Surround version is available upon request. support@eclassical.com Pianist and barrister Paul Wee has devoted his recordings to the virtuoso repertoire of the 19th century, earning high praise from the specialist press. He has also ventured into Beethoven through Franz Liszt’s transcription of the Eroica Symphony—a recording named Editor’s Choice by Gramophone, which wrote: “Paul Wee proves himself a master of these treacherously demanding transcriptions, sweeping aside the technical challenges to present these great works with consummate musicianship.” It was therefore only a matter of time before he turned to the pinnacle of piano literature: Beethoven’s late sonatas. While the Sonata Op. 101 is the least known of this group, it nonetheless opens Beethoven’s third and most prophetic creative period. It is followed by the Sonata Op. 106, the “Hammerklavier,” an immense work in every sense—one that, as the author of the liner notes notes, “makes such demands … that it is as if a new set of auditory equipment was required.” As for the final three sonatas, worked on concurrently and conceived as a triptych, Beethoven understood that they would form his last statements in the genre. To quote the introductory text once more, “the closing pages of Op. 111 escape earth’s orbit forever, leaving the listener behind.”