LDV78.9

MICHEL DALBERTO 19 You have already made several recordings of music by Beethoven, both piano sonatas and chamber works. How did you enter his universe? At the Paris Conservatoire, I worked on the Thirty-two Variations in C minor and the Sonatas op.7, op.81a ‘LesAdieux’ and op.111.When I was a contestant in the Clara Haskil International Competition and later the Leeds International Competition, I played op.7. In 1980, La Fenice in Venice programmed the cycle of thirty-two sonatas. I gave the first eight in the course of two recitals. Erato askedme to record the first seven sonatas, which were less popular with pianists than the later ones. My in-depth work on Schubert’s music probably took me a little further away from Beethoven’s. And it’s only in the last ten years or so that I decided to tackle the ‘Appassionata’ and ‘Moonlight’ sonatas and to return to op.111. This double albumbrings together works fromdifferent periods and thereby demonstrates the fantastic evolution of Beethoven’s style. It’s been said that some of the late sonatas must be learnt when you’re still young enough to allow them to mature over time. Rudolf Serkin claimed that if you hadn’t studied the ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata before the age of twenty, you would be better to refrain from programming it later! At the Conservatoire, I had studied the ‘Appassionata’ Sonata in the analysis class, without practising it at the piano.When I went back tomy score about thirty years later, I found all my markings and told myself I hadn’t wasted my time . . .