Igor Levit is to release a set of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas in September, ahead of the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth next year. Levit, who won Gramophone’s Recording of the Year in 2016 for his Sony Classical album of variations by Bach, Beethoven and Frederic Rzewski, and who was shortlisted in the Instrumental category in 2013 for his set of the last three Beethoven sonatas ('a debut of true significance. Everywhere you turn, you encounter thoughtfulness, an utter engagement with the composer and a clear sense of Levit’s personality' wrote Harriet Smith in Gramophone), recorded the cycle after performing them in concert (writing of the cycle at London’s Wigmore Hall, The Guardian said ‘Individually and cumulatively, they have provided one of the most compelling experiences of the current London concert season.’)

Igor Levit, exclusive artist with Sony Classical says: ‘For me, this recording is a conclusion of my past 15 years. The literally life-changing encounter with the Diabelli Variations at the age of 17, which is effectively still ongoing, the daily engagement with Beethoven's sonatas, with Beethoven as a person, with myself, with the world in which I live - all that has also led to this recording. What I started in 2013 with the last five sonatas, I can now conclude. It fills me with great happiness and at the same time feels like a new beginning.’

Photo: Sony Classical / Felix Broede