Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Vol.3 – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

   in Choir & Organ (May, 2017)
The third volume of Bavouzet’s Beethoven cycle has been a while coming. Volumes 1 and 2, covering in opus number sequence (not chronologically as one or two unwary commentators have claimed) Nos 1 to 21, were recorded from 2011 to 2013, the release of the second volume creeping into the very beginning of the next year. Volume 3 was recorded in Potton Hall, Suffolk, in three stages: December 2014, January 2016 and June/July 2016.

The now completed survey enters a crowded and highly competitive field, not least within the Chandos label itself, considering Louis Lortie’s fine set. Paul Lewis on Harmonia Mundi remains the benchmark for modern surveys, though there is …