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

asin: B0001ZM8TK binding: Audio CD list price: $16.98 USD amazon price: $10.97 USD

The Beethoven Triple Concerto is a strange work, with the most important---or at least prominent---solos given to the cello; it is the instrument which introduces each movement. The remarkable Martha Argerich wisely allows Mischa Maisky to shine in his solos and leading position, but her contribution is anything but back seat. Her customary virtuosity is everywhere in evidence, and, in a way, she turns the piano into the spinal column of the work, with the violin and cello playing around her. Every time Maisky is about to lapse into a mannerism which might detract---too much sliding, a dynamic slightly exaggerated---Argerich brings him back, and both of them play with handsome tone. Capucon's violin is recorded a bit stridently (this was taped live in Lugano), but his playing is equally stunning. Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky leads the orchestra matter-of-factly until the final movement, when he catches the proper fire. In the Schumann A minor concerto Argerich is wonderful the solo passages and a fine partner in orchestrated ones and she really makes much of both the lyrical runs and the dance-like passages in the last movement. Recommended. --Robert Levine

asin: B00008PW4C binding: Audio CD list price: $26.99 USD amazon price: $26.99

5 CD Box set.

asin: B00009PJQR binding: Audio CD list price: $52.99 USD amazon price: $52.99

This deluxe four-CD set showcases Beethoven's most popular piano sonatas in classic, contrasting performances by some of the 20th century's greatest keyboard soloists. If Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" comprises music's Old Testament, Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas constitute the New Testament. Through multiple performances of the same work, this collection provides rare, comparative insight into the composer's "Pathétique" Sonata (played by Schnabel, Fischer, Moiseiwitsch and Rubinstein), "Moonlight" (Friedman, Backhaus, Paderewski, Horowitz), "Appassionata" (Kempff, Arrau, Backhaus), and Op. 31, No. 3 (Schnabel, Gieseking, Serkin). As a bonus, the set includes a performance of the "Tempest" Sonata by Gieseking. The rare vintage 78s were brought to 21st-century life through the remastering of Art & Son Studio in Paris, using the 24-bit "CAP 440" technique. Enclosed in an attractive, protective slipcase, the 96-page book contains evocative images of the composer and many rarely seen photos of the performers. The texts — in English, French and German — include an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tim Page, an illuminating contextual essay by Jed Distler ("Beethoven and the Great Pianists: Making History on Record"), and detailed artist biographies from "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians."

asin: B000003D1Q binding: Audio CD list price: $17.98 USD amazon price: $17.98 USD

These 26 "nuggets of momentary inspiration," written at various times from Beethoven's teenage years to his later maturity, show incredible variety of mood, inventiveness, and technical complexity. John O'Conor, one of the world's premier Beethoven interpreters, takes us on a thoroughly splendid adventure, revealing these pieces as far more than the "trifles" that some pianists mistake them for. --David Vernier