David Stewart ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>I am looking for a complete set of recordings of B's Piano Sonata's.
>Could I trouble you for suggestions?

If you can hack the 1930s mono sound then Artur Schnabel is essential.
Mindo you, not all the notes are there (e.g.  the hammerklavier) but his
understanding of the music is second to none.  (Pearl and EMI - can anyone
compare the two transfers?)

If you need stereo, then I know no finer cycle than that of Claude Frank,
recorded for RCA in the 1970s but issued on CD by Music & Arts (10 CD for
the price of 8 - or was it 6?).  Good analogue sound and while Frank, a
pupil of Schnabel, is no mere clone his insights strike me as being on
the same level.

I am sure there will be recommendations for Richard Goode, a fine pianist
and I admire his Schubert a lot, but I have his late Beethoven sonatas and
am disappointed.

Deryk Barker
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