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

asin: B0000028OG binding: Audio CD list price: $8.99 USD amazon price: $9.16 USD

These two CBC television soundtracks are valuable additions to Glenn Gould's discography. His 1970 Emperor concerto, though not without its quirks, boasts an uncluttered directness largely absent from his studio version with Leopold Stokowski. By contrast, Gould puts on his best lily-gilding airs for Strauss's youthful Burleske, a work he never tackled in the studio. Within the limitations of the mono TV source, the sound is more listenable than previous bootleg incarnations of this material. --Jed Distler

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYQ02 binding: Digital list price: $2.75 USD amazon price: $2.75 USD

Downloadable sheet music file

asin: B000003CYP binding: Audio CD list price: $9.98 USD amazon price: $22.58 USD

How many times have you heard a child in the other room playing--or attempting to play--Beethoven's "Für Elise" or Edward MacDowell's "To a wild rose"? Well, here you get these and 16 more all-time favorite little gems, performed to unaffected, unpretentious perfection--a real treat for anyone who's ever labored over piano lessons, and anyone, child or adult, who loves piano music.

asin: B000EAV6BS binding: Audio CD list price: $16.98 USD amazon price: $30.71 USD

Beethoven's last three piano sonatas have long been regarded as the Mt. Everest of the form, heights that can be scaled only by pianists who possess the keyboard technique to realize the depth of the composer's vision. By those standards, if Uchida isn't the equal of such giants as Arrau, Kempff, and Schnabel, she certainly comes close enough to make this an outstanding release. Her pianissimos are feathery-light; her fortes are as powerful as one might wish, and her trills are analogues of Beethoven's spiritual ideas. She renders Beethoven's full dynamic palette with nuances that make every shading register. Uchida never makes an ugly sound. Her tone remains warm, colorful, and full-bodied. More important, her interpretation encompasses the inward, contemplative slow sections as well as the energetic ones, and she plays Beethoven's contrapuntal passages with a clarity that makes every musical strand count. She's helped by outstanding engineering, too. Not all of the transcendental Beethoven is captured here, but Uchida comes a lot closer than most pianists can aspire to. That alone makes this disc a must-have. -- Dan Davis