Beethoven　 Piano Sonatas

This is the first in a nine-disc series of Beethoven’s complete Piano Sonatas that Jonathan Biss plans to record over as many years. That does seem excessively leisurely, however great a testimony it is to Biss’s seriousness and dedication.

There was not then & there is not now a more profound interpreter of the piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven than Artur Schnabel, & his 1930s recordings of them are now as they have always been & as they will always be the greatest recordings of the works ever made. Schnabel’s Waldstein Sonata is pure joy, his Appassionata is dark despair, & his Sonata in E minor is complete consolation. Schnabel’s Sonata in E major is radiant bliss, his Sonata in A flat is luminous ecstasy, & his Sonata in C minor is numinous spirituality. Generations of critics have carped at Schnabel’s technique &, in truth, he does lack the technique to play the closing movement of the Appassionata at tempo. But generations of listeners have heard Schnabel’s deep soul & his sublime musicianship & have therefore cheerfully disregarded any critical quibbles in gratitude for Schnabel’s transcendent performances. EMI’s remastering of the 1930s monaural originals is obviously antique but nevertheless clear enough to let the lucid light of Schnabel’s performances shine through. Anyone who values their immortal soul should listen to these recordings.

Takahiro Yoshikawa (吉川 隆弘, Yoshikawa Takahiro) is a Japanese classical pianist. He is a regular piano soloist at La Scala, Italy's leading opera house.

CRD is releasing a collection of Beethoven piano works recorded by Virginia Black, the three sonata’s recorded (Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, and Sonata no. 31 in A-flat major), were chosen by Virginia as a expressing the Power, Passion, and Ecstasy of Beethoven’s work.

Every man's death diminishes us all, but the death of a man so close to completing his greatest achievement and the summation of his life's work diminishes us all greatly – very, very greatly. When Emil Gilels died in 1985, he had completed recordings of most but not all of Beethoven's piano sonatas, released here in a nine-disc set. What's here is unimaginably good: superlative recordings of 27 of the 32 canonical sonatas, including the "Pathétique," "Moonlight," "Waldstein," "Appassionata," "Les Adieux," and the majestic "Hammerklavier," plus the two early "Electoral" Sonatas and the mighty Eroica Variations. What's missing is unimaginably priceless: five of the canonical sonatas, including the first and – horror vacui – the last. But still, for what there is, we must be grateful. Beyond all argument one of the great pianists of the twentieth century, Gilels the Soviet super virtuoso had slowly mellowed and ripened over his long career, and when he began recording the sonatas in 1972, his interpretations had matured and deepened while his superlative technique remained gloriously intact straight through to the last recordings of his final year.