Barenboim on Beethoven - The Complete Piano Sonatas Live from Berlin (2007)

A refreshment and a very good time.

If you study every piece before - read more information about each sonata before you list - it gets greater and greater. - I just think the booklet should contain more information than it does. I paid for this package Euros 99,99 in Berlin. July 15, 2008

Phenomenal

This is, by far, one of the most valued treasures of my CD and DVD library. If I were stranded on the cliche deserted island and left with my choice of DVD to possess, this would be it hands down. I would also try to cheat my way into bringing the equally exceptional performances of the piano concerti on DVD.

Not only are these performances extraordinarly brilliant, but are accompanied by six masterclasses given by Barenboim in Chicago. These masterclasses are more than beneficial to watch. Even if one is playing one of the other 26 opused sonatas (or something entirely different), these in-depth classes are indispensable.

At the time I'm writing this review, this set is currently 30% off. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of this steal! June 16, 2008

A real trasure

Barenboim's Beethoven is more intelligent and more musical than others. His sense of structure, his touch, his ability to make the piano "sing", everything is superb. The masterclasses give us the oportunity to understand the performer's points of view not only on Beethoven but also on music. A TREASURE just like this, in capital letters!!! January 18, 2008

Daniel Barenboim plays all of Beethoven's Sonatas

Beethoven was a revolutionary man living in a revolutionary time. He captured his inner voice, demons and all and the spirit of his time, and in doing so, created a body of music the likes of which no one had ever before imagined. A virtuoso at the keyboard, Beethoven used the piano as his personal musical laboratory, and the piano sonata became, more than any other genre of music, a place where he could experiment with harmony and his developing view of music as a self expressive art. Spanning the length of his compositional career, Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas provide a window into his personal musical development, and they show the concept of the piano as an instrument and the piano sonata as a genre undergoing an extraordinary evolution. The sonatas are not simply compositions for the piano, but are about the developing technology of the piano itself, an evolving instrument that Beethoven pushed to its limits and then beyond, ultimately writing music for an idealized piano that didn't come into existence until about 40 years after he died. Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas include some of his most popular works that took him about 30 years to compose gradually transforming a medium that Mozart and Haydn had already turned into a staple of Classical expression to a vehicle for personal expression that takes us to the time of 19th century Romanticism. These works were very much intended for home entertainment, and Beethoven initially continued that tradition by writing a number of works for his students to play. But as he began to be affected by deafness, playing the piano became his only tangible means of, as it were, 'hearing' music.

There's no denying Beethoven's capacity for communing with the soul through his piano. The adventures in form and musical working out of ideas were all part of this need to say things in music that had never been said before. Beethoven was constantly striving for more, particularly in range and dynamic capability. As an example, he composed the "Hammerklavier" Sonata about seven years before he had a piano that could cope with its demands of register. He often said, "The whole tribe of pianoforte manufacturers have been swarming around me in their anxiety to serve me and all for nothing." Just one more example of the way Beethoven in his sonatas was always ahead of the game. In this 6 DVD set Daniel Barenboim does an amazing job of playing all of Beethoven's sonatas and what truly baffles and impresses me the most every time I watch this set is that he plays them all by memory. This is a wonderful set and anyone interested in seeing Beethoven's sonatas performed will not be disappointed. Truly, Beethoven's piano music is his voice, emerging from his mind, through his fingers, to our ears and hearts. And his piano sonatas are, more than any other of his amazing works, his personal testament, expressed in his own voice.
January 8, 2008

WOW!!

I love these performances. It is a great joy to have the entire 32 sonatas on DVD and have them performed by such a master of the keyboard. I love Barenboim's interpretations. What a show stopper was the Appassionata! The venue, the camera work, and the recorded sound (Dolby 5.0 and PCM Stereo) are all far above excellent. December 18, 2007

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