BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
SCHUBERT Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-flat major, D. 960
Two of the supreme masterpieces of the piano repertoire are brought together in this recital by Hélène Grimaud, offering a journey into the final creative horizons of Beethoven and Schubert. Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111, the last of his thirty-two piano sonatas, was composed between 1821 and 1822 and transcends many of the conventions of the genre. Its dramatic opening movement is charged with almost visionary intensity, while the celebrated concluding Arietta transforms a simple theme into a sequence of variations that seem to suspend time itself, leading the music towards a realm of profound serenity and spiritual contemplation. Written only a few weeks before Schubert’s death in 1828, the Piano Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960 stands as one of the most moving farewells in the history of music. The breadth of its design, the inexhaustible richness of its melodic invention, and its constant interplay between radiant lyricism and quiet melancholy create a sound world of extraordinary depth and humanity. Together, these two late masterpieces offer a profound meditation on the expressive possibilities of the piano and on music’s unique capacity to transform individual experience into something universal.
