I agree there is no one performer whose sonatas excells in every way like
there is for Beethoven and Mozart.  Also, this is one field in which
"Penguin Guide to Compact Discs" Revised and Updated is very helpful.  The
recommendations therein are pretty much the ones I'd recommend, because
they are the ones I bought and am very, very happy with.  Names like
Rubenstein, Perahia, Gavrilov, Lupu, Schiff, Brendel, Kovecevich, Kempff,
Cooper, Askenazy, Gilels, etc., dot the landscape and are well-chosen.  My
only reservations are with Schiff, who often comes across pounding the
piano; I don't know if it's the sound technicians, studio, the instrument,
or Schiff, but much of the grace is suppressed and replaced by
mechanistic-like playing.

D. Stephen Heersink
San Francisco
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