This is not the most comprehensive and exhaustive introduction to piano sonatas in the traditional sense, tracing the historical evolution of piano sonatas from Mozart to Prokofiev. In fact, just from the works of an unquestioned sonata master like Beethoven, it is possible to select the top ten piano sonatas. So, this music is more about exploring one style and another.
Although, music is not to be compared.
1. Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11
There are too many good versions. The photon version of Uchida recommended by the phonograph was selected.
Mitsuko Uchida is one of Mozart's leading interpreters today, and her series of piano sonatas won critical acclaim as soon as they were released, culminating in the Phonograph Award in 1989 and 1991.
2. Haydn Piano Sonata No. 62
Still the gramophone recommended by Alfred Brendel
Brundel reserved a particularly bold attempt for a sonata in E major. It is conceivable that Beethoven would have enjoyed playing like this.
3. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, "Moonlight"
Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was chosen as a representative. His mallet harpsichord sonatas, pathos, passion sonatas, or any of the thirty-two sonatas he composed, can easily be included in this list.
There is no ready-made solution to the problem of the speed of the music about that meditative first movement, except for the accomplished performers themselves, whether it is Ignaz Friedman in one of the earliest recordings (Columbia, 2/27) or today's Murray Perahia. Thus, Solomon, on a famous HMV recording (10/54), took nearly nine minutes, while Perasia only took slightly more than five minutes.
4. Schubert Piano Sonata No. 21, D960
Phonograph recommended by Christian Zimmerman
Each element of these two sonatas was well thought out; in the hands of one certain artist, the result could be harmful, but on the contrary, at the fingertips of the masters, they tended to transcend.
5. Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2
Sony Classical Murray Peracia
Listen to the feeling of a vast oasis of tranquility in the second sonata and funeral march, or the broad board of the third sonata, and you will hear a musically and technically ideal, translucent notes.
6. Liszt Piano Sonata
Marta Agridge
Radiant!
7. Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 2 Fantasia
Wang Yujia
Wang Yujia, who is a post-80s generation, has a beautiful sensitive emotion, whether it is tranquility or a storm, which accurately and perfectly reflects the composer's love for the Baltic Sea.
8. Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2
Naïve Ambroisie Nikolai Lugansky
Usually the urgent plate at the end of the piece is ruined by vague details, but Luhansky's performance is clear and quite gripping, representing the level of the whole record: the high level of Rachmaninoff.
9. Ewus Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord Sonata
Metier Philip Mead
The whole album is loud, rough and full of unique rhythms. Every listener will be very grateful and admired.
10. Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata
Agridge's control over Prokofiev's work is different from anyone else's. The drive she brings to the composer, the convincing lyricism and the balance of ineffable forms exudes an authority, not just the result of conviction. The show was exciting from start to finish.