As mentioned in the previous post, Andrea Lucchesini's Beethoven Piano Sonatas set is one of the excellent ones. Highly recommended if it can be found for a reasonable price.
Here's an interesting tidbit, if you didn't know it already (bet you did!): Lucchesini, of whom you speak highly, studied with none other than Maria Tipo, of whom you also speak highly. At least, so sayeth a blurb on Amazon.... I should add that I'm with you about Tipo (haven't heard Lucchesini): I like how she plays just about everything I've heard her do.
Khachaturian: SPARTACUS [complete ballet] (Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, Zhuraitis - Melodiya, 3cd) Sorry to say I hated it. I choked the whole thing down! David Hurwitz (in a review that was actually cautious but not negative) wrote that it was too loud, so he kept turning down the volume, and it was still too loud---and this not only fair but accurate. I intend to devote a chunk of this week to Khachaturian, and I hope his other music is more agreeable to me than this monochromatic trumpeting kitsch. I thought I had a big soft spot for the latter, even in the context of this work---cf. the Spartacus "love theme" used more than once in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY---but it seems that brevity and sarcasm are necessary for me to enjoy it. Also listening to some Kabalevsky, who I am also not crazy about. His string quartets (Stenhammar Quartet) and piano sonatas (Dossin) I like quite a bit more than the symphonies (Eiji Oue), with piano concertos (Korstick) somewhere in between. In better news, still trucking with the Stravinsky/Columbia box: choral works and songs. We're nearing the end of his life.
After digesting your list some more I am in agreement with everything I've heard from it. For the Preludes it's funny that you mention the comparison with Richter, I said something similar in an older post about a different work. I would say my second favorite is a live recording by Cherkassky on Orfeo (Argerich for sentimental reasons). I have several complete sets and no one plays them like Sokolov. On Cortot it's been a while since I've heard the Naxos discs, I seem to recall liking the sound on the EMI box more (they have used decent sources so they don't need the mild massaging to the high end often found on MOT remasterings), and there is some very good Schumann on there. Fortunately that box isn't one of the EMI France pianist boxes that go out of print quickly, at least someone at EMI recognizes his greatness
Maybe not the most cerebral music, but it is highly enjoyable! Tremendous playing from the young soloists (barely into their teens at the time) and the composer. Recorded live in 1988--very good sound.
Some names I haven't heard of in there. Thanks for some other suggestions that I will try to track down.
@George P I believe you are a big fan of Gulda's Amadeo cycle right? I listened to some of it a while back, I believe just Pathetique and Moonlight to see if it was worth exploring further. I was not a fan of his interpretations on either so I didn't bother listening to more, but a while back I picked it up again and decided to listen from start to the entire cycle and I'm glad that I did, as I now enjoy it very much (still except for Moonlight and Pathetique ). It was the So What? documentary along with enjoying his Mozart that pushed me to come back to it. I am relistening to it now to compare/contrast with Backhaus' mono cycle, did some comparisons with all the sonatas in Op.2 so far. I love how Gulda's playing simply "flows like water" with no jaggedness or sense of looseness. Backhaus' has a certain relaxed, understated rubato that is wonderful, really highlighted in parts like the first movement of Op.2/3. Would not want to be without either!
Nor would I. For a more emotional approach (this is where I think those guys are lacking), Annie Fischer's set is superb! But my overall favorite is Lucchesini's set. He seems to do it all, the speed and youthfulness of Gulda, the beauty of Kempff, the emotional approach of Annie Fischer, all within a coherent style.
Attention @hvbias, @George P--Either of you know anything about the Stewart Goodyear set? I've read intriguing things about it, but it had slipped out of print by the time I learned of it, and every time I've checked since prices were ridiculous. On a whim, just had a look at Amazon, however, and for some reason the ten-CD set can be had there right now for $42 and change (Prime members), plus there's some sort of a coupon to click that will save another couple of bucks. I just ordered a copy--I hope it won't turn out to be a mistake! If you're interested, here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Co...rd_wg=j6Evs&psc=1&refRID=TADZB9YQAXQ37YG6849P Supposedly only 17 copies of the box are left in stock. Lucchesini, alas, is almost twice as much--for .mp3 downloads. I refuse to pay a dime for an .mp3 download! [Edit] Mind you, I need yet another Beethoven sonata cycle about as much as I need a white elephant in the room singing Dix's "The Trumpeter"....
I see that Lucchesini is available from 7digital in a lossless FLAC format for $97.49. I don't like mp3 downloads either, however, FLAC is as good as the CD although the program notes will be missing. Also available from Qobuz for €80 ~ $92 in FLAC Just saying'
Right, and thanks for the tip. That said, I'm not fond of high-resolution downloads, either (albeit not entirely against them in principle)--they make me do all the work of track labeling and such. Yeah, lazy me!
I wholeheartedly second the Lucchesini recommendation, it is indeed a very coherent set. Shame it's so hard to find on CD.
I investigated it awhile ago and didn't like it enough for a purchase. Like you, I have Beethoven coming out of my ears.
As for me, I tend to prefer having Beethoven going into my ears. Ahem. OK, thanks for the update; I'll just hope that maybe I'll like it better than you did.
Annie Fischer is my long time reference. I will give Lucchesini's set a listen on Tidal when the mood strikes. @drh I am not familiar with his playing, I have only seen him promoted a bit. You can sign up for Tidal and cancel the service before the trial ends. I did this in the past as the audible watermarking on Universal owned subsidiary classical labels was a slap in the face. Would have been more than happy to pay for the premium vesrion with lossless streaming if it was truly CD resolution, aka no water marking. A conundrum I face is I can never truly have my complete lossless library at work or another house since it gets out dated the moment I start ripping more CDs requiring bringing hard drives back and forth. So streaming would have at least solved one of those parts, though I would never do away with physical discs/downloads. I plan to do this with Lucchesini before paying ~$100 for a download (will more than likely wait for a deal) If anyone cares a couple of days ago I wrote a bit about what I thought of various Beethoven sonatas over at another forum that is more technically orientated towards gear and not music, so I tried to keep it simple. Written after my sudden enthusiasm in the music again after understanding the full Backhaus mono, but it was written with a slight bias for people that were used to listening to cutting edge audiophile recordings. My favorite Beethoven piano sonata cycles If I get flack for having Schnabel in the bottom tier, I'm sorry After upgrading to the Naxos CDs from the harsh sounding Pearl I gave them plenty of ear time, still not ones that I would play often.
For me, Schnabel brings something special to this music, an energetic, raw urgency that no other set has had since. While I admit his playing is not without fault, I feel his strengths are more than enough to put his set among my favorite Beethoven sonata sets.
Well, you know I'm not going to disagree! One thing I will add: reissues, even good ones, very seldom do true justice to 78 RPM originals. Noise and all, there's something about the way the sound leaps from those coarse grooves, when the stars are in alignment, that is magical. One other thing to bear in mind: Annie Fischer's redoubtable set is very much a product of the recording studio; she was never satisfied with it and constantly went back to rerecord little passages here, a note or two there, to be spliced into the master tapes. As I understand things, she was at that process right up to her death. If you'd like to hear her without such editorial intervention, try to find a copy of the Melo Classics issue devoted to some of her recordings for broadcast by European radio stations. Schnabel, by contrast, recorded his cycle before the introduction of magnetic tape into the recording chain. Everything he did was recorded in straight, direct-to-disk takes of around 4 minutes apiece, start-and-stop all the way. We shall see how Stewart Goodyear stacks up against them.
I do hope you enjoy it. An online friend, who happens to be a Beethoven sonata fanatic (he owns 60+ complete sets), likes Goodyear's set: Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Overall, though, he places Goodyear in his third tier: Beethoven's Piano Sonatas Lucchesini is in his top tier, as is Backhaus (mono) and Annie Fischer.
I can occasionally hear edits in say Horowitz's live albums that came out in the LP era, but after many, many listens to the Fischer I can not detect any. I have heard this said about the edits in a few places and not that I doubt it, but I would be interested in the provenance of this claim. I want to say it was Third Ear that were first (that I know of) that were very panegyric about this cycle (to the extent that I don't think I'd seen such praise for any other single work in the book) but I can't recall if they mentioned the edits. Fischer also has some Beethoven on BBC CDs, and I can't hear mistakes on those or the CD with Brahms Op.5 sonata.
