Sonates pour piano (intégrale)

Description

There are a thousand and one ways to approach the complete Piano Sonatas of Beethoven: romantic, passionate, fierce, Russian-style, precious, avant-garde, meditative, pretentious, chaotic-bubbling, take-it-or-leave-it. That of the Quebecois Louis Lortie is resolutely analytical, with a concern for perfect restitution of everything contained in the score. One thus discovers a plethora of details too often erased, forgotten, or neglected by so many other pianists, including among the most celebrated. Each listener will mark their preference for such or such vision, but one can only congratulate Lortie for restoring the textual truth in all its richness and timeless modernity, with a completely symphonic conception of the sound layers. We will note the presence of the Sonata Op. 6 for four hands, for which Lortie is joined by his compatriot Hélène Mercier; it is a miniature from 1797, in two movements, even if the "fate" motif already appears there in all its strength! Finally, a considerable part of these recordings was made recently - 2009 - expressly for this box set, while the others were taken from earlier discographic releases, between 1991 and 1998.