At first reluctant to make recordings, by the 1930s the great pianist Artur Schnabel fully accepted the new technology. His recordings of Beethoven’s piano music include all the numbered sonatas, originally issued on subscription by the Beethoven Sonata Society. Given his status as the leading Beethoven specialist of his time (or perhaps ever), each disc became the subject of intense scrutiny. The recordings on the present disc were no exception, and include Beethoven’s Sonata No. 24, not widely performed during the 1930s. The New York Times declared: “Few who heard the interpretation of the F sharp sonata are likely to forget it, either in respect to its effect as a whole, or in regard to its salient details…Mr. Schnabel’s insight and his understanding of its real possibilities, resulted in a reading which must have re-created the work for every musician in the house.” In his insistence on recording all thirty-two Sonatas, Schnabel left a statement that influenced how we understand and appreciate many of Beethoven’s works.