An interview with Lly^r Williams

This set is recorded live; is there more pressure for perfection? Well, we recorded all the rehearsals as well, so it’s not a hundred per cent live. You get the best of both worlds by doing it that way. Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself in the studio; it’s hard to get the energy level going, which you would in a concert. There are things in Beethoven Unbound that, if I was doing it in the studio, I probably could do better, but we just had to forego some of that to get the excitement of live performance. What are the benefits for the listener of the curated programme, as opposed to a chronological presentation? Certain pieces reflect on each other, and you’ve also got a huge contrast between various other pieces. For instance, on CD2 we’ve got the Appassionata, which has a very stormy conclusion in F minor. Then after a long pause we have the Variations in F major, which is a calm serene Adagio – very beautiful coming after the

F minor. Then after the Variations, which are a bit lighter, we move on to the Op. 14 sonatas which are among the wittiest he wrote. So, it’s kind of tailing off at the end of the CD, after the intensity. I’m hoping people will listen to the CD in its entirety.

And the joys of Beethoven’s keyboard music for you?

Just the sheer variety of it. I think there’s more variety in Beethoven’s keyboard writing than anybody else’s. Contrasting those witty pieces with the stormy, and the very profound slow movements you get at the end with some of his more downto-earth moments, it’s just all there. I think all of life is in there.