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

asin: B00004T92Y binding: Audio CD list price: $31.98 USD amazon price: $31.98 USD

Along with Marston's invaluable reissue of Arrau's early studio recordings, these radio broadcasts from the late 1930s add to our knowledge of one of the century's greats. The younger Arrau was a more overtly virtuosic pianist than the later, more philosophical one on his Philips recordings, but the seriousness of his interpretive approach shines through. The Beethoven sonatas, for example, are weightier in his later recordings, but we can still revel in his unique depth of tone and refusal to settle for surface glitter, a rare trait in a virtuoso of Arrau's technical accomplishments. His Chopin, too, while still in the Germanic tradition, has more air and lightness. The Liszt solo pieces are played with transcendent beauty. He makes light of the Liszt Concerto's difficulties, but it's roughly recorded and doesn't match his mid-1950s version with Eugene Ormandy on Sony. Despite some noisy originals, most tracks have surprisingly fresh and vital sound. An important release. --Dan Davis

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Live performances from Edwin Fischer's final decade of concerts feature him as soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. Fischer's rare interpretive insights can best be heard in his exalted slow movement of Brahms's Sonata No. 3, earning appreciative applause from the knowledgeable audience. The set includes inevitable finger slips and wrong notes, inconsequential byproducts of his striving for artistic integrity. More important, his unerring sense of tempo conveys the heart of the music. Slow movements are soulful but liquid. Drama is always present, allied to a gorgeous tone. His reputation for seriousness doesn't prevent a romp through the Rondo of Beethoven's Concerto No. 1 or the beautifully phrased, long-breathed lyricism of the Romance movement of Mozart's 20th Concerto. Appropriately, since Fischer was an outstanding Bach interpreter, there's a lot of Bach here, including a Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 unannounced anywhere on the box, track listings, or notes. Much of the Bach on this set will sound dated and heavy to modern ears, but it's compelling nonetheless. Those who know Fischer's lofty Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with Furtwängler (Testament) will be surprised to hear this nearly contemporaneous, swifter, and less symphonic live version with Hans Munch. It's a highlight of a set with few duds. At six discs for the price of four, and nicely packaged in a space-saving box with good notes and variable sound (mostly vintage broadcast quality), the set is a valuable tribute to a great artist. --Dan Davis

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

10CD box set.

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John O'Conor's complete set of Beethoven piano sonatas is a monumental achievement, not only for the sheer volume of music recorded, but for its coherent interpretive scope and its successful illumination of developmental aspects of Beethoven's ever-evolving style. The sound, too, is a revelation, perfectly capturing O'Conor's Hamburg Steinway in the ideal acoustics of Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. --David Vernier

asin: B000006NKV binding: Audio CD list price: $16.98 USD amazon price: $16.98

Vladimir Feltsman has definite ideas about the Hammerklavier and the ability to carry them out, not something we can take for granted. He plays the first movement with emphasis on rhetoric, occasionally sacrificing forward motion, but certainly making his points. There is no sacrifice of motion in the horrendously difficult finale, though, where the pianist keeps the music going with great power and impressive clarity. Only the slow movement requires the degree of eloquence that we hear throughout No. 28, a treasure of a performance. This is some very impressive Beethoven playing, very well recorded. --Leslie Gerber