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my teacher mentioned a German pianist Gerhard Oppitz, and siad that he plays great Beethoven. so, you might want to check him out:

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Oppitz-Gerhard.htm

i only happened to hear his playing of Moonlight one day on radio, which sounds great.

Yes, Oppitz can play everything and he does play everything. He is not often mentioned on this board. I have recordings of his complete Brahms piano works and Mendelssohn concerti and some Schumann piano music. He plays everything with good taste. His technique is flawless. His repertory is huge. His approach is slightly reserved yet fitting for the repertoire. I have a few DVDs of him performing Beethoven, Bach and Liszt. Every one shows his playing on a very high level. I treasure his performances quite a bit. Just my $.02c.

Thanks for the info on Oppitz, AndrewG! after i heard the Moonlight he played, i mentioned his name (which i didn't know at all) to my teacher, who then told me that he's a good Beethoven pianist.

i should check out his recordings...

many are fans of Malcolm Bilson's recordings because he plays on period instruments (fortepianos). It may not be what everyone else makes them sound like, but its a bit more expressive in my opinion.

Glenn Gould has an amazing version of the late sonatas (30-32, specially the #30 in E maj). Also #17. I find Arrau a bit slow and conventional but his version of the HammerKlavier is amazing.

its interesting to see what complete sets are recommended here, but if you are really looking for great interpretations you need to 1)pick from different pianists, and 2)you need to sample more than one or two interpretations of some of the greatest of the 32.

for example, and imho, at least Richter and Brendel(3d set) need to be heard on the Tempest; at least Kovacevich and Schnabel on the Waldstein; at least Brendel (again 3d set) and Schnabel on the Appassionata; at least Solomon, Rosen, Brendel, and Gilels on the Hammerklavier; at least Hess and Papadopoulos on Op.109; and Serkin, Papadopoulos, and Kovacevich on Op.110; and Rosen, Solomon, Hungerford, and Schnabel on Op.111. these are examples, not exhaustive.

if i sound overboard on this, it is only because i find this music meaningful to the core, and no one can exhaust its possibilities.

on another note, Horszowski is elemental in Mozart and Chopin. he must be sampled.

final note, get David Dubal's The Art of the Piano. it will help with this comparison shopping.

I personally like Arrau, Goode, Gilels. (All mentioned).

I also like Ashkenazy

All things considered, I find Richard Goode to be the most consistently satisfying of the modern recordings, though I hope to pick up the Gulda set someday.

One thing about Gulda: in the opus 27#1, he is the only pianist I have heard (not to say others haven't done it) to take the ending of the Allegro molto e vivace down to the low C.

Of course that note wasn't available to Beethoven at time of composition, but he so clearly intended it. I admire Gulda for his daring... I wouldn't want to hear it any other way, and the "correct" recordings merely sound frustrating.

And yes, I have performed this Beethoven sonata following Gulda's example. Rather a few fights with my teacher over the matter...

Don't forget Robert Casadesus and Richter for Appasionata - especially Casadesus, the best performance I ever heard!

searchers,

you are right about Richter,for sure, but I haven't heard Casaesus on the Appassionata. thanks, i will search it out.

Anyone collecting any of the new sets coming out disc by disc?

Andras Schiff on ECM,
Paul Lewis on Harmonia Mundi,
Mitsuko Uchida on Philips,
Angela Hewitt on Hyperion...

Any thoughts?

i have 3 Schiff new Beethoven CDs (vol.I-III). Schiff plays pretty well, but for the same sonatas on vol.II he played, i'd prefer Pollini's exact the same thing (a CD i also have).

don't collect any other pianists you listed though, and have no desire so far...

Yes I enjoyed the first disc of Schiff. He is good in the early sonatas and brings out their Haydnesque qualities and classical proportions well. But I have had mixed feelings about the sucessive volumes - the music seems to bring out Schiff's fussy side and he can sound a bit mannered. His 'Moonlight' on disc 4 was interesting: he plays the fantasia 'without dampers' as per the instructions and a little faster than one often hears; one can really hear the piece as the fantasia on a funeral scene (the death of the commendatore) from Mozart's Don Giovanni that Schiff believes it to be. There is a fifth volume out just this month and I am deliberating whether to get it.

I didn't like the first disc of Lewis, though he tends to get rave reviews here in the UK. Not sure about Uchida - I find her a bit too precious in a lot that she plays.

Pollini too has a new Beethoven disc out this month on DG.

By coincidence there is a review of Schiff volume 5 in today's 'Guardian' in the UK. The reviewer (Andrew Clements) writes about Schiff's 'over-emphatic point-making' which chimes a little with my impressions so far.

I have enjoyed all of those artists in certain repertoire - and I have all of their Beethoven recordings. Having said that, the Lewis is the most compelling - at least to me.

I agree with Jason that Richard Goode's are some of the most satisfying versions of the sonatas of the more modern sets.

I find Schiff's Beethoven rather pallid and unsatisfying... I think someone used the word "fussy" and that seems to get at it.


Sophia

Bumping an older thread, but I randomly heard the finale of the Beethoven opus 57 by Paul Lewis yesterday on the radio and it was unbelievable.

The first thing I noticed was that it was very dry and played pretty cold; it was austere but impeccable. I figured it was Brendel. The more I listened, the stranger it got. The pianist was providing almost no artistic interpretation, but the music was played to perfection. The voicing was sublime, the dynamic balance was perfect and the melody flowed so organically. He was playing nothing but what Beethoven wrote and it was a revelation. My one complaint was the tempo. It was slow for my taste until the coda. Jesus christ it was fast, and heard in contrast to the earlier sections, it changed the meaning of both everything that preceded it and the coda itself.

This is the first interpretation of a Beethoven sonata that sounded fresh to me. I wish I could find a recording of the Apassionata (my personal favorite Beethoven sonata), but I ordered volume 1 of his cycle. I look forward to hearing it.

never heard Paul Lewis recordings (maybe i should check out). according to the following article, he did take lessons from Brendel:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/11/1052591670775.html

Well, I guess I have to be different and say that I have the set of Beethoven piano sonatae by someone called Jeno Jando. Whereas I like to use more pedal that does this artist, the notes in the recordings ( CD ) are clear and crisp. I don't know if he or she is better or worse than the artists aforementioned, but I like Jeno.