Translating Beethoven: 32 Piano Sonatas

So wrote Paul Badura-Skoda in 1995 in his review of Martin Hughes's chapter in "Performing Beethoven", one of the Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice, edited by Robin Stowell and published by Cambridge University Press.

Hughes s new book on the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas bridges the gap between score and stage. Written for young pianists embarking on a solo career, the book encourages the reader to retrace the compositional process and to present these extraordinary works as if for the first time. The significance of key colour, pattern recognition, continuity and interruption, variation, pitch and texture are among the many elements that are discussed, while an extra chapter is devoted exclusively to tempo, the most important factor in the performance of Beethoven. These chapters are not piano lessons; they are an invitation to step away from convention and to think like a revolutionary composer.

For ease of reference the sonatas are dealt with individually, with an average chapter length of some 2500 words.

Martin Hughes was Professor of Solo Piano at Berlin University of the Arts before moving to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, where he is now Emeritus Professor. He has given concerts, lectures and masterclasses around the world and has performed complete cycles of both the Beethoven and the Schubert piano sonatas.