Beethoven: the Last Sonatas, by Leopoldo Erice

Spanish pianist and uOttawa professor Leopoldo Erice presents his newly-released recording, “Beethoven: the Last Sonatas,” at the University of Ottawa’s School of Music.

Beethoven: the Last Sonatas

The CD featuring Beethoven’s Sonatas Op. 109–111 has recently been released worldwide by the American label Odradek Records.

In it, Leopoldo Erice presents fresh interpretations of Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas —Nos. 30, 31, and 32— where the composer pushed the limits of convention. Erice performed these pieces to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in 2020, accompanied by a talk titled Beethoven’s Deafness: From Silence to Creation.

His approach to these three great sonatas is to perceive them through the filter of Beethoven’s deafness, which was complete by the time he composed these sonatas. But, crucially, he sees this deafness not as a limitation but as a gateway to an exceptionally rich inner music that is expressed in works like these.

Leopoldo Erice

Spanish pianist Leopoldo Erice has a distinguished performing and teaching career spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. He has performed with notable musicians and ensembles, including Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, James Campbell, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española.

Erice is a faculty member at the University of Ottawa and has taught at several other institutions, including Wilfrid Laurier University, the American University of Sharjah, and Middle Tennessee State University.

He founded the Festival Internacional de Música Clásica de Ribadeo in 2006, a summer chamber music festival and workshop in Spain that has become a cultural reference in Northwestern Spain.

Erice has won several prestigious awards, including first prize at the Ciudad de Albacete National Piano Competition and the prize for best collaborative pianist at the Acisclo Fernández International Singing Competition.

He has made recordings for television and radio programs in several countries and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.