Beethoven: The Piano Concertos - Choral Fantasy / Levin, Gardiner

Ludwig van Beethoven (Artist), John Eliot Gardiner (Artist), Robert Levin (Artist), Constanze Backes (Artist), Julian Clarkson (Artist), Robert Johnston (Artist), Angela Kazimierczuk (Artist), Alan George (Artist), Peter Hanson (Artist), Lucy Howard (Artist), Annette Isserlis (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 14, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 4
• Label: Archiv Produktion
• ASIN: B00001IVOJ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,521 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Beethoven, April 22, 2000

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SERSE (Burbank, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Beethoven: The Piano Concertos - Choral Fantasy / Levin, Gardiner (Audio CD)

Together with Christopher Hogwood and Steven Lubin's version on L'Oiseau Lyre, these are tremendously thrilling performances, with the added clarity of a more recent recording. Far from being an academic exercise in authentic performance, the recording of the 5 piano concertos sustains such energy and spontaneity that puts many performances on modern instruments sound anemic by comparison. An added delight is Robert Levin's improvisations for the lead-ins and cadenzas. Hogwood's traversal of the same concertos are contained in a 3-cd set but this one is a 4-cd set but you get the Rondo which was originally attached to the Piano Concerto No.2 together with the Choral Fantasy and the chamber versions of the Symphony No.2 and the Piano Concerto No.4.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beethoven's Piano Concertos, March 7, 2002

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Stephen E. Assey "seasong46" (Saratoga Springs, New York USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: The Piano Concertos - Choral Fantasy / Levin, Gardiner (Audio CD)

This is an incredible set of Beethoven's piano concertos played on pianoforte and authentic orchestral instruments. Robert Levin's playing consistantly exhibits fire and spontaneity. John Eliot Gardiner's conducting has plenty of power and momentum.These are wonderful performances. That being said, I don't understand why Levin always settles for a low level recording of the pianoforte. The balances may be what audiences in Beethoven's time heard but they make difficult listening on modern stereo equiptment. The same is true of the Levin / Hogwood series of Mozart concertos, though in the Decca recordings the orchestral textures are lighter allowing the pianoforte more prominence. In the Bilson / Gardiner Mozart recordings the balances are fine. One other caveat, I wish the 4th disc had readings of the Archduke & Ghost trios rather than the chamber versions of the 4th concerto & 2nd Symphony. Apart from these minor points, this is a set to cherish.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most interesting perfomance of the last 20 years, November 30, 1999

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Daniel (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beethoven: The Piano Concertos - Choral Fantasy / Levin, Gardiner (Audio CD)

I have found in this CDs an example of the great evolution of the great german composer as well as the piano: in those 20 years it changed dramatically its shape and its sound. Levin payed four diferents pianofortes, corresponding each one to the years of the first perfonce of the works. In my opinion, this os one of the most interesting performances of the Beethoven's piano conciertos.