David Wilde - Wilde Plays Beethoven (2011)

These three piano sonatas outline a progression from the despair of the Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, written at the same time as the start of the famous ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’, when Ludwig van Beethoven’s realisation that his deafness was complete and permanent drove him to contemplate suicide, via his courageous fight back, brilliantly expressed in the irrepressible optimism of the Piano Sonata No. 21 in C, ‘Waldstein’, Op. 53 towards the lofty spiritual aspirations of the Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat, Op. 110.

50 years after his victory in the International Liszt-Bartók Piano Competition David Wilde’s masterful interpretations are the fruit of a lifetime’s experience of studying and performing these towering masterpieces.

"As on earlier Delphian discs from Wilde, the ear is seduced by his beautiful tone (the piano he uses and his technician quite rightly receive a credit), and try the adagios of 'The Tempest' and A flat sonatas for playing of masterly, hushed introspection that makes you hold your breath. Three well-contrasted works presented with deep insight and understanding - and without any distracting idiosyncracies - the result of experience and long familiarity."