Sorry to disappoint anyone hoping for an extra-special Christmas finale to András Schiff's superlative series of lecture-recitals, but I'm afraid we haven't got one. If only we'd given him a Santa hat and a special Beethovenian arrangement of O Tannenbaum. Maybe next time. (Personally I'm going to avoid the Christmas shopping entirely by sending this link to everyone I know.)
What you do get, however, is pretty special: a typically incisive examination of the three last sonatas, opp. 109, 110, 111 - sonatas "so great", Schiff says, "that words fail". These are the troubled, questing works with which Beethoven effectively signed off from the solo sonata form, having been writing them for nigh-on 30 years. His health deteriorating rapidly, his hearing practically gone, Beethoven nevertheless manages to push the boundaries further than ever before in works of astonishing, and Schiff suggests, religious intensity. Five years later he would be dead.
And with that ... we're done, too. As Schiff himself puts it, "it's been a very long trip indeed", but we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. For the next few months you'll be able to download the full set of recitals at the page we've created, theguardian.com/schiff. Or you can subscribe to the Guardian's culture feed if you want to get the lot sent directly to iTunes or your podcast player.
No 30 in E major, opus 109 Download now
No 31 in A flat major, opus 110 Download now
No 32 in C minor, opus 111 Download now
