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

author: Ludwig van Beethoven asin: 0486251888 binding: Paperback list price: $16.95 USD amazon price: $16.95 USD

All 21 sets of Beethoven's variations, including the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, 32 Variations in C Minor, the Eroica Variations, Op. 35, plus variations on themes by Dressler, Salieri, Sussmayr, Righini, other composers. Reprinted from the authoritative Breitkopf & Härtel edition.

asin: B00081U6T6 binding: Audio CD list price: $16.99 USD amazon price: $16.99 USD

This CD presents Beethoven's immortal "Appassionata" sonata in three separate performances on different instruments, all played by virtuoso keyboardist, Lambert Orkis. Beethoven himself regarded the f minor sonata to be his finest sonata at the time that he wrote it (1805), and Carl Czerny, a student of Beethoven's points out that whatever considerable powers a pianist needed for Beethoven's sonatas prior to this composition, this work required the doubling of those abilities. When Beethoven composed the "Appassionata", a consensus regarding how a piano should sound had not been achieved. Indeed, the instrument was in the throes of a rapid evolutionary development. The three instruments used in this recording are based upon Viennese piano building designs and represent three snapshots in time of Viennese piano evolution. Lambert Orkis has received international recognition as chamber musician, interpreter of contemporary music, and performer on period instr! uments. He has appeared world-wide in recital with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter since 1988 and with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich since 1983. A multi-Grammy Award nominee, his large discography comprises works of the Classical, Romantic and Modern eras. Mr. Orkis can be heard on the following Bridge CDs: George Crumb: A Little Suite for Christmas; Richard Wernick: Sonata "Reflections of a Dark Light" (BRIDGE 9003); Richard Wernick: Piano Concerto (BRIDGE 9082); Richard Wernick: Piano Sonata No. 2; James Primosch: Sonata-Fantasia (BRIDGE 9131).

asin: B000003EUL binding: Audio CD list price: $8.99 USD amazon price: $10.99 USD

Richter was one of the those great virtuoso egomaniac genius types who was so insecure that he practiced for something like 10 hours a day, even before a scheduled performance. But it wasn't just getting the notes right that he was after. He was looking for the way to somehow get an entire work "into his hands," and trying to figure out the relationships between all of its different parts. That's why his performances--even the very slow one--have such an inevitable sounding organic unity. This performance isn't one of the very slow ones, but it does have that sense of urgency and spontaneity, as though Richter and Leinsdorf were composing as they play. It's one of the great recordings. --David Hurwitz

asin: B000EGFUZA binding: Audio CD list price: $17.98 USD amazon price: $18.09 USD

This is the second volume of András Schiff's projected recording, in chronological order, of the complete Beethoven sonatas. It comprises the three sonatas Op. 10 and the "Pathétique" Sonata Op. 13, all written between 1795 and 1798, but quite different in character and feeling. The first, in Beethoven's dramatic tonality of C minor, is turbulent; the second is light-hearted and humorous. The third is most expansive; in four rather than three movements, it includes a lyrical Menuetto with an all too short, delightful Trio, and a profound, grief-stricken slow movement. The "Pathétique," again in C minor, has become a popular favorite for its high drama and its beautiful, song-like middle movement. Its slow introduction recurs several times; Schiff regards it as a thematic and structural part of the movement and includes it in the repeat of the exposition. (He takes all repeats throughout, at times adding discreet ornamentation.) Schiff's playing, as always, is the essence of refinement and elegance. His virtuosity is invariably at the service of the music, even at headlong speeds; his tone sings with beguiling beauty. He commands variety of touch, articulation, dynamics, and inflection; melody and harmonic background are balanced perfectly. (The Angelo Fabbrini piano sounds clear, but less rich and mellow than the Bösendorfer he often uses.) He combines scholarly integrity with inward expressiveness, steadiness with poised liberties; his identification with Beethoven's changing moods is complete. Strangely enough, he subscribes to the old-fashioned habit of letting the left hand anticipate the right and tends to rush certain rhythms, especially before and after crossing hands. But these are minor flaws in masterfully controlled, deeply affecting performances. -- Edith Eisler