- Audio CD (Aug 3 2005)
- Number of Discs: 10
- Format: Box set
- Label: Nonesuch
- ASIN: B000005J2D
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #47,404 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Details |
Track Listings
Product Description
Amazon.com essential recording
It's interesting that the great Beethoven sonata cycles are seldom the ones by the big-name virtuosos. Horowitz never attempted one. Neither did Rubinstein. Ashkenazy recorded them all, but with only partial success. Richter never managed all 32 works at one time, and Gilels died before completing his cycle. The most successful complete recordings--Schnabel, Kempff, Arrau, and Backhaus--are all by pianists with a solidly intellectual mindset, however powerful their technique. Goode joins this select company, turning in performances of uncompromising integrity and musical strength. Of course, his reputation as a musician's musician precedes him: here is a player sensitive to Beethoven's every nuance, presenting the composers thoughts with exemplary clarity and taste. This is the the Beethoven cycle for the '90s. --David Hurwitz
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beauty of Form and Substance,
By
This review is from: Comp Sonatas, Goode (Audio CD)
There is a brief scene in the film 'Amadeus' where Salieri, enviously but in sublime awe, comments on the exquisite perfection of a musical phrase composed by Mozart. He could just as well have been describing the sonatas of Beethoven, time shifts aside. I have been listening to Richard Goode's set over and over, and while my personal taste firmly resides in the Romantic school with Mahler at the pinnacle, this set is a revelation, an epiphany of the brillance of Beethoven in a way I had not fully grasped before.Goode may not play at times with the emotional energy or pathos of other interpreters, but what he does so superlatively is illuminate Beethoven's profound understanding and mastery of musical structure and relationships, and above all, to make a phrase or embellishment seem utterly perfect. This is emotion of a different kind - the emotion from sheer beauty of musical architecture, as so wondrously exemplified in the simple, poignant Adagio of Opus 31, No. 1. Goode's approach is made even more compelling by his crisp, impeccable technique and a recording that gives the piano great immediacy with a rich, full sound. In even the most rapid runs, every note remains distinct and live. It borders on folly to assert one set of sonatas as the best - it depends on personal taste, on mood, on one's level of tolerance to the limitations of older recording technology, but if you wish to gain a deeper appreciation of Beethoven's genius and be moved at the same time, you will be amply rewarded by Richard Goode.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Never Knew Beethoven Could Be That Dull....,
By A Customer
This review is from: Comp Sonatas, Goode (Audio CD)
All right -- he CAN play. But if he is "correct" in how he plays Beethoven -- especially the middle sonatas -- then Richter, Horowitz, Schnabel, Serkin, Ashkenazy, and even Brendel are wrong. So you make the call....Worse, it's dull listening. There is little spaciousness to the recording quality, and no atmosphere. Beethoven can be SO exciting -- but you'd never know it from these recordings. Pedestrian is the right word.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A great attempt at Everest,
By A Customer
This review is from: Comp Sonatas, Goode (Audio CD)
The Beethoven piano sonatas-of all the master's works is the music that in Schnabel's famous phrase-is greater than can ever be played-on this side of the mortal divide at least.I have owned this set for quite a while and on the whole it is very satisfying-especially in the early sonatas-as the opus numbers go up the adrenalin level seems to drop and I feel Goode loses his way near the end of the cycle.However even the early sonatas are fraught with danger and Goode does great things here.All said the greatest (ongoing) cycle I've heard which really unleashes Beethoven to my mind is by Stephen Kovacevich on EMI-this is very special indeed and every other pianist pales into insignificance in comparison (with the exception of Gilels late Sonatas on DG).In comparison to Kovacevich Goode seems well mellow!Overall I feel Goode is more interested in the architecture of these pieces rather than their emotional content which is where Kovacevich excels.There are times though when Kovacevich could be better recorded. My advice for a cycle is to start collecting Kovacevich.
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