Music – A Higher Revelation
This latest recording from Maurizio Pollini features Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas, works he first recorded more than four decades ago. “The sonatas were published separately,” notes Pollini, “but can be seen as forming a unified cycle.” He goes on to say, “Having played these works many, many times in the last 40 years, I’ve continually discovered new riches in every detail. In these masterpieces we see Beethoven departing from conventional form – alongside sonata form we find variation and fugue both playing significant, even decisive roles, and we can also see completely free episodes which appear to be direct translations of the composer’s subjective feelings. I’m reminded of a phrase that Bettina Brentano (in a letter to Goethe) attributed to Beethoven: ‘Music is a higher revelation than any wisdom or philosophy.’”