If you were asked to name an instrument which could symbolise popular music in all its forms, you’d point to the guitar, which is unchanging in both its shape and its sound.

For classical music the answer would have to be the piano, whose form also has never changed. But what’s remarkable is the constancy of the music which is played on it. Year after year, the same pieces are played, and in particular Beethoven’s last three sonatas, which were composed exactly 200 years ago. Beethoven was ill when he composed them, but each culminates in a triumphal mood, and each represents in a different way a summation of his divine craft.

Last night at the Wigmore they were played by one of the greatest pianists in the world, Mitsuko Uchida. The stalls were full of notabilities, including other le

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