In this vast, single-movement composition, Franz Liszt achieved a synthesis of symphonic and sonata forms that has never been surpassed for its cogency, scope and imagination. He managed this in a ...

Swiss-Italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi performs Liszt's B minor sonata and Schubert's Sonata in D, D.850 at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg in Austria. Penny Gore presents. 12:31 AM Franz Schubert ...

Even as he struggled with the onset of deafness, Beethoven took the piano sonata into new realms of expressive power and beauty. Beethoven composed his Moonlight Sonata in 1801, the same year that — A ...

Clara Schumann, the wife of the great composer Robert Schumann, wrote in her diary on 25 May 1854: Liszt sent Robert today a sonata dedicated to him and several other things with a friendly letter to ...

Though he is perhaps not as well known to British concert-goers as he might be, the Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, now in his mid-60s, is highly regarded elsewhere in Europe, especially as an ...

When a chipping sparrow trills, it could be that spring has arrived. When women’s voices ululate, they do so, in different regions of the world, to celebrate, to mourn, to pray, to warn, to seduce.

As a student, Levit spent years meticulously polishing a single piano sonata. In many ways it taught him all he knows about this ‘no bullshit’ composer who wrote music of the future Opus 2, No 2. The ...

Note to Readers: This column is switching gears to review the complete Andras Schiff and Idil Biret Beethoven Sonata cycles. One sonata will be addressed at a time. This will be more orderly than ...

Performances in N.Y.C. Advertisement Supported by critic’s notebook Our chief classical critic took on the daunting Opus 110 in college, and now relishes risky recordings. By Anthony Tommasini For my ...

Having made the first drafts of "Piano Sonata No. 2" in the spring of 1910, Szymanowski completed it the following summer in Tymoszówka. Having made the first drafts of Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 21 in ...

"I would never have believed that I could be so lazy as I am here. If it is followed by an outburst of industry, something worthwhile may be accomplished." So wrote Beethoven from the Austrian spa ...

This Sonata represents one of the few cases in which the popular title came from the composer himself - its full name is 'Grande sonate pathétique' (pathetic in the sense of 'suffering', rather than ...