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

asin: B0000041K9 binding: Audio CD list price: $23.98 USD amazon price: $27.97 USD

Each of these performances has its own profile. The orchestra plays incisively in the First Concerto, but Ashkenazy's plush lyricism doesn't make a good match either with the orchestra or with the music, and he makes one weird ritard in the first movement. The Second Concerto is uneventful, rather bland and pleasant. The Third Concerto seems to be the best performance of the lot, with dramatic playing by soloist and orchestra, but it's sabotaged by blurry recorded sound, the only serious problem with sound quality in the entire set. The Fourth Concerto is enlivened, at least intellectually, by Solti's approach, constantly revealing interesting unfamiliar details in the orchestral score. Ashkenazy's detachment makes this a frosty but fascinating experience. The "Emperor" is a good routine performance, nothing special. The Bagatelles aren't much of a bonus, since they're rather dully played. (Why not the "Choral" Fantasy?) There's nothing actively bad about this set, and it's reasonably priced. But Beethoven deserves better, and gets it from many performers, including the fascinating Uchida-Sanderling collaborations. --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.