An interview with Elisabeth Leonskaja

This cycle is a big undertaking. Why did you want to do it now?

It is a big undertaking, but everything is a challenge. In order to get something good, whether it’s The Well-tempered Clavier or the Beethoven

Sonatas, you have a question of being challenged. Nothing is easy! I have never recorded the cycle before, though this is the third time that I tried. The first time was many years ago and I was not good; it was too much. I think experience is really everything; and I have probably learned something during all these years.

Was it important to you to present these sonatas in chronological order?

I think this is a more honest way of presenting it; otherwise I would be saying ‘this sonata is more important, or this one should go first’. Why? I don’t think people need it. It’s like with books. If you open a book of poetry, you can choose which you’d like to read. It’s not necessary, but they are presented from beginning to the end. And this is so easy with CDS – you push the button and you have it. To choose is very easy.

Is there a sonata in the set you are particularly fond of?

I think of the sonatas in terms of periods. I feel Mozart was probably most creative in the Mannheim and Munich Sonatas. There was something different about him there. His D major Sonata, K284 – with its last movement of 12 variations

– is quite a long one, but it’s different. It’s not like the Vienna sonatas, it has the Andante alla Polonaise, followed by the finale with those variations. So it’s very unusual. I love this sonata.