On the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th birthday, Daniel Barenboim recorded his 32 piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations. The recording was made in 2020 in Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal for Deutsche Grammophon.
“The opportunity to record Beethoven’s sonatas for Deutsche Grammophon seemed like the ideal answer to the pandemic. In the last 50 years it has not even happened that I was able to devote myself exclusively to the piano for three whole months. ” Daniel Barenboim 2020
UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but rather cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to protect the softer photopolymer from scratching. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unequaled precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, the result is a sound that is strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.
