Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas / Vladimir Ashkenazy

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (August 26, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B0000041LE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,006 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unexceptionable Beethoven, and that's not faint praise, February 17, 2005

By 

klavierspiel "klavierspiel" (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas / Vladimir Ashkenazy (Audio CD)

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.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely the Best!, December 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas / Vladimir Ashkenazy (Audio CD)

I wonder if the people who wrote negative reviews about this CD really understood Beethoven. Have you heard any of his symphonies? Beethoven is about dynamism! Maybe they should stick with Mozart.
Ashkenazy gave a flawless performance. And technically the CD is very well recorded, fully exploiting the dynamic range available on the CD format, very finely mastered.
I consider this a golden classic worth collecting.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ashkenazy has 'done his reading', September 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Beethoven: Favourite Piano Sonatas / Vladimir Ashkenazy (Audio CD)

Beethoven was a dynamic man who never failed to hold back his
volatile temperament. He was not even tempered with even his
closest associates,relatives and music publishers. These facts
are unanimously noted by all the great Beethoven biographers, both past and present. Too not expect Beethoven's temperament
too pervade his music, especially pieces as personal as his
piano sonatas, is to be mistaken. Ashkenazy recognizes and keeps
Beethoven's emotional nature in his playing of these sonatas. Of
course, we dont know EXACTLY how Beethoven would have played these works, but to think he would not have played them in an
emotionally charged manner, with rising and subsiding waves of
emotion would be to misinterpret the composer. I fully expect
to be jolted by loud playing after very soft playing, etc., and
would never expect Beethoven to have played in a consistent dynamic level throughout his pieces. I base this on what we can
read of the great Beethoven in his bigraphies and his own personal notebooks. So, for those of you who are just discovering
Beethoven's music, dont be put off by those reviews that diminish
the importance of individual playing style,temporal niceties and
having to adjust your volume control. Ashkenazy plays the quiet passages quietly, and the charged passages emotionally, just
as Beethoven wrote them. If, afterall, we are looking for consistency of piano technique throughout, we can always listen
to Haydn.