Customer Reviews

Ludwig Van Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas Volume 2 (Nos. 16-32)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is an excellent value! For only about 10 bucks you receive over 350 pages of music in a high quality book. It opens flat, and doesn't fall off the piano while you're using it. The binding has not cracked or split, and shows no signs of doing so. I would pay twice as much as I did for this book.

This is a reprint of one volume of the two volume set of the legendary 1923 Universal Editions set of all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas in Heinrich Schenker's scrupulous edition, complete with his footnotes and an explanatory introduction. Physically the book (and its companion comprising the rest of the sonatas) is well done. It lies flat, the binding doesn't crack (or at least mine hasn't in several years' usage), the printing is legible, the fingerings are easy to read and generally pretty apt. This book and its companion have had a lot of use and they're still in pretty good shape. And, of course, they provide many hours of pleasure at the piano.

Perhaps best of all is that Dover's price won't break anyone's bank. I don't know how Dover does it, but I have bought many of their scores--not just Beethoven--with general satisfaction.

This Dover edition of the Beethoven Sonatas is a great buy! The book is binded well and will last you many years. I own volume 1 and 2 and after 5 plus years of abuse, the book lies flat, the binding doesn't crack or split, and the pages aren't discolored. In addition, the score is well edited with dynamics and fingering notations. The editor also left plenty of space for you to write in notes. Compared with the Henle edition, this book is cheaper and it will last longer.

I got this book about 1 1/2 years ago and it still kicks booty. Its so cheap I don't have to worry about it getting all torn up like those Henle additions, and despite the fact that the book is so cheap, it is edited by a well known scholar of the early 20th century. I HIGHLY recommened this book for people interested in simply following along with the music or learning from it for your college graduate recital!

I've looked at various other editions of the sonatas, but none of them has eclipsed this edition for me. The music is printed well, and I especially like the fingerings that are included. Worth at least twice the price!

To be quite honest, perhaps I would give it a 4.5 star rather than 5 stars. First off, I'd like to praise the accuracy this volume presents. Though, it isn't an Urtext edition, but I've compared some to an Urtext and surprise, surprise, even the pedaling isn't much deterred from one. Also, it isn't heavily edited, and to me, the little editing that it has, actually is helpful. Now on to the reason why I subtracted a .5 star off is because though the fingerings are there, but some of them are quite horrible and if anything, complicated the flow of the piece, that, if one isn't attentive to the piece might just ruin it. The worst is, a mere change of fingering can probably correct the problem. So my advice is to have your teacher check the fingerings and make corrections. Of course, those kind of mistakes aren't abundant, but here I should give an example of bad fingering for Sonata no.17 "Tempest". When one plays the triplets, instead of playing along what the book suggests, just play all triplets with your right hand and have your left hand cross over. This alternative fingering isn't a secret, many people know it and find it better. I wonder why doesn't the book at least give alternative fingerings?

But it is jaw-breakingly cheap and accurate. If I were to make a choice to buy it again, I certainly would.

By the way, I find all Dover bindings to be on the horrible side. This book, along with my many other Dover scores are already broken in half (hey, it's like having two books with a price of one! I kid, it's like a book broken in half that's not supposed to be.) So just be prepared to see this great Dover edition break... and you can't do anything about it.

I might be biased because I almost exclusively buy Dover editions of piano music, but the LVB Sonata volumes are one of the better ones.

Firstly, it's clear that you can't Dover on value. It'd cost more to photocopy the entire book than to buy it. I like the binding of the books, as they are well-made. I do have some trouble keeping the pages open in the thicker books (esp. the Scriabin Etudes book), but I can't complain.

Secondly, the notes are printed as a good size, and notation/fingering is good. I like Heinrich Schenker's notation and commentary, and I feel that it's very helpful for the amateur pianist for suggestions. There are some fingerings that I don't necessarily agree with, but it's unobstrusive enough to not bother me. I'd rather have some suggestion than none at all.

For Beethoven Sonatas, Dover is a good choice, unless you'd prefer Henle Urtext, which is at least 2x or 3x the price of this. I would avoid the Schirmer editions, as they butcher the markings.

As the other reviewers have noted, this book is printed with very high quality and attention to detail. I've owned mine for almost 20 years -- over that time, it has the the most-used and best-wearing piano book I've owned. As others have noted, it also lies flat, the print is very clear, and it's a total bargain.

This edition is available at a fraction of the price and (contrary to the comments of other reviewers) is probably more accurate than other Urtext editions. The famous musicologist Heinrich Schenker is known for his extreme attention to detail, including, for example, the directions of the stems (which other Urtext editions are not). The only caveat to accuracy is that Beethoven's autographs for a few of the sonatas were not available to the world in Schenker's time but have since become available. Although I always ignore printed fingering, Schenker's is among the most sensible I have seen. The only drawback to this edition is that it is somewhat prescriptive, in the sense that it does not offer choices in the way the Henle edition does. Physically, the Dover edition will last longer and stay open better than other paperback editions.

Although this book certainly won't be for everyone, there are pieces in here for anyone from the beginning-intermediate level to the "Waldstein," extremely advanced. These pieces are beautiful to play, or even just to hold in your lap and follow along while you listen to a recording. Either way, the notes are clear and the notations are helpful. The only caveat I'd mention is that although these books are set in two volumes they still each contain so many pieces that folding them over so they stay open can be a challenge.