Beethoven never seems to go out of style. Though some of his works have tended to wax and wane in popularity over the years since the great composer was born, certain pieces seem to be embraced with increasing enthusiasm by players and aficionados with every passing decade. In June , Yo-Yo Ma and longtime collaborator Emanuel Ax released a recording of the Beethoven cello sonatas under the evocative title Hope Amid Tears , presenting them in the order they were composed.
Last November, the Seattle Symphony similarly presented the full cycle of Beethoven cello sonatas in a single evening. Most recently, in June , cellist Alisa Weilerstein released her own recording on Pentatone of the cello sonatas, with longtime collaborator and pianist Inon Barnatan.
To this day, Weilerstein says, she recalls a certain amount of personal intimidation associated with the piece at the time and notes that she did not play any of the five pieces in front of a live audience until much later in her career.
Though Weilerstein has since played the Beethoven sonatas many times, it was not until last year that she decided to record them with Barnatan, with whom she has been collaborating and performing since The sonatas have always been of particular importance to them as recital partners. But then Covid came along and shut those plans down. Having always intended, at some point, to record the sonatas, Weilerstein and Barnatan realized that not having the opportunity to tour granted them the free time and energy to tackle the project at last.
During the process of preparing and recording, Weilerstein enjoyed digging even deeper into the sonatas, with which she was already passionately familiar. What is amazing to me is how achingly human they are, how emotional and how vulnerable they are.
