Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' Sonata is the longest of his 32 sonatas, with a symphonic length of around 45 minutes.
Brahms's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21, No. 1, were published in 1861, alongside his Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21, No. 2.
Ludwig van Beethoven, a German composer, was almost completely deaf when he composed his Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, 'Hammerklavier' in 1818.
Béla Bartók, a Hungarian composer, gave the premiere of his Three Études, Op. 18, but later admitted in 1934 that he could no longer play them.
Sean Chen, the pianist on this album, won the Crystal Award at the 2013 Cliburn Competition, becoming the first American to win a prize since 1997.
This album was recorded in concert between May 24 and June 9, 2013, at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.
Johannes Brahms, a German composer, developed much of his compositional craft from studying Ludwig van Beethoven's models.
