Maurizio Pollini’s Beethoven Sonatas cycle has reached completion after nearly 40 years. We celebrate this major event with a handsome 8 CD capbox that provides a fitting testimonial to a great artistic partnership between pianist and record label.

The final recordings in the cycle (opp. 31 & 49) are being released simultaneously as a single CD.

Pollini / Beethoven: A story that goes back to June 1975, when Maurizio Pollini began recording the Beethoven Sonatas, starting with two of the last three – op.109 and op.110. The remaining Late Sonatas (op.101, op.106 and op.111) followed in 1976 and 1977. Released initially as single LPs, the subsequent 3-LP set won a Gramophone Award.

The story ended in 2014, when the three Sonatas op.31 and the two of op.49 were recorded (Pollini had also recorded op.31 no.2, the so-called “Tempest”, before.)

Pollini’s is the first cycle on Deutsche Grammophon since those of Daniel Barenboim (1981–1984) and Emil Gilels (1972-1984, incomplete).

For the release of the box set, the recordings have been arranged by opus number into a compact 8-CD set, with no duplications of repertoire. Although modest in size, the set stands as a monument of artistic achievement, and a remarkable testimony to an artistic partnership that goes back more than forty years.