Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonate pour piano n° 8 en do mineur, op. 13 "Pathétique"
Sonate pour piano n° 13 en mi bémol majeur, op. 27 n° 1 "Quasi una fantasia"
Sonate pour piano n° 26 en mi bémol majeur, op. 81a "Les Adieux"
Sonate pour piano n° 31 en la bémol majeur, op. 110

Takahiro Yoshikawa, piano

Up until about twenty years ago it was quite common that a piano recital contained at least one Beethoven Sonata. With the passing of the new millennium this has become rather rare, almost as if the interpreters of the last generations have some sort of uneasiness in taking on such an important repertory with such a formidable tradition of executions behind it. Takahiro Yoshikawa, going against these trends, has dedicated a monographic CD to Beethoven in order to offer us a rather fresh and limpid interpretation of these four important Sonates. The beauty of his interpretations does not take away from the rigorous inflexibility towards the score, on the contrary it allows him to be completely immersed in the music. Therefore expert listeners can have a confirma-tion of the vital treasure of the pianistic music of the Bonn composer and of what a loss we would suffer, if it should continue to "evaporate" from concert programs, while at the same time novices can also become fond of such fascinating works of art. For the Japanese pianist the choice of these four Sonates was not a random one: the combination of tonalities, the subtle inter-textual references and analogies of compositional principals make the layout of the recording consistent and stimulating. the cover of the first edition refers to the exceptional nature of this music, aiming to emulate the "sublime style" of literary masterpieces.