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

asin: B00049QOGG binding: Audio CD list price: $8.99 USD amazon price: $8.98 USD

First the good news, though it's hardly new: Murray Perahia is a marvelous pianist. His performance of the Beethoven Sonata must be one of the best on record. Everything about it is "right": the sound is beautiful, with an extraordinary variety of touch, color and nuance; the rhythm is flexible but steady, the phrasing perfect; tempo and mood changes are subtle and poised, transitions balanced. The elusive first movement is wonderfully poetic, the Scherzo sparkles without being hectic, the slow movement is deeply expressive (truly "yearning," as Beethoven indicates), and melts naturally into the brilliant buoyancy of the Finale, ending in a burst of triumphant glory. Perahia uses a new edition of the Beethoven sonatas that he is preparing, but the innovations seem to be slight. The news about Op. 127 is less good. Composers have traditionally used the string quartet, that incomparably intimate combination, to express their inmost thoughts and feelings. Arranged as a "symphony" it loses its emotionally concentrated, inward, personal character. Doubling the parts and adding a bass makes the texture bottom-heavy, thick and muddy; moreover, it creates intonational problems for the players and restricts their freedom and spontaneity. In short, nothing is gained and much is lost in the transformation. This performance of Op. 127, though careful and conscientious, illustrates all these defects. The grand, majestic first movement becomes bombastic, the second dense and heavy; the Scherzo is too fast for clarity, aggressive rather than humorous, the Finale loses its gracious charm. Throughout, the balance is poor, the dynamic contrast excessive, with lots of whispering that seems like a failed attempt to preserve the transparency of the original. Of course one cannot gain an impression of Perahia the maestro on the basis of this disc, but one might suspect that this work was chosen--indeed created--for his conducting debut because it is both a masterpiece and a novelty. --Edith Eisler

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

5 CD Box set.

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPQ2 binding: Digital list price: $5.95 USD amazon price: $5.95 USD

Downloadable sheet music file

author: Beethoven asin: 0757908160 binding: Paperback list price: $12.95 USD amazon price: $12.95

Arranged for Late Intermediate Piano Book & CD. Volume four of this series includes 12 original piano works by Beethoven. Donald Beattie, founder and president of The Beethoven Society for Pianists, along with his wife Delayna, has selected nine Bagatelles from Beethoven's opus 33, 119, and 126, two Rondos, and Klavierstuck in B Minor WoO61. There is an extensive preface describing Beethoven's life and work, performance suggestions on each piece, and a section exclusive to this series entitled "Beethoven as Our Teacher" with historical facts and quotes from great composers and artists of history