This recording embodies a brilliant idea, brilliantly carried out…Each of the works that Bavouzet has programmed is a revelation, and reflects the fundamental changes that were taking place in pianism around the turn of the 19th century.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, who has given us a highly acclaimed cycle of Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas, is quite possibly more attuned to the intersections of harmonic and motivic materials between these works than other pianists might be who have explored Beethoven but not necessarily Wölfl, Clementi, and Hummel. Bavouzet’s Beethoven Connection is more than a musical feast for the ears from a most estimable artist, it’s also food for the brain.

Bavouzet’s keen intelligence and pristine musicianship are evident throughout, not least in his vivid delineation of the individual characters of these four composer-pianists…In Hummel’s overtly virtuoso Op 20 Sonata from 1807, Bavouzet’s focus is on its extraordinary pathos and startlingly original formal procedures...In the Andante cantabile, Bavouzet gives full vent to Wölfl’s unabashedly operatically inspired writing.

Their music is often harmonically and expressively bold, its structures hold up well and it advances pianistic virtuosity. Bavouzet’s advocacy is passionate and intelligent, and he includes an appendix illustrating points made in the sleeve notes.

The top attractions are a Clementi sonata with a Bach-haunted adagio, a brooding, proto-romantic sonata by Dussek, and Bavouzet’s fleet fingers and feet working his Yamaha CFX concert grand.