Beethoven’s opus of 32 piano sonatas, known as “the New Testament of piano music”, is a landmark in piano literature. Spanning Beethoven’s entire life, the sonatas reflect his whole development as a human being and a musician, moving from one century into the next, from one epoch in music in to another. With the sonatas “Pathétique”, “Moonlight”, “Waldstein”, “Appassionata”, “Hammerklavier” and the final sonata op. 111, the cycle contains some of the most known piano pieces of all time. Now, for the first time in its history the complete cycle was performed at the Salzburg Festival. For this challenge the Festival asked no less than the world-renowned and influential Beethoven expert and pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. With more than 45 performances of Beethoven’s complete sonata cycle in concert halls all over the world and his relentless drive to discover new details and facets in the sonatas through meticulous study of the scores, “Buchbinder has set new standards in the interpretation of Beethoven’s works” (Bayerischer Rundfunk).
Bruckner Symphony No. 9
Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden will continue their long-running Bruckner cycle with the Ninth Symphony, the very last work from the composer, in which he drew to the conclusion of his symphonic works. The first three movements of the symphony were composed and completed by Bruckner, but he died on the job whilst writing the final movement. In this interpretation of the three-movement original version, “Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden triumphed … It was a musical and a spiritual event”. (Baden online).