Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Looking for Beethoven Sonatas recordings (sound quality wie)

Hi!
Can someone recommend very high quality recordings of Beethoven Sonatas (and symphonies too are welcomed)?
By that of course I mean no hiss...etc.
Thanks!



PS Before any purist tries to put me down for putting audio quality above performance quality, I have my reason for this request and it is my choice to what I prefer to listen to in any case.

Do you want youtube recordings, DVD/CDs (which are usually good quality), or either?

If your only requirement is high-quality recording, no hiss, etc, then most recordings from the last 20 years should satisfy you. Choose whatever one.

The more recent, the better. Unless, of course, you want actual quality, but that's not what you asked for, is it.

Somehow I knew this will turn out this way...not surprising.

CDs as I would like to rip to flac after wards.

Sorry not quite sure what this means, but if I hear any good quality recordings I'll be sure to post.

Edit: I understand now

You asked the question. And you got an answer.

If you can afford this, it's really great I heard: it has more than the sonatas, though, and is very expensive... http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00000G405

Here's another more affordable choice: http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4777958

I like Gilels, but he died before completing all 32. The remastered version that you can get on CD sounds pretty good. Does anybody know if Bruno Leonardo Gelber recorded the 32?

For the symphonies, I actually really like John Eliot Gardiner!

Along with many critics, I like (and have) the Richard Goode recordings of the Beethoven Sonatas, complete on 10 CD's. Recorded by Nonesuch Elektra in the early 1990s, the sound quality is excellent.

I like Roger Norrington's Beethoven Symphonies on Angel/EMI with the London Classical Players. These are not "massive" interpretations of Beethoven, but, rather, period performances giving clarity of detail sometimes lost when performed by large forces.

Regards,

You definitely want a recent digital recording, in that case.

I can recommend Louis Lortie's on Chandos (he plays on Steinway, and Fazioli for the latest recordings) for the sonatas.
As for the symphonies, there's Simon Rattle's with the Wiener Philharmoniker, one of the best of big-band Beethoven around.

For the symphonies, Sir Charles Mackerras with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, on Hyperion. Absolutely electrifying and "in your face" interpretations (as this music should be, IMO).

Whatever! Move on, I dont need your attitude or opinion.



Awesome, surely will check the cheaper one but that other one....now got me thinking, expensive but then again, it is such a wonderful gift to myself


What a shame he could not complete them but still I will look for it too!
Thanks!

Excellent, another one for my research! Thanks

Great! Thank you for taking the time !


Thanks to all of you (well almost all of you but this is the internet so it comes with the territory lol_)!

I should have enough now to get what I wanted.

Regards!

Funnily enough, when someone posts here asking questions, they usually do. Not sure what your purpose was in posting, but I don't care to look into the matter any more closely.

It's worth investigating Paul Lewis who recorded the whole set a few years' back. I've heard his performances live and his is an interesting interpretation: more classical than romantic, very clear playing. Can't comment on the CD recording quality of course. He is a formidable performer: heard his Brahms 1st concerto live - very powerful, but with great control of the feelings and structure.

My caveat concerning the Schabel recordings is that they could not have been made later than the 40's, before the age of high fidelity and long before stereo, so they may not meet the OP's primary criterion of good sound quality.

Regards,

Schiff has some very well recorded Beethoven on ecm. No comment regarding the quality of the performance though.

I like Gilels for everything by anyone. He's probably in my top five pianists of all time.

I don't know much about conducting or orchestral music but my friend, who has been a choral conductor for over 50 years, thinks Gardiner is sensational.

I think Goode is a sensational pianist for Beethoven and many other composers like Bach, Chopin, and Debussy. He once said something like "I think each Beethoven Sonata has a personality and out of all of them the one I'd like to meet most in Op. 101.

Some of Gilels's best Beethoven Sonata recordings (Waldstein, Appassionata etc) are pre-digital and have tape hiss, which the OP doesn't want. And his later digital ones are somewhat on the marmoreal side - the Hammerklavier is stodgy, the Op. 31/1 lacks wit, and so on.

Gardiner's is one of the best HIP recordings of the symphonies, lean and lithe. Personally, I prefer modern instruments for Mozart and Beethoven, as long as they aren't used in dated style of Furtwängler, as in Christian Thielemann's recordings with the Wiener Philharmoniker.

Obviously you have reading comprehension problems. I cant help you with that.
Thanks

Thanks for the recommendation!
As I learn more about all 32 Sonatas I realize how different indeed performances can be for example take Sonata in C Major, Opus 2, No. 3 adagio. Some pianists are able to hit me very deep during a transition (dont remember the exact measure) while others just dont grab me at all...and its all on small details on how it is played and even the approach before getting to those notes.

Will check that too. I might end up mixing and matching since I assume some will do things on some Sonatas better than others or more than "better", things that touch me personally in a different way.

I have been reading about that recently and indeed that is what I have been finding out too!
Now that made me curious...I listening to it immediately!

Interesting indeed. I guess hiss is not totally out of the question as I do listen to oldies from 60s, 70s (before I was born) etc and many of those songs have hiss although of course, with a piano solo, the hiss becomes more evident but yes, I am looking first for ones that are clean and hopefully will find a good collection of great performances that are not only good sounding but moving as well.

Thanks all again!

Yes, that must be it.

I'll fill in here. I have all 32 of Schiff's Beethoven Sonatas and they are fantastic. Be sure to check out his 32 lectures on each sonata as well which can be found here:

http://music.theguardian.com/classical/page/0,,1943867,00.html

Excellent. Thanks for the link!

Agree with you both, that is a fabulous set, and I'm generally not much in the historical instruments camp.

And you know what is so great about Gardiner's 5th? He takes the repeat in the last movement, and makes us realize that Beethoven all along knew what he was doing. It takes my breath away.

Don't laugh: this repeat is not often taken. Karajan could never be bothered, though Carlos Kleiber (a far greater musician, and not only IMO) never questioned it.

I prefer modern instruments, but Furtwängler IMO isn't dated at all. There is always a place for olde world grandeur -throw in Walter and Klemperer- and wouldn't we be poorer today without their example.

As for Beethoven piano sonatas, overall it's Richard Goode, though I have heard a number of recordings by Paul Lewis on the radio, and have found them very impressive.

You can check the Penguin Guide to CDs on Classical Music to see who the rosette winners are. Those of stereo recorded (if not digital) should meet your expectations of audio quality. Certainly these artists (e.g. Kempff, Kovacevich, Gilels, Pletnev, etc.) are themselves experts of Beethoven piano sonatas/concertos.

IMO, only Furtwängler could get away - some of the time - with what Furtwängler does in Beethoven. The problem comes when modern conductors attempt to imitate his kind of freedom (I don't mean Pletnev - his version is also very free, but quite unlike Furtwängler's).

BTW, Klemperer's Philharmonia recordings was the Beethoven set I grew up with. It was a shock to the system when I heard Karajan's set (and Kleiber's 5th, 6th and 7th - very fast, lean and mean...... ).

I am really quite surprised that no one has mentioned the legendary Alfred Brendel. I am planning to purchase his recordings of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas.

Any comments about Brendel?

Yes, I have plenty of comments.

We know.

I have read all of Brendel's writings in English (my French is passable, German not so much), and I think he is brilliant. So many moments of 'gee I hadn't thought of it that way!', and many other moments wherein I found myself agreeing with him, viz Liszt > Rachmaninov. (No contest there, I didn't need Brendel's approval.)

I have also seen Brendel live many times (generally in London when I was at uni), and it was hit or miss. His Bach, Liszt and Busoni were incredible, Beethoven and Schubert less so. Just one example, Brendel's Schubert D845 -long a favourite of mine- was dispatched in a rather perfunctory fashion.

Frustrating.

You really do feel the need to pull this into every post, don't you, even when it's totally irrelevant.

What comments do you have? I'm interested.

I don't think I've ever seen Polyphonist post more than two sentences at a time.

Hardly. I haven't mentioned your precious god in a little while, have I?

Quite relevant considering that Brendel seems to disagree with you re Rachmaninov.

I think that's a slight exaggeration.


I will not be sucked into replying any further to your puerile instigation. Discussion over.

Serious?

What a bloody joke you are.

lol then reply to me! Seriously, I want to know what you have to say.

I'm afraid that's a misquote.

I'm reluctant to go on my Brendel rant here for various reasons.

Tell us, Poly, in your infinite wisdom. I'm sure we can take it.

Earlier, I had expressed some doubts about Brendel's Beethoven and Schubert, but evidently there seems to be a more fundamental problem here, that being one paragraph of Brendel's writing having more substance than the 20 or 30 posts we endure from you on this board per day.