D. Stephen Heersink wrote:

>These kinds of posts are always liable to scoff or avoidance, because the
>request has no certain answer.  Surely, Kempff is among the best pianists
>for Beethoven's piano sonatas, and Karajan among the best conductor (1962
>recordings!) of the symphonies.  If I had to reduce my "holdings" to just
>one of each, it would be these.  Let me add, however, Harnoncourt and
>Gardiner are excellent alternatives for the symphonies, and Kovacevich
>a good modern alternative to Kempff.  And this is just the "beginning"
>of the choices.

Certainly there are so many recordings of Beethoven, and he is such
a monument of Western music and is so intensively studied by every
up-and-coming musician, that there is no shortage of "great" performances
of old Louie.  I have the Harnoncourt version and also find it excellent,
but I also have the Hanover Band set on Nimbus, which nearly everyone pans,
and also listen to it from time to time just to hear something different.
(I don't think it's as bad as some do.) I prefer the "HIP" LvB symphonies
to those done with modern large orchestras, because the latter sound too
stuffy and over-upholstered to me, but other listeners would have the
opposite preference.

I don't have a complete set of the sonatas (a lot of them I'm frankly
not so interested in), but I have a few by Brendel, Kempff, and Fischer.
Again, other listeners might prefer other performers, but my advice to
a beginner would be to get some disks by some reputable, well-known
conductors and pianists and get busy learning the music, which is after
all the main thing.  Just soak up the sounds of the Great Man of Music.
You can worry about who are the "best" performers later.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]