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Pianist Jonathan Biss shares the wonder of Beethoven's piano sonatas with Donald Macleod. Today, they discuss the construction and range of expression in No 27 in E minor.

Biss has just completed a nine-year odyssey to record all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas. It's been a revelatory experience, and his relationship with Beethoven remains far from over. These works are so remarkable, he says, they changed the course of musical history, and beyond that as a performer, they demand that he continues to play them for the rest of his life.

Recorded at the piano, in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Jonathan shares his life-long passion for Beethoven with Donald. As they talk, he demonstrates how and why Beethoven's piano sonatas advanced the genre far beyond anything that anyone had ever achieved previously. As they talk each day we will gain a performer's perspective of Beethoven's developmental trajectory. Together they'll unpack some of Jonathan's personal favourites, among them the Appassionata, the Tempest, No 27 in E minor op 90 and No 30 in E major op 109.

Completed on the 16th of August 1814, Sonata No 27 was finished after a gap of five years. Once again Beethoven's musical invention expands the language of the keyboard sonata.

Beethoven: Sonata no 20 in G major, op 49 no 2
Artur Schnabel, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 3 in C major, op 2
Fourth movement: Allegro assai (Rondo)
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Sonata no 27 in E minor, op 90
Jonathan Biss, piano

Beethoven: Piano sonata no 32 in C minor, op 111
Second movement: Arietta: Adagio molto, semplice e cantabile – l’istesso tempo
Jonathan Biss, piano

Producer: Johannah Smith