Beethoven's Piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 22, was composed in 1800, but published two years later. Beethoven regarded it as the best of his early sonatas, though some of its companions in the cycle have been at least as popular with the public. Prominent musicologist Donald Francis Tovey has called this work the crowning achievement and culmination of Beethoven's early "grand" piano sonatas. The "grand" modifier was applied by Beethoven to sonatas with four movements instead of three. Subsequent sonatas find Beethoven experimenting more with form and concept.
Beethoven’s very early sonatinas (WoO 50 and 51, Anh. 5/1, 5/2) may show a rather conservative attitude toward composition and pianistic language (perhaps the reason why they remained unpublished). It is not sure that Beethoven completed the works in the form now published.
The late-period’s Eleven Bagatelles, Op. 119, were revised and published as a set in 1823 but gathering works that span from the 1790s to the early 1820s. And it is in the second half of the Op. 119, written in 1821-22, that we most perceive Beethoven’s iconoclastic force had he not prematurely left the world only several years later.
Maurizio Zaccaria (Massenet, J.: Complete Piano Music - AE16003 AEVEA; Gershwin, G.: (Complete) Published Piano Works - AE17032 AEVEA), begins his music journey exploring the Beethovenian universe with his integral Piano Sonatas (32 + 4) in a view that is something original, explosive and fully pianistic.
All the set was and will be recorded on two Steinway's grand D-274 by sound engineer and producer Alessandro Simonetto (OnClassical), in perfect stereo 88.2x24-bits, using historical microphones.