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

asin: B000E3LCVY binding: DVD list price: $19.99 USD amazon price: $17.99 USD

Leonard Bernstein was the entry into classical music for legions of fans who experienced his multiple personalities as conductor, composer, teacher, and pianist. He became a veritable father figure not only to his considerable progeny of students but also to a whole generation that learned the joy of music from his influential televised Young People's Concerts. Bernstein remains probably the most effectively telegenic personality classical music has yet produced. The nine DVDs in The Concert Collection offer a fascinating time capsule of the later glory years, reminding us of the unique charisma that was Bernstein on the podium. At each location in this peripatetic collection, the moments before the maestro actually lifts his baton unfold as a powerful ritual. Just a glance at the reactions from audience and players gives you a sense of the hypnotic pull Bernstein commanded. His famously physical manner on the podium reveals a psychokinetic connection to the music. Every concert ends in a torrent of sweat. Sometimes gracefully balletic, at others outrageously exaggerated, Lenny's movements tempt you to air-conduct along with him. (Many who met Bernstein in person were startled to discover a relatively short man, so imposing is the presence he projects from the podium.)The repertory here concentrates on the romantic, along with a few examples of 20th-century music (including Bernstein's own). Those familiar only wit his later Mahler cycles will find some intriguing seeds for the hyperromantic approach he would come to embrace. One of the unquestionable highlights involves Bernstein's efforts (covering two discs) during the 1970 Beethoven anniversary year. His famous Beethoven documentary--which includes a moving summation of what Beethoven means to him--gives us the best of Bernstein as teacher and communicator. And rehearsal scenes for his Viennese production of Fidelio are invaluable. The Ninth Symphony is of course a grand affair (it makes an interesting contrast with the later, highly publicized Ninth performed to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall), but don't overlook the thrills and beauty of Bernstein in the first Beethoven piano concerto, performing as conductor and pianist (he does likewise for Ravel's Concerto in G).Bernstein also shows tremendous affinity for Berlioz, leading a no-holds-barred performance of the Requiem in Paris's St. Louis des Invalides. Here--as in many other moments--you realize how Bernstein's greatness as a conductor arises from an uncanny ability to identify with a composer, to endow the act of music-making with the rare conviction of being present at its creation. A number of the programs were directed by Humphrey Burton (a later biographer of the conductor). Inevitably, much of the camera work has a dated feel, especially compared with the most sophisticated jump cuts and angles of contemporary technology. Yet it still conveys that powerful empathy that is at the core of Bernstein's musical communication.Perhaps the most dated element here, ironically, is the sometimes awkward 1973 production, in association with London Weekend Television, of Bernstein's one-act operatic satire from 1951, Trouble in Tahiti. Its cartoonish sets reveal a '70s take on a retro-'50s look of soulless conformity. But there's a lot of terrific music here, and the opera itself is ripe for rediscovery--as are the Bernstein symphonies also included in the set, music that has remained underrated in part because many conductors of today are reluctant to vie with Lenny's own seemingly unsurpassable interpretations.Unfortunately, the set comes with neither subtitles nor printed texts for the Requiems and Trouble in Tahiti, and audiophiles will need to make accommodations for the boxy television sound of a bygone era. But these are minor failings in a set that offers extraordinary perspectives on a great conductor at work in the act of interpreting music. Bernstein himself said it best when he summed up the act of conducting as "the closest thing I know to love itself." --Thomas May More from Bernstein Young People's Concerts The Unanswered Question Mahler Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies (Collector's Edition) Mahler: The Complete Symphonies & Orchestral Songs The Making of West Side Story

asin: B00004W9CI binding: Audio CD list price: $25.98 USD amazon price: $25.98 USD

Solomon's brilliant interpretations of four of Beethoven's most popular piano sonatas make for an irresistible disc. His graceful, aristocratic style brings each piece to life. Lest you associate "grace" and "aristocratic" with brittle, small-scale playing, be advised that Solomon's energetic playing and his unerring choice of tempo and dynamic relationships fully convey the power and beauty of these great works. Listen to the way he sustains the deep emotions of the opening of the "Moonlight" without wallowing in it, or the way the unadorned simplicity of his phrasing of the Largo movement of the Sonata No. 7 strikes at the heart. Fast movements bristle with agitated energy, but always within a classical framework--Solomon does not turn Beethoven into a late-19th century composer. Within that frame, he gives us the whole man, full of passion and feeling. Few pianists have managed this feat, even fewer as well as Solomon does here. --Dan Davis

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPTE binding: Digital list price: $2.75 USD amazon price: $2.75 USD

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asin: B00000K4FL binding: Audio CD list price: $11.98 USD amazon price: $13.48 USD

More than 70 years have passed since the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio waxed the Schubert B flat and Beethoven Archduke trios. Both recordings were hailed as classics in the early days of electrical recording and have enjoyed numerous incarnations on LP and CD. Even if you already own these performances, you honestly haven't heard them until you experience these new restorations. The effect is not unlike washing your eyeglasses. All the surface snap, crackle, and swish has been tamed, but more room tone emerges along with long-buried, intermingling overtones from all three instruments. There's more tempo fluctuation than modern ears may be accustomed to, along with Thibaud's slippery portamentos. Yet these devices are channeled toward specific expressive ends. Mannered they may seem, but indulgent, never. And listeners used to Cortot's freewheeling approach to solo repertoire will be surprised at how much he behaves himself in a chamber music context. Write, petition, call, beg, cajole, do anything to induce EMI to bring out the remainder of this trio's recorded output in equally amazing transfers. --Jed Distler

asin: B00000B9MR binding: Audio CD list price: $89.98 USD amazon price: $149.95 USD

Blessed with transcendent technique and an affinity for big, bold Romantic works, William Kapell has been hailed as America's greatest homegrown pianist. This comprehensive collection of his complete recorded output, previously unreleased recordings, and broadcast tapes adds luster to a reputation that's become legendary since his tragic death in a plane crash at age 31. The earliest recordings, from the mid-1940s, bristle with raw energy and virtuosic flourishes tempered by an innate musicality that rises above mere display. The disc coupling Khachaturian and Prokofiev concertos is charged with excitement; the Rachmaninoff pairing of the Paganini Variations and the Concerto No. 2 weds the Grand Romantic style to poetic lyricism; and an inspired Liszt group is charged with dynamic energy. Best may be the two Chopin discs: spontaneous, rhythmically flexible sonatas and mazurkas. The later recordings demonstrate the repose that comes with artistic maturity, and the "live" broadcasts reveal Kapell's warmth and spontaneity in concert. Splendid transfers help make this long-awaited set appealing to music lovers in general, as well as piano buffs. --Dan Davis

author: Beethoven asin: B000LRYPPI binding: Digital list price: $5.95 USD amazon price: $5.95 USD

Downloadable sheet music file