Artur Schnabel plays Beethoven Late Piano Sonatas

Advantages: a new take on a familiar warhorse
Disadvantages: is it worth full price?

...even the piano, Beethoven was, after all, a pianist himself and hated to see a good tune go unplayed by himself) but after a while, when the first shock wears off, the thing actually works quite well. Pletnev did have to make concessions, of course, a little transposition here, a minor rewrite there, but on the whole Beethoven's Clarinet Concerto (as the booklet cheerfully bills it)is a totally credible addition to the repertoire. It comes too late, unfortunately, for the great Gervase de Peyer, but it will be snapped up quite happily by the likes of Sabine Meyer and other relative youngsters. That said, I suspect the names Pletnev and Collins made it imperative for this recording to be issued on a full-price luxury label like DG. As a curiosity (which it will always be, in spite of its quality) it might have more logically appeared... Read review

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Advantages: Classic Brendel, good sound
Disadvantages: Classic Brendel

...After having spent quite some time, both in the studio and the concert hall, concentrating exclusively on the Beethoven Piano Sonatas and Piano Concertos, Brendel, whilst always being limited to some, (not inconsiderable, it seems) extent by physical problems in and around the areas of his back and arms, is now free to explore other music avenues. This is the second disk of Brendel's Mozart with which we have been presented over the recent past; the other being his account of two of the concertos. Here we have performances of 3 of the unaccompanied sonatas. Brendel has long been considered as being a Mozartian of zest and insight. But, for me at least, his interprtations of this Master can seem a little quirky. Its as if he doesn't, in some way, relate to the personality and musical language of Mozart with quite the same success as he... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: A discovery unforgettable
Disadvantages: Nothing

...(Rewrite on 09/07/2001) Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (great italian "virtuoso") spent his life to search a kind of perfection during interpretations. He knew this perfection to be impossible but, for him, "perfection" was union between composer and player. Then,this perfection isn't impossible... Glenn Gould tryed the same sound by his pianos: in this way he was very careful to music structure: beauty of musical phrases, to give a geometrical "presence" to music a.s.o. Of course his Bach interpretations (but Beethoven and Mozart also), even if on a piano and not on a harpsichord or "fortepiano" , are excellent. Michelangeli is on the other side of the moon... His Chopin is mysterious, full of shadows and, in some compositions, unknowable. But, how does Michelangeli obtain this wonderful result? To answer it is simple and very... Read review

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