![]() | asin: B00000IKJR binding: Audio CD list price: $10.98 USD amazon price: $11.31 USD |
Classical music for children has become a genre unto itself, founded on the premise of brain-power building and all too often steering parental buyers away from the full-blown versions of particular compositions toward reorchestrated renditions. It's frequently the case that a brain-tickling classical set will be played on digital keyboards, with softened tonal colors and shapes. Not so with this excellent Beethoven set. Recognized ensembles take up the music, from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to the New York Chamber Symphony to the Oxford String Quartet and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The emphasis is on Beethoven's gentler side, from the poetic "Für Elise" for solo piano to the bucolic settings portrayed in the two selections from Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. This is neither a synapse-popping set of virtuoso performances nor an altered look at Beethoven, but it is a well-selected, well-programmed set of works that will ease a child's brain into the works at hand. --Andrew Bartlett
![]() | asin: B0000035Q2 binding: Audio CD list price: $11.98 USD amazon price: $11.98 |
This disc is an absolute must for anyone who wants every recording Ashkenazy has ever made, and for no one else. He recorded it in East Germany in 1957, and it has never been available outside of that country before. Ashkenazy was probably still in his teens when he played these performances, which explains his relatively callow playing of the profound Sonata No. 32. The "Waldstein" is a more acceptable performance, but as a listening experience it is ruined by the way the pitch varies through much of the first movement. Fortunately for Ashkenazy's admirers, his more recent recordings of these sonatas are available, making this opportunistic reissue thoroughly unnecessary. --Leslie Gerber
![]() | author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPSU binding: Digital list price: $2.75 USD amazon price: $2.75 USD |
Downloadable sheet music file
![]() | author: Ludwig van Beethoven asin: 0486413985 binding: Paperback list price: $3.95 USD amazon price: $3.95 |
One of Beethoven's most admired and widely performed piano concertos, perfectly designed and profoundly poetic. This convenient and economic volume — meticulously reproduced with bar-numbered movements — will be the perfect edition for classroom and concert hall alike.
![]() | author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPPS binding: Digital list price: $5.95 USD amazon price: $5.95 USD |
Downloadable sheet music file