Beethoven Piano Your resource for the piano music of Ludwig van Beethoven

asin: B0002W3EDG binding: Audio CD list price: $16.99 USD amazon price: $26.88 USD

Here's an inspired appendage to the Aimard-Harnoncourt set of the Beethoven Piano Concertos. When new, the Triple Concerto, combining three solo instruments with orchestra, was considered a bold new type of concerto. That's how it's played here. The solo trio blends nicely with the orchestra, giving the work a chamber music dimension. Once past the slow introduction, Harnoncourt conducts a vigorous, almost rhapsodic performance, with great forward momentum. But the honors go to the outstanding soloists. Aimard etches the piano line with exceptional clarity, Hagen, the cellist of the Hagen Quartet, plays with gorgeous tone, while violinist Zehetmair, who also leads a quartet bearing his name, almost steals the show through his agile playing and phrasing that cuts to the heart of the music. I know of no better performance of this work. The Choral Fantasy too comes off as more than a weird combination of a solo piano fantasia and a choral sketch for the last movement of the Ninth Symphony. And pianist and orchestra play the daylights out of the quirky Rondo in B-flat major. --Dan Davis

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPYY binding: Digital list price: $2.75 USD amazon price: $2.75 USD

Downloadable sheet music file

asin: B000003EZJ binding: Audio CD list price: $10.98 USD amazon price: $70.11 USD

Vladimir Horowitz's coiled virtuosity and volatile temperament suit the heroic side of Beethoven's middle-period output. The legendary pianist recorded the Moonlight and Waldstein Sonatas in the comfort of his Manhattan living room. His incisive power in the finales and artful voicing in the Moonlight's famous Adagio easily transcend the dry and constricted mono engineering. The Appasionata, on the other hand, was taped at Carnegie Hall in stereo. A tinge of caution hovers over the outer movements, in comparison with the pianist's equally febrile but longer-limbed 1972 remake available on Sony. Perhaps Beethoven was ultimately an acquired rather than a natural affinity for Horowitz, yet dozens of so-called Beethoven specialists would give their eyeteeth for one speck of Horowitz's individuality. --Jed Distler

asin: B00000IIX1 binding: Audio CD list price: $50.98 USD amazon price: $50.98 USD

Though some musicians rerecord the same repertoire, refining the same concept over time, Alfred Brendel's Beethoven concertos change significantly with every go-around. One of the defining influences in this latest go-around is conductor Simon Rattle. He's one of the stronger minded and truly collaborative conductors that Brendel has ever had, and his bent toward historically informed performance inspires the pianist to a radical reevaluation, resulting in interpretations that achieve a new level of cogency over his previous take. Phrases have an even greater sense of purpose and direction than ever before, forming tiny, mosaic-like entities within the music, often accompanied by something rarely heard from Brendel: rubato. At his considerable best, Brendel's playing has a great sense of inevitability amid the surprises that always come with a great musical mind approaching the music afresh. The only letdown here is the "Emperor" concerto. Although excellent, the reading is just a tad conventional. If you'd like to delve deeper into Beethoven's concertos, you'll enjoy Leon Plantinga's thorough study of all the composer's essays in the genre. --David Patrick Stearns