Paavali Jumppanen is an internationally esteemed pianist, a versatile performer equally at home as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, and a recitalist. His vast repertoire spans piano literature from Bach to the Avant-garde. Jumppanen has spent several years performing the works of Viennese Classics, in particular Beethoven. His performances of the complete cycles of Beethoven's and Mozart's Piano Sonatas as well as Beethoven's concertos and chamber music have won critical acclaim.

Jumppanen has collaborated with numerous contemporary composers and premiering many solo and chamber works for the piano. He has worked personally with esteemed composers including Pierre Boulez, William Duckworth, Henri Dutilleux, as well as composers of his native Finland. On the DG recording project of the complete works by Pierre Boulez, Jumppanen recorded the piano sonatas upon the composer's request.

Paavali Jumppanen's first solo piano disc on Ondine is a double-CD which contains five Piano Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), including three early sonatas and the well-known Hammerklavier Sonata.

Jumppanen describes the project: "I had spent several years performing the complete cycle of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas and wanted to record that period of my artistic life. I see it as important that each generation of musicians present their views of this music. In so doing they participate in a kind of dialogue with the past generations of artists, whose recordings of Beethoven we so well know. Each time-period has its own soundscape and musical ideas."

Jumppanen is currently in the process of writing a book on Beethoven's Piano Sonatas. He has also written the liner notes for the new Ondine recording.