As DG celebrates its 125th birthday this year, the label is bringing to light some great recordings from the past for the very first time, having unearthed some hidden treasures in the archives. In the first of a fascinating new series — The Lost Tapes — the Strategic Repertoire Team (formally known as the Heritage Team, formally known as the Catalogue Team) is releasing Rudolf Serkin’s final Beethoven recordings: The ‘Waldstein’ (1986) & ‘Appassionata’ (1989) sonatas. Serkin was too ill to give final approval to the tapes, while production had far advanced with even a cover already designed (the current cover is a slight adaption of the original cover for the release in the early 1990s). This historic release (which also celebrates Serkin’s 120th birthday) has been approved by Judith Serkin, the daughter of Rudolf Serkin, and herself an accomplished musician, who has also written a moving account of her father and the story behind these recordings: “My father died before he could confirm its release. It is not ‘perfect’. Nevertheless, I think it very much deserves to be shared, as it reflects so amazingly Beethoven’s — and his! — profound understanding of what it means to be human. And when one realizes that this performance comes from a man in his 80s, it is all the more formidable in its power and might.”