On the 7th of March, pianist Cristian Sandrin is going to release the second album of his career, featuring the last three sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. The full album will be heard in its entirety on Monday, the 3rd of March, at 7 p.m. during the Music box.

A special idea for this second album of your career, Cristian Sandrin. Did it turn out the way you wanted?

Yes, the album turned out as I wanted. Even more beautiful. It all started because I played these sonatas a lot in public, the reaction of the public has always been very special and, together with the record company, I decided to make an album with these three sonatas and a piece... a piano arrangement of a Beethoven quartet, a work that is not known. And, yes, the album turned out better than I wanted because in studio conditions we can experiment, we get new ideas. We're very inspired in the studio a lot of the time.

Recording the Beethoven sonatas, which I think are some of the most recorded works throughout history, is a challenge, especially for a young pianist. Were you sure about that? What led you, for example, to take part in this confrontation with other great pianists who have recorded these works over the years?

It is of course a challenge, but I always use challenges in a positive sense. And the fact that there are so many great pianists who have recorded these sonatas is even more inspiring for me. I would like to mention Kempff's, Annie Fischer's, Clara Haskil's extraordinary recordings of these sonatas, which have inspired me and made me want to learn these sonatas and play them.

Tell us more about the record label. This is your first time recording for them, right?

It's Evil Penguin in Belgium. They released my first album, but under a different name - it wasn't Evil Penguin, it was Antarctica. It's reserved for young atheists who are debuting or for more unconventional repertoire, like my first album.

How long did you work on this album? How was the recording process?

I started learning these pieces during the pandemic. I actually started learning the Sonata Op. 111 before the pandemic. And after the pandemic, I started playing them a lot in concerts. And for the recording I prepared for months. For four months I studied these songs, recording myself with my things. It was like a very thorough laboratory work before the actual recording sessions.

How did the actual recording go?

I worked with a very important producer in Belgium, who inspired me even more and encouraged me a lot to explore new ideas. Afterwards, I participated in the editing session myself, and, together with the producer, I selected the most interesting and best recordings to compile.

What piano did you play on and where exactly did the recording take place?

The recording took place in a very modern studio in the center of Belgium, in Flemish Belgium. The town is called Mechelen. The piano was a Steinway from Ghent. Yes, it's a very interesting studio. It's used a lot for classical music, but also pop music. It's a very modern space and it was a pleasure to be in this location.

Now let's talk a bit about these last three Beethoven sonatas. First of all, I want to ask you if there is a general message that you wanted to convey to your listeners through your interpretation of these sonatas.

My message is that these sonatas should be understood as part of a trilogy. I've played all three very extensively, and recently I played only one of these sonatas in a concert and I felt like an orphan child. It made no sense. I only played the Sonata Op. 110 and it seemed to me that all the beauty of this sonata paled in the absence of the other two. Of course, my performance kept this context in mind all along, this narrative that I want to show throughout this recording, from the beginning of Sonata Op. 109 to the last chords of Sonata Op. 111.

There is something else that I felt listening to these recordings. Your very introverted attitude in front of the Beethovenian score, as if you were sitting in front of the score very humble in front of Beethoven, trying to explore this universe that is so vast. So, exactly the opposite of what many musicians are doing today, trying through extroversion to conquer the public. Here, we have the exact opposite. You face Beethoven, alone and looking humbly at his score. Is that the right feeling? Have you thought about it?

I look with humility and I admire this art and I try and I hope that I have succeeded in bringing it to life in the way that I thought was closest to this period, to Beethoven's moods.

Yes, you are quite right and you have felt this feeling that I want to show in this recording. Beethoven is extroverted, but I don't think this is music that we can call extroverted. Maybe the first movement of Op. 111, but... Beethoven, really, Beethoven the extrovert is in the early sonatas, when he wanted to capture the attention of the Viennese public, he wanted to conquer Vienna and be better, more appreciated than Haydn and Mozart, who were celebrities when Beethoven arrived in Vienna. I even wrote in the CD booklet an account of a visitor who went to Beethoven's apartment towards the end of his life and found the composer playing. There was a big mess in the house, plates of food on the floor, and the composer was at the piano trying to play something very softly, so softly that you couldn't hear it. So he was pressing the piano keys, but they weren't making any sound, and Beethoven was so deaf he couldn't hear that you couldn't hear anything coming from the piano. But, somehow, this feeling I got, that he was looking for a very intimate sound. And we're also talking about the touch itself, the touch of the piano... I think that simply in the security that he was experiencing because he couldn't hear anything, I think that the piano... the music he was feeling through touch.

Finally, I would like to ask you... a message! Why should people listen to your record? Those who, for example, see in the Radio Romania Musical program that it will be broadcast. Why is your record worth listening to?

I think it's music that invites us to ask questions about ourselves and I always want my listeners to listen to other interpretations and to realize the plurality of messages, the plurality of interpretations, and these subtleties that a connoisseur's ear understands. But I would say that anyone can understand to feel these diverse interpretations that exist, which are all valid and only enrich the richness of this musical message.