The chamber-music partnership of Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon and Frank Braley is well established, and their Erato catalogue already includes piano trios by Schubert and Ravel. The former brought this response from BBC Music Magazine: “The playing is superb from just every angle you consider it: beguiling tone, lovely intelligent phrasing, strong but flexible rhythmic articulation, precise pitch and alert ensemble.”

When the Capuçon brothers and Braley performed Beethoven’s ‘Archduke’ Trio, op 97 at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2011, the Guardian wrote: “Together, all three musicians have the quality that is the most priceless of all in playing chamber music – they listen intently to each other and always take note of what they do. Their account of the Archduke Trio was less imposingly grand than some, almost intimately conversational at times, without any details over-emphasised. It still had a tremendous sense of organic coherence, as if carved from a single creative block, with its heart firmly located in the great set of variations that form the slow movement.”

Beethoven dedicated the ‘Archduke’ – a grandly conceived, but engaging work that was first performed in 1814 –to his patron (and composition student) Archduke Rudolf of Austria. The ’Ghost’ trio, op 70 No 1, takes its nickname from its central slow movement, with its mysterious and uncanny atmosphere. First heard in late 1808, it dates from the same period as the Symphonies Nos 5 and 6.

French cellist Gautier Capuçon and pianist Frank Braley launch their monumental double album devoted to Beethoven's complete Cello Sonatas with a concert on 18 October at Paris' prestigious new Philharmonie concert hall, which also hosts an immense Beethoven exhibition this season.

In their much-anticipated concert, Capuçon and Braley offer insight into Beethoven’s rich output for cello and piano: three out of the five sonatas from the album, as well as the variations based on The Magic Flute (also recorded for this release).

Gautier Capuçon's new Beethoven album is out now.

“A recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano is an important landmark in a cellist’s musical life,” says Gautier Capuçon. “These sonatas have been part of me since I was very young and I was waiting for the right moment to record them, the moment when I felt ready to do so.

“Frank Braley was the ideal partner for this. We’ve known each other well for a long time and we’ve performed and recorded lots of different of repertoire together. We’ve been playing the Beethoven sonatas together for years and it made perfect sense for us to record them now. 

“Frank is more than a musical partner. Over the years he has become a real friend, someone I can enjoy making music with and working with on a tour, but he’s also someone I can spend hours talking to, giving us the chance to really get to know each other. This sense of closeness and familiarity comes through when we play music together.

“We were lucky enough to make this recording in a corner of paradise, a place unlike any other, one of the most peaceful and inspiring in the world: Schloss Elmau in Bavaria. This haven of peace, which has welcomed so many artists over the decades, was an extraordinary place to explore the essence of Beethoven’s music under ideal conditions.”

Beethoven wrote these five sonatas for cello and piano over a period of nearly 20 years – in 1796, 1808 and 1815 – and they can be said to represent the three creative periods of his life: early, middle and late.  Also included in this double album are three sets of variations, dating from 1796 and 1801, which Beethoven composed on themes from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Gautier Capuçon’s substantial catalogue of recordings on Warner Classics already documents his musical partnership with Frank Braley, which includes albums of chamber music by Schubert and Ravel – also featuring Gautier’s violinist brother Renaud (who also chose Braley as his partner when he recorded the complete Beethoven violin sonatas for Erato) – and Arpeggione, a duo album of works by Schubert, Debussy, Britten and Schumann. The reception for Arpeggione bore witness to their outstanding collaboration: “This recording is an accomplishment in both duo playing and musical insight, and everything on it is unforced and unfussy, but perfectly idiomatic in its own way...” wrote Gramophone, while MusicWeb International opined: “I heartily commend this disc for all lovers of cello/piano music. Capuçon and Braley give superb performances.”

Gautier Capuçon's new double album with pianist Frank Braley, Beethoven Complete Cello Sonatas and Variations, is out in October.