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: B000002RUP binding: Audio CD list price: $16.98 USD amazon price: $16.98 USD

Here's a disc that really throws down the gauntlet! Beethoven's late piano sonatas have an almost mythical reputation for sublime obscurity. That doesn't mean they don't get played, but rather that performers (and critics) tend to treat them with a seriousness not always supported by the music itself, which is frequently intimate, playful, and charming. In coupling two late sonatas with two earlier ones, Pratt demonstrates both the consistency of Beethoven's musical thought, and also makes a strong case for the late sonatas being far more approachable than most people think. He plays these two late works with the same sort of robust freshness and unaffected musicality that he lavishes on the two earlier ones, and the result is highly engaging. --David Hurwitz

asin: B000TGVHXO binding: Sheet music

12 pieces chosen to give the user a source of essential core literature from the composer.