Pollini's late assumption of these 'learner' pieces - a feast in every sense.

==A review from Abert TOP 1000 REVIEWER IN AMAZON==

The four sonatas included in this set are less frequently performed as other more re-knowned ones by Beethoven, but they are great compositions in their respective rights nonetheless. More importantly, these pieces form the staple student repertoire, and it is important for students to savour, as they learn them, how great pianists approach them.

The No. 1 of Opus 14 has much `string quartet' character to it, being arranged by Beethoven himself into a string quartet a couple of years after its composition. Both this piece and the No. 2 of Opus 14 bore much `sturm und drang' style of the period (early Beethoven), and Josef Haydn's influence is still apparent. Both Opus 14 and Opus 7 are frequently played by piano students. Pollini's playing in this recording is both grand and subtle, direct and sophisticated, yet retaining much of the pieces' more youthful and simple aura. It is interesting that he chose to record these three pieces late in his career, and it is often said that the older the pianist, the more direct and refined the performance, and this is utterly true of Pollini here.

The No. 11, Op. 22 is a work of larger scale, if not in length, composed in 1800. The great Sviatoslav Richter performed this piece often in his lifetime, but Richter often did not have the benefit of the best instrument, which is a great pity. While this is also a student piece, the difficulty is considerably higher than the other three, and even seasoned pianists often got caught in this one. Well, good old Pollini plays this without any qualms, and sounds absolutely easy: greatness underneath apparent easiness.

In his prime years, the `Pollini sound' was considered very difficult to capture by the then recording technology, digital or otherwise. For while Pollini's finger work is absolutely top-rate, his touching could be really heavy when needed, and though he had never been considered as `bang bang' as one current famous pianist is, he had often been alluded to as being `cold', `clinical', `aloof', some thing the result of poor acoustics in his recordings. This misconception largely stemmed from the inability of technology to capture the maestro's multi-faceted as well as atmospheric tonal picture. With the advance of digital technology, we now have much improved tone-spectrum for recording piano performances, and these early Beethoven Sonatas really never sounded so mesmerizing on recording