Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos

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Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos
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  1. Audio CD: Release Date 2011-01-11
  2. Publisher: Decca
  3. Format: Box set
  4. Sales Rank in Music: #2557

Product Review

Alfred Brendel, one of the world's most famous and revered pianists, recently retired from the concert stage. With a career that spanned almost 60 years, Brendel has played a large portion of the piano solo, chamber and concerto repertoire in the world's great musical capitals. On January 5, 2011, Brendel will celebrate his 80th birthday. Decca is proud to re-issue, at an exceptional budget price, two box sets devoted to the core of Brendel's recital repertoire: Beethoven and Schubert. The Beethoven box is a re-issue of Brendel's ANALOGUE recordings of the Beethoven Sonatas (recorded 1970-77) along with his first cycle of the Beethoven concertos (recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Bernard Haitink 1976-77). These are different recordings than the previously released Beethoven cycle from Brendel (028947818212 - release 10/6/2009). CD 1 Sonatas Op.2, nos.1 & 2; op.7 CD 2 Sonatas Op.2 no.3; Op.10, nos.1 & 2; Op.13 CD 3 Sonatas Op.10, no.3; Op.14, nos.1 & 2 Op.22 CD 4 Sonatas Op.26; Op.27 nos.1 & 2; Op.28 CD 5 Sonatas Op.31 nos.1-3; Op.49 no.1 CD 6 Sonatas Op.49, no. 2; Op.53; Op.54; Op.57 CD 7 Sonatas Op.78; Op.79; Op.81a; Op.90; Op.101 CD 8 Sonatas Op.106; Op.109 CD 9 Sonatas Op.110; Op.111; Andante favori, WoO 57 CD 10 Piano Concertos 1 & 2 CD 11 Piano Concertos 3 & 4 CD 12 Piano Concerto 5; Choral fantasia
Title Tracks for Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)

48 of 49 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A STELLAR CYCLE, available once again!, March 18, 2011
Gregory E. Foster "operabruin" (Portland, ME, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos (Audio CD)
YES!

This is the cycle IMHO that put Alfred Brendel "on the map" for Beethoven interpretation. How well I remember the day I purchased this set on LP, in the BIG BOX, and literally "danced" out of the store, went home and began listening to these recordings for the first time! First, I had never heard all of the sonatas until then, and second I was simply in awe of the magnitude of this great volume of work written by perhaps the greatest musical genious of all time. I was mesmerized and this set (minus the concertos, of course) quickly became one of my most treasured recordings. Somehow, sadly, I missed this release the first time 'round on cd but did buy the digitally recorded traversal (his third set), but while they were quite wonderful I felt them not of the same character overall as this middle set of recordings, and longed for them but was not willing to pay collector prices for them.

How fortuitous for us that Decca (somehow the successor? of Philips) has...Read more


25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Beethoven set I have been waiting for., February 22, 2011
Mahler fan (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos (Audio CD)
I have admired this set of Beethoven's piano sonatas for many years, but I've never purchased it until now. Brendel's first and last complete cycles leave me a bit cold, whereas this middle cycle from the 1970s is consistently captivating, especially in some of the less popular works. His performance of the second mvt. of Op. 54 is worth the price of the entire box! Pianists in my opinion usually get Op. 54 wrong, playing the finale much too fast or too dry (e.g. Frank or Ashkenazy). Brendel's pacing is perfect, and his pedaling is sublime. Speaking of pedaling, he also gets the Waldstein finale just right: wonderfully blurry at the beginning, but with subtle pedal changes that keep the texture from becoming a catatonic mess. The op. 2 sonatas are also a joy. While this box may lack the fire of Ashkenazy and Claude Frank (both of whose complete Beethoven sets I love), it contains genuine poetry, and I would recommend it without qualification. I've only listened to the 3rd...Read more


10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for a Good First Set of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas? Look No Further ..., December 13, 2011
Ray "A Reader" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos (Audio CD)
There's no denying that Alfred Brendel is one of the most esteemed pianists of the past half century, and Beethoven was among his particular specialties. Brendel actually recorded the complete set of 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas three times during his career (he retired from public performances in 2008), and due to his expertise and command of the piano, as well as his interpretive skill of Beethoven's works, won acclaim for each of these cycles. As with many "best of kind" performances, these sets could, unfortunately, be hideously expensive to acquire, but if one had the opportunity to enjoy them, the rewards were substantial. There's a reason why Brendel has racked up so many awards and has been received with such universal acclaim, and even the briefest of examinations of any of these recording sets reveals just why.

Brendel has a magnificent command of the instrument. It is difficult to describe his style, but I might suggest that he is a classicist in performance,...Read more

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