Enjoy to read Your comment comparing this Brendel opus 111 with Richter´s performance in Moscow Conservatorium Hall 1975 (it wss in reverence to his (and Gilels´!) teacher Heinrich Neuhaus. We should avoid to say this or that one is better than... - because Beethovens composition is so endlessly full of characters that only one interptetation could reveal it.

@@wolfgangklofat594 I love both the Richter and the Brendel performances, but then it is an immense piece of music. I like all the Beethoven piano sonatas, especially the later ones. Richter even taps his foot at one point. As a dedicated amateur jazz pianist myself, I could relate to that. The music must be so hard to play this well. From what I've read, Franz Liszt was the first to perform the Hammerklavier sonata op 106 in public, presumably because it was too difficult for anyone else, or indeed the pianos of Beethoven's day. It appears that Beethoven watched the 11 year old Liszt play in about 1822, when the great Ludwig wouldn't have been able to hear much at all. The syncopated section in the final movement of opus 111 is like jazz a hundred years before it developed in New Orleans.

@@autumnleaves2766 It is very interesting to read Your views and observations - thank You very much! - Do You know the old BBC studio record of opus 111 by Cutner Solomon? It also has very deep expression of the late Beethoven.