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

asin: B000LP4OWO binding: Audio CD list price: $89.98 USD amazon price: $89.98 USD

A budget collection with top musicians! This set of 25 CD's offers superb quality piano music equally superbly executed by outstanding musicians such as Alfred Brendel, Sviatoslav Richter, Helene Grimaud, Hakon Austbo, Emil Gilels, Yevgeny Kissin... and the list goes on. Because of its repertoire and the outstanding performers The Piano Collection is an excellent choice for both newly "recruited" music lovers and connoisseurs.

author: Kenneth O. Drake asin: 0253213827 binding: Paperback list price: $24.95 USD amazon price: $24.95 USD

Drake groups the Beethoven piano sonatas according to their musical qualities, rather than their chronology. He explores the interpretive implications of rhythm, dynamics, slurs, harmonic effects, and melodic development and identifies specific measures where Beethoven skillfully employs these compositional devices.

asin: B0000028NZ binding: Audio CD list price: $8.99 USD amazon price: $9.95 USD

Why this 1968 recording of Sonata No. 24 (Op. 78 in F Sharp) lay dormant until now is a mystery. Gould obviously relishes this little jewel, and plays up the two movement's contrasting qualities with exquisite poise and superb characterization. An unreleased CBC broadcast of the mighty Hammerklavier sonata, on the other hand, is scaled down to drawing-room size. Gould brings out the knotty counterpoint with microscopic clarity, yet ducks from Beethoven's surging dynamism in the outer movements. The Andante Sostenuto is reticent and stark under Gould's introspective hands, touching upon but not yielding to the music's tragic overtones. Not the first choice Hammerklavier for your collection, but Gouldians should hear it. --Jed Distler

asin: B00004W9CK binding: Audio CD list price: $25.98 USD amazon price: $25.98 USD

If the "Hammerklavier" Sonata (No. 29), perhaps the most profound work ever written for the piano, were not on this disc, one would dwell on the singular charms of the rarely heard, two-movement Sonata No. 27 or the astonishing rightness of Solomon's interpretation of the Sonata No. 26, "Les Adieux." But the "Hammerklavier" is the touchstone of any Beethoven sonata cycle, and it's the rock upon which most pianists founder. Solomon meets its challenges as well as anyone who's every recorded it. Solomon may not match Artur Schnabel's intensity, but he's far superior technically, and he comes close to Claudio Arrau's depth and Wilhelm Kempff's poetry. Solomon is unique in bringing all these attributes to bear on a piece whose mysteries can never be encompassed in one interpretation. He captures the dynamism of the opening Allegro, makes the Scherzo a witty romp, and sustains the long, 22-minute Adagio with a flowing poetry that's breathtaking. The final fugue, played with superhuman ease by Solomon, for once seems an inevitable culmination of a timeless journey. An indispensable disc. --Dan Davis