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

asin: B0000V86PA binding: Audio CD list price: $64.99 USD amazon price: $64.99

Artur Schnabel Complete Piano Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven 8CD set

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPX0 binding: Digital list price: $2.79 USD amazon price: $2.79 USD

Downloadable sheet music file

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The average listener will never have heard most of the music on these discs, sets of variations Beethoven composed in his piano-playing days for casual use. All but one lack opus numbers, which means Beethoven didn't take them very seriously. There are no hidden masterpieces here, at least not in Ogdon's nine selections. But the music has charm and grace, and gives dedicated Beethoven-lovers a chance to experience the composer at his most informal. Ogdon, a great fire-breathing virtuoso during his brief prime, plays this music with modesty and subtlety, never inflating the music beyond its boundaries. These previously-rare recordings (if they were ever issued at all) expand our understanding of a great, tragic pianist, brought down at the height of his career by mental illness. The Gilels performances, of somewhat better-known music, are rescued from their original use as fillers on concerto LPs. Gilels plays the almost famous 32 Variations in C Minor with wonderful drama, and captures the humor in the "Turkish March" Variations. With EMI's excellently remastered sound and super-bargain price, this set is well worth acquiring for anyone interested in the music. --Leslie Gerber

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If Hélène Grimaud hasn't yet appeared on your radar screen of today's outstanding artists, do yourself a favor and get to know the amazing work of this young French pianist. As with her previous releases on Teldec, Grimaud hasn't set out to occupy a specialized niche of repertory. Instead, in knockout recordings of Brahms and Rachmaninoff, Grimaud's been staking out the prime territory. Any initial reservations about such works being over-recorded are quickly dispelled by the unique poetry and power her imagination brings to them, above all in this marvelous live performance of what is probably Beethoven's greatest piano concerto. Entire readings of the Fourth collapse due to misjudgment of its brief but microcosmic opening five bars of solo piano; listen to Grimaud's eloquent articulation of the all-important rhythm, given without intrusively subjective fuss. Her balance of lyricism against energetic momentum sets the stage perfectly for what is to follow. Masur--in almost telepathic sympathy with the soloist--brings a grandly expansive sensibility to the first movement that allows for deliciously precise details from the New York Philharmonic, without losing sight of the music's dramatic thrust. The disc also includes two of the late sonatas; Grimaud understands their complex emotional fabric and brings both clarity and intensity to her articulation. Especially beautiful is the variation movement of Opus 109, sensitively shaped and unencumbered with a dubious "mysticism." No matter how well you know this music, Grimaud is the kind of artist who can make you rethink and--most importantly--feel again what is taken for granted. --Thomas May

asin: B00008WQAH binding: Audio CD list price: $36.97 USD amazon price: $36.97 USD

10CD box set.