Browse: Building a Library, Beethoven (composer)

The [Goldberg] Aria sings without affectation as if to emphasise that what follows isn't about the theme but what happens to it...Unstarchy too is Levit's approach to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations...As... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2016, More…

listening to these wonderful performances side by side is cathartic...The journey is vividly delineated from the outset of the Berg. With Abbado drawing sonorities from his first-rate orchestra,... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2012, More…

an essential recommendation for any collection. These are performances which seem to present a Beethoven 'for the ages', a distillation of a long interpretative tradition, without concern for... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 More…

Those who are searching for perfection can stop here...this set, the first solo recording from Russo-German pianist Igor Levit, sets a new standard that will be very difficult to surpass...I... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2014, More…

Interpreters of the late quartets have to convey what at times sounds like a stream of musical consciousness while respecting the many written markings. The Takács do better than most. For openers,... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

…the most stimulating and fascinating accounts of the Beethoven violin sonatas I have heard in many years. Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov bring out the full quirkiness of the earlier... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2009, More…

Readings focused entirely on the composer, not on debating how things ‘should’ sound...The playing is responsive and immaculate throughout, forming the backbone of Chailly’s brilliantly authentic... — Daniel Ross, bbc.co.uk, 26th October 2011 More…

The endlessly ear-opening consequences are riveting; the wide-ranging aplomb of Beethoven's Variations could have been conceived with Staier's musical curiosity and flair in mind...This isn't... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2012, More…

Schiff's passion for this music, and his ability to communicate it, is apparent in every bar...The two instruments he plays each have a lean tone and the interpretation of the Diabellis doesn't... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas Issue 2013, More…