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

asin: B00004Y6OG binding: Audio CD list price: $17.98 USD amazon price: $17.98 USD

Sviatoslav Richter was devoted to Beethoven and kept nearly two dozen of the composer's 32 sonatas in his active repertory. But some sonatas--such as No. 3 in C Major (Opus 2, No. 3), No. 7 in D Major (Opus 10, No. 3), and No. 32 in C Minor (Opus 111)--turned up on Richter programs decade after decade, while others appeared for a season or so never to return. Richter's relationship to Sonata No. 29 in B-flat (Hammerklavier) belongs to the latter category. He performed it all over Europe in the spring and summer of 1975 and seems never to have programmed it again. One wonders why. Richter was designed by God to perform the Hammerklavier. He had the huge hands necessary for its reckless leaps, the strength and stamina for its marathon length, and the intellect necessary to make lucid its grinding dissonance and (in the finale) its pounding counterpoint. Perhaps Richter thought that at 60--his age when he began to program it--he was a little too old for the Hammerklavier. Certainly, even a Richter enthusiast can be forgiven for wishing the pianist had turned to the piece 10 years earlier. Still, the pianist's Hammerklavier is heroically grand and fiercely energetic. Of the three performances of the sonata that Richter gave in a two-week period (and that have been preserved on disc) in London, Prague, and Aldeburgh (this disc), this recording is probably best-suited to most listeners. While not as exciting as the risk-taking Prague performance, it is much better recorded and more accurate. It also contains several bonuses: beautifully played versions of Beethoven's Sonata No. 3 and of three bagatelles from the composer's Opus 126. --Stephen Wigler

author: Beethoven asin: 0825617332 binding: Paperback list price: $6.95 USD amazon price: $6.95 USD

Book and CD.

asin: B0000026GN binding: Audio CD list price: $31.98 USD amazon price: $31.98 USD

These are among the finest modern recordings of Beethoven's Cello Sonatas. The two players are well matched, as they should be in this music, which is just as demanding for the pianist as for the cellist, if not more so. They don't try to differentiate stylistically among early, middle, and late sonatas. They play them all in a large scale, concert-hall manner, which actually suits all of them very well. Unfortunately, in reducing this recording to two CDs, the producers have dropped one set of Variations, which was recorded. What is present, though, is choice. --Leslie Gerber

author: Ludwig van Beethoven asin: 0486264416 binding: Paperback list price: $16.95 USD amazon price: $16.95 USD

All 5 sonatas for cello and piano, and 3 sets of variations on themes by Mozart and Handel. Basic works of the cello repertoire carefully reproduced from the authoritative complete-works edition published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Inexpensive source for studying 8 major works of the chamber music repertoire.

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPQC binding: Digital list price: $3.95 USD amazon price: $3.95 USD

Downloadable sheet music file