On this disc Garrick Ohlsson plays Beethoven's towering “Hammerklavier”, a work the composer called “my greatest,” even expressing the idea that it “would make pianists work creatively.”

Critic Jed Distler writes that “Garrick Ohlsson approaches Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata as a harbinger of Romanticism... his rounded phrases and discreet tempo fluctuations never pull focus from the music's linear trajectory and sudden dynamic extremes. Ohlsson pinpoints the Scherzo's dotted rhythms so that they truly catch fire and effectively contrast with the enigmatic trio. He builds the great Adagio from the bottom up, letting the bass lines lead and allowing the highly ornamented right-hand melodic writing to speak on its own. This easily is the finest release in Ohlsson's ongoing Beethoven cycle, and one of the best-sounding too.”