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

asin: B0000029CU binding: Audio CD list price: $7.99 USD amazon price: $10.08 USD

Surprisingly, this seems to be the only coupling of the three most popular Clarinet Trios in the repertoire. The all-star ensemble, all musicians who have frequently performed together, turns out extremely fine performances of all three works. If the Brahms seems like the most thoroughly understood, in its combination of warmth and impulse, the other two works are nearly as fine. Very good sound, resonant and very well balanced, completes a total winner of a disc. --Leslie Gerber

asin: B00000C2F7 binding: Audio CD list price: $111.98 USD amazon price: $111.98

Claudio Arrau played with seriousness of purpose that could make other pianists seem like dilettantes and with respect for the composer's score that bordered on veneration. He had nothing but scorn for pianists who played the opening of Beethoven's Opus 111 with two hands instead of one because there were fewer risks. If something was technically difficult, Arrau assumed that the composer had written it that way because the difficulties had an expressive value that it was the interpreter's duty to find. Arrau's devotion to Beethoven is memorialized by this budget-priced, 14-CD collection of his recordings, mostly from the 1960s, of the composer's 32 sonatas, five concertos (with Bernard Haitink conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam), and most important sets of variations. His Beethoven is not always successful. His sometimes ponderous seriousness keeps early works, such as the Sonata No. 3 and the Concerto No. 2, from smiling, and his lack of spontaneity makes the whimsy in Sonata No. 26 and the "Diabelli Variations" sound labored. But in the composer's weightiest works, Arrau can produce revelations. Certainly, no one plays Sonata No. 32 better. The first movement sounds like thunder that comes ever closer and the finale's chains of trills, played with exquisite finish and expressive perfection, transport the listener to a higher realm. If Arrau could be single-minded in his devotion to the composer's score, he also believed that music could encompass everything. When Arrau was at his best--as he frequently is in this set--it does. --Stephen Wigler

asin: B000FBHSQI binding: Audio CD list price: $17.98 USD amazon price: $18.30 USD

One of Pierre Fournier's Great Recordings - Arguably the Best Recording of the Beethoven Complete Cello Works - that Will Form Part of Our Fournier 100 Celebrations (The Anniversary of his Birth Falls on 24 June this Year). The Recordings were Made When Fournier was at his Technical Peak, and Partnered by the Keenly-insightful Friedrich Gulda. The CD Booklet Includes a Fascinating Memoir by the Son of Pierre Fournier - Jean Fonda - on "Fournier and Fritz [gulda]", plus a Couple of Delightful Fifties Photos !

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

Downloadable sheet music file