Hammerklavier

After his recordings of Beethoven's Piano Concertos and the Transcendental Etudes of Franz Liszt, the gold medalist of the 13th International Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 2009, Haochen Zhang, brings these two composers together on this new recording with two highlights from the piano literature: Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata and Liszt's Sonata in B minor. The Hammerklavier Sonata is the longest, most versatile and perhaps the most masterful of Beethoven's 32 sonatas. In it he drives the instrument and the performer to the utmost and even further. The immense complexity, the extreme variety of the movements and the bold structural design give the sonata an unparalleled place in Beethoven's oeuvre. During Beethoven's lifetime it was rarely performed and Franz Liszt contributed to its discovery with a concert performance in Paris that has since gone down in history. Liszt, who was not unfamiliar with the description 'unperformable', also wanted to write a piano sonata that would reconcile his own approach to piano playing with Beethoven's legacy. His Sonata in B minor, a monumental work that transforms the piano into a virtual orchestra, is a milestone that embodies Liszt's genius in one work.