Performing seven Beethoven sonatas in one programme amounts to an extraordinary feat of concentration and artistry. The intensity of András Schiff’s music-making rests on lifelong study of these works, their composer and his creative environment. The pianist’s Beethoven odyssey continues with a series of works written around the turn of the 18th century.

The Piano Sonata No. 12, sometimes known as a the ‘Funeral March Sonata’, is cast in what one contemporary theorist described as the ‘sombre, lethargic, profound’ key of A flat major, ‘apt for expressing horror, the silence of the Night.’ The recital’s second half includes three of Beethoven’s most popular keyboard works, ideal vehicles for Schiff’s stellar artistry.