An experienced early-keyboard specialist brings his expertise to the 'New Testament' of the piano repertoire.'Period' performances of Beethoven sonatas have become relatively mainstream during the present century, through artists such as Robert Levin and Ronald Brautigam. Through them, we have learnt, or rediscovered, that the turns of phrase in Beethoven's musical thinking take on a particular shape and agility when played and heard on the kind of instrument for which he was writing.All the same, most modern fortepianos are exactly that modern. In this bold new project, Simone Pierini presents the first nine of Beethoven's sonatas-from Op.2 to Op.10-on fully original instruments of the period. These instruments are identified as the work of piano-makers Johann Haselmann (end of 18th century-early 19th century), Matthias Müller (1822), and Conrad Graf (1830).Simone Pierini complements the sonatas with several standalone pieces the Allegretto in C minor WoO53, Andante Favori WoO57, Bagatelle in B flat WoO60, the Rondos Op.51, Variations in D Op.76 and the Polonaise in C Op.89. The set thus surveys the first 20 years of Beethoven's career as a composer, from the Op.2 sonatas of 1795 to the Polonaise which he wrote in 1814-15.During those two decades, his style underwent far-reaching changes, which in themselves have come to define the passage from the Classical to the Romantic style in music. All the same, Beethoven was and is Beethoven all the way through, as inimitable and distinct in the coursing momentum and sometimes surprising breadth of Op.2 as in the inward gaze of the Andante favori and the sideways look at popular dances in the Polonaise all of them, in their way, inheritances from and developments of Haydn's style.Simone Pierini's previous fortepiano albums for Brilliant Classics include sets of sonatas by Luigi Cherubini, JB Cramer (Beethoven's in Londo