??Suggestions for complete Beethoven's Piano Concertos

[Catmando]

Hi,

My name is Ray, from Winnipeg, Canada.

I'm a relatively new fan to classical music, and I've fallen in love with Beethoven's music.

I have a CD of Beethoven's complete symphonies, by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. I really love it and play selections on a daily basis.

Now I am looking to get CD's of Beethoven's complete piano concertos and complete piano sonatas.

Any suggestions on very good quality performances of these?

I appreciate any suggestions! Thanks for your time

Ray

[barfle]

If you're looking for a new set of CDs, Amazon is usually a reliable source.

When you're looking for a complete set, you may not always be able to get the biggest names performing, but I've always found them to be passable.

If you're looking for something historic, eBay has about a million different items up for grabs at any time. That doesn't guarantee any particular items, but it's a good resource.

[Shapley]

Ray,

Welcome to the B.com BB!

EMI Classical has a set of budget box sets that I enjoy, although I'm not sure how the performances stack up to others.

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?EAN=724357291224&x=1409902

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=9O0bM03DMD&EAN=724357389525&ITM=8

The Piano Concertos are packaged with the symphonies, although I do think they offer a smaller set with just the concertos, I simply didn't find it on a quick search. You might try EMI Classical's site, but I couldn't get their search engine to work.

V/R
Shapley

BTW, I have the Beethoven Symphonies set, which I bought because I was looking for a set that included the Fantasy for piano, chorus, and orchestra, which I had not heard until Beethoven.com began playing it regularly. So far I've only listened to that piece, and I enjoyed it very much. I also have the Rachmaninoff set:

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?EAN=0724357551021&x=0312902

Thus far I've listened only to the Concerto #3 and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, which I enjoyed very much.

<small>[ 02-09-2006, 12:32 PM: Message edited by: Shapley ]</small>

[Catmando]

Thank you Barfle and Shapley for your suggestions and recommendations.

Any particular pianist well know for their renditions of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and Concertos?

I have a Best of Classics CD set that has Peter Schmalfuss on the piano for a few movements of Beethoven's Concertos, and also for other classics like Chopin's "Raindrops". They are really good!

Thanks again!

[bignaf]

Maurizio Pollini is very good for everything, and esspecially for Beethoven. I don't know if there is a complete set by him. he recorded almost all of them, at least.
famous Beethoven pianists are:
Claudio Arrau (a little old)
Schnabel (very old, and is not technically perfect, but in my opinion very musical, controversial)
Brendel (I can't stand him)
Perahia (I love him, but I don't know his beethoven playing very well, what I heard was great)
the Perahia/Haitink complete Beethoven concertos is supposed to be excellent.