Beethoven Piano Sonatas I
Sun, Oct 25, 2026, 5:00 pm
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, with intermission
CMS is thrilled to present one of the greatest cycles of music ever created: Ludwig van Beethoven's sonatas for solo piano.
The first program in the cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas traces the extraordinary evolution of his compositional language—from his first published sonata to the heroic "Waldstein" and finally to the "Hammerklavier," the definitive, hard-earned breakthrough to his late style.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 1 in F minor for Piano, Op. 2, No. 1
(1795)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 21 in C major for Piano, Op. 53, "Waldstein"
(1803-04)Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major for Piano, Op. 106, "Hammerklavier"
(1817-18)
Gilles Vonsattel
Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel boasts remarkable versatility and artistic originality. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and top prizes in the Naumburg and Geneva competitions, he has graced prestigious stages worldwide, enthralling audiences with recitals and chamber performances, and collaborating with renowned orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies. As a champion of new music, he has premiered compositions by celebrated composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and has earned degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Today, Vonsattel shares his passion for music as a Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
