Beethoven: Last Three Sonatas - Pizarro - The Herald

When pianist Artur Pizarro released his first Beethoven CD, featuring some of the best known "name" sonatas, it was immediately clear that here was a man, already with a fine reputation, but with a very fresh voice in the music of Beethoven. His command of both the intellectual muscle of the music, and the courage to couple that with a poetic-lyric sensibility that is almost unfashionable, revealed a major interpreter of this music. Now with the Olympian trilogy of the last three sonatas (nos 30 - 32), Pizarro's magisterial, highly individual playing - which dares you not to listen anew - unfolds in all its glory. No addict or admirer can afford to be without this set, however many versions might already be posessed. The news this week that the pianist will not be continuing the series has an almost tragic dimension. Snap this one up now.