ALC 0167 Beethoven: Sonatas Vol. 5

Why devote an entire recording to Beethoven’s youthful keyboard works?
These compositions allow us to observe at close range the process through which the young Beethoven, in Bonn and under the guidance of Neefe, became acquainted with the most modern expressive instrument of his time: the fortepiano built by J.A. Stein. Step by step, he explored its technical and expressive possibilities.
Here we encounter a young musician who, thanks to Stein’s new instrument equipped with the Prellzungenmechanik, discovers technical and expressive possibilities unknown to earlier instruments, not only in comparison with the harpsichord and clavichord, but even with earlier generations of pianos:
“I also heard one of the finest keyboard players, the good Bethofen (sic), some of whose compositions were published in Speier’s Blumenlese in 1783 (the Sonatas WoO 47), composed when he was eleven years old. He did not feel inclined to perform in public, probably because the instrument was not to his liking. It was a Späth piano, and in Bonn he is accustomed to playing only on Stein instruments. Nevertheless, I had the great pleasure of hearing him improvise, and I was even invited to give him a theme for variations. […] His manner of playing differs greatly from that of other keyboardists: it seems as though he has opened his own path toward that perfection which he already appears to have attained.”