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Four greatest keyboard composers of all time.

162.40.5.78

Posted by edta on May 21, 2007 at 18:59:24

In Reply to: Newbie in classical music. Need some recommendation posted by michaelv20850 on May 20, 2007 at 20:21:28:

If you want the very finest sounding recordings you might miss some extraordinarily fine performances.


Starting with Bach, I’d recommend Glenn Gould doing the Goldberg Variations (1955) and then the Six Keyboard Partitas. There are many other recommendable Gould recordings, but these are a great start. Check them out on Amazon and check the reviews there.

Mozart piano sonatas are mostly lightweight, but still enjoyable. I’d recommend Walter Klien in these. The Mozart Piano Concertos are wonderful. A box set I have of all of these is by Murray Perahia and it is excellent if not as outstanding in some individual works as some others like say Rudolf Serkin or Robert Casadesus. Again, check Amazon for individual works.

Beethoven was the greatest. I really like the SACD hybrid disc of Beethoven sonatas by Rubinstein on RCA. The Moonlight, Pathetique, Appassionata, Les Adiuex are there in excellent, if not the greatest performances and also in excellent analog sound. The late piano sonatas done by Maurizio Pollini are among my favorites. It appears that these are out of print, but you may be able to get them used. Solomon is also a real master on the late piano sonatas, the sound is dim compared to that on the Pollini. The playing, however, is extraordinary. There are many other great individual performances of these sonatas and I would not recommend any box set of these. Some that I like have been by Serkin, Rudolf Kempff, Gilels, Perahia, Brendel and others.

Chopin? Ok, here I’m veering off a bit. There are some wonderful old recordings by Dinu Lipatti which I highly recommend. The Chopin Waltzes and smaller works are among them, along with other shorter works by Bach, Mozart, etc. Please look these up on Amazon, they are among the best of the best. Sound, sadly is a bit dim. Highly recommended, all the same. When it comes to Chopin, Arthur Rubinstein is the man. Look him up on Amazon. However, in the Chopin Etudes, there is an amazing recording by Pollini, I have heard several others and his is primo IMO.

I hope this will get you going. Read the reviews on Amazon, but before you buy, check out the website of Berkshire Record Outlet. They sell a lot of remaindered classical CDs at very good prices. That is where I got my Perahia Mozart Concerto set for about $20, regular list is about $80.

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