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

asin: B0000026GN binding: Audio CD list price: $31.98 USD amazon price: $31.98 USD

These are among the finest modern recordings of Beethoven's Cello Sonatas. The two players are well matched, as they should be in this music, which is just as demanding for the pianist as for the cellist, if not more so. They don't try to differentiate stylistically among early, middle, and late sonatas. They play them all in a large scale, concert-hall manner, which actually suits all of them very well. Unfortunately, in reducing this recording to two CDs, the producers have dropped one set of Variations, which was recorded. What is present, though, is choice. --Leslie Gerber

asin: B0001AW052 binding: DVD list price: $24.98 USD amazon price: $22.49 USD

This disc presents one of the 20th century's greatest and most distinctive pianists in music of two pianist-composers, Schumann and Beethoven, who were among his most treasured specialties. The playing is fluent, brilliant without ever being flashy, and phrased and accented with a totally unique flavor. Kempff has power to spare, but he uses it with a restraint that heightens its impact. Kempff's style is an attractive blend of intelligence and lyric grace; he is, like Alfred Brendel. a thinking man's pianist, but his joyful plunge into the lighter moments is as significant as his subtle explorations of the music's depths. In this collection, taken from television broadcasts in the 1960s and 1970, Schumann is presented essentially as a brilliant miniaturist, Beethoven as a devotee of larger and deeper forms. Kempff takes the measure of both styles. A bonus presents a less-known but fine pianist, Dino Ciani, in Schumann's Novelette, Op. 21, No. 1 and two numbers from Bartok's "Out of Doors" Suite. --Joe McLellan

asin: B000003XTU binding: Audio CD list price: $16.99 USD amazon price: $90.15 USD

Glenn Gould's playing is so treasured that CD publishers have been looking for anything of his they can find. These treasures, dredged from the CBC archives and Gould's own collection, offer some fresh material. The Beethoven trios, broadcast in 1954, don't sound great, but they are fine performances and show Gould as a fine chamber music collaborator. The piano pieces, from 1952, sound somewhat better and are played straightforwardly, without the eccentric ideas that crept into Gould's playing later in his career. This disc is probably for Gould fans only, but it should delight them. --Leslie Gerber

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPP8 binding: Digital list price: $5.95 USD amazon price: $5.95 USD

Downloadable sheet music file