Classics Today 10/10; Klassik Heute 10/10/10. The slow introduction of the 'Pathétique' Sonata - announced by the most famous C minor chord in the history of classical music - is the starting signal for a projected 17 CD series of Beethoven's complete works for solo piano performed by Ronald Brautigam on the fortepiano. Brautigam's surveys of the piano music of Haydn and Mozart have won unanimous praise in the musical press. As he now progresses to the climax of the Classical period (and the onset of the Romantic era), everything is set for an experience out of the ordinary. The works on this first volume were composed between 1797 and 1800, when Beethoven was not yet thirty years old. They are performed on a fortepiano especially built for this project by Paul McNulty after a Walther & Sohn instrument from about 1802, and have been recorded in multi-channel surround sound. This Super audio CD is a so-called hybrid disc, playable on all CD and SACD players.