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

asin: B000NPCMGW binding: Audio CD list price: $11.98 USD amazon price: $10.22 USD

Specially priced 2-CD set in space-saving brilliant box with accompanying three-language booklet. Digitally remastered to the highest standards at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios.

asin: B000001GXB binding: Audio CD list price: $23.98 USD amazon price: $20.99 USD

Pollini's performances of Beethoven's last five piano sonatas have assumed almost legendary status, and this reissue at midprice in improved sound ought to win them many new friends. Sometimes considered a cold interpreter, Pollini here pays scrupulous attention to Beethoven's instructions, an attention that never gets in the way of sincere expression. There's a lot to be said for approaching this music with a maximum of clarity and simplicity, and a minimum of Romantic panting and heaving. In fact, Beethoven's instructions are so detailed, and the music itself is often so elaborately developed, that it's all most pianists can do to play it as he wrote it. Pollini does that, and much more. --David Hurwitz