Lang Lang BEETHOVEN Sonatas Nos. 3 & 23 "Appassionata"

Whenever the proud young Beethoven deigned to play the piano in the noble circle of his patrons and benefactors, his aristocratic listeners quickly lost their composure. They were moved, nay, convulsed, by his incomparable art. Some are even said to have collapsed in tears and unseemly sobs. Beethoven stopped playing, laughed at his mawkish listeners and accused them all of being fools and spoilt children. Only reluctantly did he agree to enter duels with leading keyboard virtuosos, a favourite pastime in Vienna’s salons. Being a protégé of Prince Lichnowsky, he once had to square off against Count Kinsky’s pianist-in-residence, Joseph Gelinek. He won hands down. The defeated Gelinek freely admitted his abject rout: “That young man is in league with the Devil”, he exclaimed in awed trepidation. “I’ve never heard anyone play the piano like that. And he improvised on a theme I gave him in a way I haven’t heard even Mozart equal. Then he played his own compositions, which are marvellous and splendid to the utmost degree. He carries off difficulties and effects on the piano we’ve never so much as dreamt of.”