Pianist Maria Mazo, winner of the 2013 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, makes her recording debut performing two of Beethoven’s most important Piano Sonatas: the Sonata in C major op. 53, ‘Waldstein’ (in homage to its dedicatee, Count Waldstein), and the Sonata in F minor op. 57, ‘Appassionata’.

Composed between 1803 and 1805 in the central period of Beethoven’s output, these Sonatas mark the beginning of a new direction in Beethoven’s piano writing and share a high degree of virtuosity and brilliance, although differing in terms of their poetic character and setting.

From a young age Maria Mazo was fascinated by Beethoven’s music and it has been precisely her interpretations of some of these masterpieces that established the German-based Russian pianist on the international concert scene. She has won awards at several well-known competitions, including the Lodovici Prize awarded by Peter Donohoe during the 2013 Busoni Competition, and the Audience Prize at the 2014 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in Tel-Aviv (playing with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Asher Fisch).