Description
Beethoven’s last piano sonatas, op. 109, 110, and 111, form a cycle that offers deep insights into Beethoven’s late work. The first announcement of “new sonatas” for the Berlin publisher Schlesinger in April 1820 was initially followed in early 1821 merely by the Sonata op. 109. The composer repeatedly had to postpone work on the two sibling works, partly due to health reasons and partly owing to his work on the Missa solemnis. In spite of repeated announcements (“The two sonatas will follow soon …”), Beethoven began work on them only in the late autumn of 1821. Op. 110 was then published simultaneously in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris in the summer of 1822. Op. 111, as the great composer’s final and visionary legacy, was to follow only in 1823.
The famous A-flat major Sonata op. 110 – edited, as always with conscientious evaluation of the autographs and all the first editions, by the editorial team of Norbert Gertsch and Murray Perahia, is now available. The fingerings stem from the decades-long practice of the great pianist.
