Beethoven - Complete Piano Sonatas review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 80

Igor Levit
(Sony Classical, nine CDs)
Levit scales the heights over nine CDs, though excessive speed means musical sense is lost in some sonatas

Igor Levit made his debut on disc in 2013 with Beethoven sonatas, and not just any group of sonatas, but the final five, Opp 101, 106, 109, 110 and 111, which rank among the greatest works ever composed for the instrument. A startlingly self-confident way in which to launch a recording career, Levit followed it up, two years later, with the release of his account of Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations, as part of a set that also included Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Frederic Rzewski’s Variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated! Levit has only now completed his cycle of the sonatas, with the original 2013 performances re-released alongside recordings of the other 27 made between the end of 2017 and the beginning of this year.