Beethoven: Wilde Plays Beethoven

Three sonatas outlining a progression from the despair of No 17 in D minor, Op 31 No 2 – written at the same time as the start of the famous ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’, when Beethoven’s realisation that his deafness was complete and permanent led him to contemplate suicide – via his courageous fightback, brilliantly expressed in the irrepressible optimism of the ‘Waldstein’, Op 53, towards the lofty spiritual aspirations of No 31 in A flat, Op 110.

"Speculative and original, these performances prompt all listeners to reconsider and think again, and they have been excellently recorded." --Gramophone