After a boxed set devoted to nineteenth-century French music (Alpha, 2015) and another containing Beethoven’s symphonies and overtures (Alpha, 2018), Jos Van Immerseel and his period-instrument ensemble Anima Eterna present an anthology of seven albums including recordings of major nineteenth- and twentieth-century composers of many nationalities. Whether it is Liszt with his symphonic poems, Orff with his Carmina Burana or Gershwin with his Rhapsody in Blue, all of them seem to be driven by a deep-seated urge to push back the formal limits of orchestral music by confronting it with other traditions and musical horizons, thus giving it a universal resonance.

A leading authority on the fortepiano, Jos Van Immerseel has devised a programme focusing on the music Beethoven composed for a Viennese piano with a range of five octaves. This includes the finest keyboard music from Beethoven’s early Viennese period, more specifically works written between 1795 and 1804. For this recording, the Flemish pianist has used the composer’s extant autograph manuscripts or the first editions published shortly after composition, as well as the latest critical edition by Jonathan Del Mar (Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2017-18). The writings of Carl Czerny, one of Beethoven’s most important ‘pupils’, were also a significant source of information. With his customary attention to the instrumentarium, Jos Van Immerseel has opted for a five-octave Viennese grand fortepiano by Christopher Clarke, a masterly replica, built in 1988, of an instrument by Walter, whom Beethoven himself selected in 1802 from among the sixty or so Viennese piano makers of the time.