Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Arrau, Haitink
"Beethoven: Piano Concerto no. 2" (Vinyl)

Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau recorded the cycle of Beethoven's five piano concertos three times during his illustrious and lengthy career. I'm not sure where this recording falls in the chronology, but it did win a Deutscher Schallplatten Preis.

This is the most recent Beethoven cycle I have pulled from the mountains of vinyl refuse.  I think this is cycle number six.  I could spend a few days listening to nothing but Beethoven piano concertos.

I'm sure I, like most ears, are mostly familiar with Beethoven's last concertos (nos. 4 and 5) so I'm trying to make a deliberate effort to familiarize myself with the rest of his concertos. It's early opus number (op. 19) indicates it was a youthful work. (In fact, Beethoven was only seventeen when he wrote the work.)

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