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DiscountDelight - Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas / Vladimir Ashkenazy
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List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $13.63
Your Save: $ 4.35 ( 24% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Decca
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028945295220
Label: Decca
Manufacturer: Decca
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Decca
Release Date: 1997-08-26
Studio: Decca
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Double CD
Comment: This double CD is exquisite. Vladimir Ashkenazy plays Beethoven with sensitivity and dynamic intensity. The quality of the CD is excellent, the playing sublime, and the value outstanding.
This double CD has quickly become one of my favorites. I originally heard it on the local NPR classical stations, bought the CD here, and love it!
I just can't think of a single deficiency in the CD. I think this is just an excellent CD at any price; at the price here, it is a real bargain.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Favourite Piano Sonata's Beethoven's Best on 2 CD's
Comment: Of the 32 Piano Sonata's composed by Beethoven this two CD set includes 7 of the best pieces of a most influential corpus of work. These are stunningly recorded and they are arranged to provide the listener with a dynamic experience. Interestingly the composition of the Sonata's began only a decade after Mozart. Juxtaposing the two composers we can readily see the split between the 18th and 19th centuries. Beethoven's work is solidly in the 19th century style with the technical and romantic sentiments of this period well expressed in these sonatas. We can see this turn towards romanticism in the titles of the pieces like "tempest" and "Pathetique" oh and of course "Moonlight" are evocative to say the least. Beethoven also really "pushed the envelope" in respect to exploring the limits of the piano in range and technique. The piano forte, was truly a revolutionary keyboard instrument, and although other keyboards had beeen around for ceturies, it wasnt until the piano that the keyboard could be so versatile - and loud enough to be the only instrument on stage.
The 2cd set here, which is reasonably priced for very well recorded music, is a definite must-own for any small classical music collection. Buying this set is worth it simply for the Moonlight Sonata but all of the other pieces are terrific as well. Providing great music to work to or enjoy by your self and with others, Beethoven's sonatas are great pieces and this set is surely to please all who purchase.
Ted Murena
Customer Rating:
Summary: I would rate the CD...IF I COULD ONLY HEAR IT!!!!
Comment: Hopefully this is only due to a defective copy of the CD but the copy I received was barely audible. I tested it on numerous media players with no success and am in the process of getting a refund from Amazon. Be wary...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unexceptionable Beethoven, and that's not faint praise
Comment: Vladimir Ashkenazy by now has become an elder statesman of classical piano playing. This two-CD set presents his 1970s recordings of seven of the most familiar Beethoven piano sonatas. The performances are technically impeccable and solidly mainstream in their interpretive bent--no weirdnesses or surprises here. This is not to say there isn't plenty of interest and beauty--Ashkenazy's rendition of the hackneyed first movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata, for example, is masterly in its tonal control, while the stormy finale works up quite a head of steam without ever becoming messy or headlong. Similarly, the pianist handles passages in the "Les Adieux" Sonata that most pianists stumble on or muddle through with enviable clarity, if with not quite as much sheer joy in the finale. The same sureness of technique and taste marks all of these performances, and there's certainly nothing wrong with consistency. If it's a little churlish to wish for a bit more excitement, even hysteria in places like the coda to the first movement of the Appassionata, then I'll admit to being a churl. Nevertheless, this is a recording I'd give to piano students to let them hear how Beethoven should be played. The remastered sound is clear but a bit percussive at the loud end of the dynamic spectrum.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Opinion
Comment: Alright I will make this short and sweet. When pianists become as good at Beethoven as Vladimir Ashkenazy or Alfred Brendel it comes down to opinon of which you enjoy the most. I recommend listening to this one and then Brendel and Richter and anyone else. Just remeber get which ever one you like the most. I hope that helps!
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