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

author: Ludwig van Beethoven asin: 0486438058 binding: Paperback list price: $17.95 USD amazon price: $17.95 USD

For 200 years, Beethoven's symphonies have been at the core of the classical repertoire, and they remain among the most important works of art in any medium. These elegant four-hand versions of Beethoven's masterpieces have long been favorites of duet performers. This volume features his final 4 symphonies.

asin: B000006O34 binding: Audio CD list price: $33.98 USD amazon price: $33.98 USD

Much of the repertoire here is new to Richter's ever-growing discography, notably 53 minutes worth of transcendent Liszt Années de Pelerinage excerpts, and a haunting Ravel Le Gibet. A live Beethoven Pathetique sonata proves more individual and arresting than Richter's excellent studio recording, as does this 1954 Weber 3rd Sonata to the better- recorded 1966 Philips version. Richter fans, however, will truly be floored by a whirling Ravel Alborado del gracioso and Rachmaninoff's Études- tableaux in E-flat, played better than humanly possible. Don't pass this set up! --Jed Distler

asin: B0000B383B binding: Audio CD list price: $17.95 USD amazon price: $17.95 USD

Includes Symphony NO. 5 and Piano Concerto No. 4. The work of Ludwig van Beethoven has been called the culmination of the Classical era or the wellspring of the Romantic era in European music. Historians today see him as the heir of Haydn and Mozart, carrying their musical discoveries to a new level of complexity and integration. No composer in the nineteenth century could aspire to the creation of a symphony without taking into account the example of Beethoven. In his Symphony No. 5, Beethoven achieved an unprecedented degree of unity and coherence through the use of a short musical phrase called a "movite" which recurs a number of times throughout the piece. In Piano Concerto No. 4, Beethoven breaks with tradition by beginning with an understated piano solo rather than a substantial orchestral introduction. Each CD package includes two CDs. The first, a Musical Performance Disk, features the top performers and symphony orchestras in the world, performing the best-loved music from the classical music Greats. Accompanying the Musical Performance Disc is a Conductor's Guide on a separate CD. Here, Maestro Gerard Schwarz discusses the musical performances in depth--movement by movement, section by section--using examples from the recorded performances. There's no better, more enjoyable way to get a basic education in classical music. You'll also receive a 16-page printed copy of Concert Notes, featuring the unique Music Disc Timeline, which is written to synchronize with the elapsed time display of your CD player. As you play the music on the Performance Disc, you can see exactly where the things that Maestro Schwarz discussed take place in the music. It's like looking into the score--but you don't have to know how to read music!

asin: B000J3EBLC binding: Audio CD list price: $6.98 USD amazon price: $7.61 USD

"An Emperor which offers increasing musical dividends - an unmissable bargain ... There are plenty of big-name Emperors around, but this latest entry holds its own against any competition. Yefim Bronfman's touch is light and fleet, while he, David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra form a warmly responsive partnership." - GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1958, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel at the age of thirteen and later to the U.S., where he pursued his training at the Juilliard School and the Marlboro and Curtis Institutes under Rudolf Serkin, Rudolf Firkusny, and Leon Fleisher. Bronfman celebrated his international début in 1975, accompanied by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. He soon acquired an excellent reputation as a pianist on the stages of the world's major concert halls. Highlights of recent years include concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Yefim Bronfman also gives regular piano recitals in the leading concert halls of the United States, Europe, and the Far East. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Juilliard Quartets. Other long-term musical partners include Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Shlomo Mintz, and Pinchas Zukerman. Born in 1936, American conductor David Zinman has risen to the pinnacle of his career in the last decade. After bringing the Baltimore Symphony to major status, he became musical director of the Aspen Music Festival and then took the helm of Zurich's beloved Tonhalle Orchestra. Zinman's discography of some one hundred recordings has won five Grammys and two Grands Prix du Disque. Ever since 1999, when the Tonhalle Orchestra was awarded the German Record Critics' Award for its seminal recording of all Beethoven's symphonies, the oldest symphony orchestra in Switzerland has been the focus of international interest. Under the leadership of David Zinman, the Tonhalle Orchestra has undertaken a number of successful concert tours throughout Europe, the U.S., and Japan. In addition to its concerts at home and its touring schedule, the orchestra and Zinman are devoting increasing time to recording projects. Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto is the most dramatic of his five piano concertos, and one of the most popular in the entire genre. First performed in 1812, it is still a concert staple. First-time listeners to Beethoven's "Choral Fantasy" are inevitably taken aback by its similarities to the far more famous final movement of the Ninth Symphony, and indeed it was to become a sort of model or study for that magnificent finale. The "Choral Fantasy" was especially written for a mammoth concert of Beethoven's works given in December of 1808. Seldom heard in concert today, Beethoven's dramatic choral piece Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage was composed in 1814/15 to two poems by Goethe, and dedicated to the great German poet who received a copy of the score from Beethoven in 1822, the year of its first performance.