Sonatas on stage
Live performances in 2020 Beethoven’s piano works have been a decade-long focus for Jonathan Biss, who is in the process of recording a complete series of the composer’s sonatas. Biss appears at the
Wigmore Hall throughout 2019-20 as part of that venue’s celebrations for Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, where he will perform the sonata cycle. The second instalment takes place on 19 December and includes the Appassionata; Biss will be on hand to answer Beethoven-related questions in a post-recital talk on the same day.
Boris Giltburg plans to learn and broadcast videos via Youtube of all 32 sonatas throughout the commemorative year, and will play a selection at St Johns Smith Square on 27 February. Giltburg also features in a three-part BBC TV documentary about Beethoven, due to air in April, and will play the Fourth Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the same month.
François-frédéric Guy chooses a trio of sonatas from across the range for his Kings Place recital, ending with the Hammerklavier (26 March), while Denis Kozhukhin focuses on the much-loved Moonlight Sonata in his International Piano Series recital at the Southbank Centre (29 January). Evgeny Kissin returns to the Barbican for a performance of the Waldstein, Tempest and Pathétique (6 February).