortly after completing his successful year of artist-in-residence there. Say, who also composes and plays Jazz, is known for his unconventional approach.

Haydn, Beethoven et Schubert sous les doigts de Peter Rösel, pour un récital austère et indescriptiblement beau.

Dans la programmation du festival Piano aux Jacobins, le virtuose d’Alexandre Tharaud était bien évidemment très attendu. Celui qui fêtera ses cinquante ans en fin d’année 2018 n’est plus à présenter tant sa personnalité s’est imposée dans le paysage français et international. 

Lise de la Salle verstand es, das äußerst anspruchsvolle Werk in einem harmonischen Fluss zu gestalten – eine sehr eindrucksvolle Leistung!

Quelle idée de venir présenter à Paris programme de telle envergure, dans une réalisation si défaillante sur le plan technique ! Une performance brouillonne, hagarde et décousue, qui remet en question le vedettariat mondial du pianiste.

Il faut la volonté farouche d’un Jérôme Rigaudias pour de ces Tableaux d’une exposition, faire un gué, un passage incertain, improbable franchissement d’un interdit qui ne dit son nom. Rigaudias les transfigure en une « Lutte avec l’Ange ».

Belleza a cuatro manos: equilibrio perfecto entre técnica y sensibilidad al servicio de un diálogo intergeneracional

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.

Nelson Freire revenait faire vibrer le public de la Roque d'Anthéron avec un programme constitué de monuments de la littérature pianistique.