Classical music reviews

This recording of The Art of Fugue is my all-around favorite.

The premier piece of the set is the final (unfinished) fugue. I place this as the crown of all western music. Three parts of the fugue, out of a theorized four, were completed - but he didn't live to finish it. Some feel that he let it end there on purpose, for some reason. Just before he died, instead of finishing the final fugue, he composed a chorale. If the final fugue represents a journey into the after-life, then this chorale could be thought of as music from the other side, and as the only piece worthy of being played after the final fugue. That chorale is sometimes called "Vor Deinen Thron Tret Ich Hiermit", and is also known as "Wenn wir in Hochsten Noten Sein".

The Art of Fugue was written without scoring - no particular instruments were assigned - so one can find recordings done on the piano (Charles Rosen), harpsichord (Gustav Leonhardt - on vinyl only, I think), chamber orchestra, string orchestra, brass ensemble, organ, etc. My favorite recording of the final fugue is by Arthur Winograd (MGM) on vinyl, but that recording is very scarce.

Other decent recordings that I've heard so far on CD:
The Emerson String Quartet; Deutsche Grammophon B0000908-02 - their versions of the early fugues are quite good.
The Canadian Brass; Sony Essential Classics SBK 89731.
The Keller Quartet (ECM 1652) - some parts work well, others not as well.
Neville Marriner (Phillips 442-556-2) - a bit bland, but good.

Lukas Foss and the Sheffield Ensemble - Quite lively, but very unusual in its orchestration and in its freedom with the notes. Three or four of the pieces are as good as any version I've heard.
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One day, quite a while ago, I was walking through the quad of a university and heard one of the fugues being played inside a classroom. I looked in through the window and saw a room full of accordions playing it! True story!

Of the five CDs of J.S. Bach's The Art Of The Fugue recently acquired, The Stuttgarter Kammerorchester version is by far the most outstanding. The performance is precise. The two disks are awesome listened to in one sitting. Actually, over and over.

Of the other four sampled, Neville Marriner's version (ASIN B0000041A6) is the weakest. It is good, but lacks the precision and spark of Karl Munchinger's direction. I tend to find Marriner's direction "creamy"; perfect for a piece like Beethoven's Eroica symphony, but not right for this Bach. Also, the mixture of different instruments from piece to piece breaks up the continuity.

The Canadian Brass version (ASIN B0000026NK) is excellent but is difficult to listen to in one sitting unless you love brass. If you want a masterfully conceived and executed version of The Art Of Fugue for your collection or if you really enjoy listening to an hour straight of nothing but brass, this is the CD for you.

The Hans Fagius all organ version (ASIN B00004YYRV) is also excellent, but I personally tend to find the all organ program a bit hard to take in one sitting. Of course, this far more likely historically accurate to Bach's time than the all brass version.

Other reviewers have extolled the Emerson Quartet version of the Fugues (ASIN B00008O8B3). It's really good, but not as good as this one. It's not as precise and rigid. I like the crisp, controlled almost machine produced sound of the Munchinger version.

The Karl Munchinger version is the best for both an introduction to Bach's late Fugues (and other pieces) and for a sublime listening experience. This is one of the best "classical" CDs I have ever heard.

My first choice, but I am not going to have only one version of this music. M�nchinger's direction gives some of the courtly elegance of traditional Bach-interpretations; oddly enough this courtly elegance is mostly missing on so-called historically informed versions. But the most striking aspect is that this Art of the Fugue & Musical Offering are so emotional, they go straight to my heart. The two productions are wonderful in spite of being from the 60ies and the 70ies, with a clear rendering of the counterpoint. The fact that you also get The Musical Offering makes this a real bargain. Don't hesitate; this classic is not going to be in sale forever.

This is, outside of the first "Nuggets" box set, the most played multi-artist compilation in my collection. The greatest thing about this collection is the wide variety of peices included. There are readings by the major players of the generation (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs), beat Jazz (Don Morrow, Lee Konitz), various parodies or outsider views of the movement (the "Basic Hip" recordings, the clips from the cult film "High School Confedential", Bob McFadden), the comedians (Lord Buckley, Lenny Bruce), and the sucessors (Tom Waits). In other words, this is an absolute must-buy for anyone with a passing interest in America's first counterculture movement. This was one of the most fascinating and unique eras in American history, and the Beat Generation was a blow against the conservative American ideals and dreams. The highlights of the collection are obviously the readings. Hearing the geniuses of the time read their own work is just as fun, if not more so, as reading the books themselves. Each one of the top three (Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac) has an unique style of writing and an unique style of delivery so that you can tell each one apart from the other. Outside of the readings, some of the selections are odd but none don't fit in with the overall concept of portraying the movement. This is almost as much an essential as the writings of the Beats, and is a fascinating portrait of America's original counterculture movement. Why did Rhino let this go out of print?

It's January, 2005 and sleeting outside in Shin-Urayasu, Japan, but I'm here wailing with Jack Kerouac. Steve Allen is tinkling away on the piano, and Ben Hecht is waiting to ask Jack some smart-aleck questions, which Jack will answer in an innocent, pure-heart, eternal good-guy way before heading back out on the road. This three-CD set is incredible. Not only do we get a sense of what the big names of beat-dom were up to, but we are treated to little-heard beat-fare, like a hyper-beat effusion on falling in love with a horse from Lenny Bruce, and zany reflections of beat-dom from such square media dogs like Perry Como crooning about his young beat honey, and Howard K. Smith, who gives us the low-down on THE COOL REBELLION. Kenneth Patchen's "The Murder Of Two Men By A Young Kid Wearing Lemon Colored Gloves" is a gem, and Kenneth Rexroth's hang-dog rendition of "Married Blues" is yet another great cut I would never have heard otherwise. Langston Hughes fronting his own jazz band is a treat too, but there's lots more. After listening to all 3 CDs one can get a pretty good idea of the scene, both from the inside, hipster's angle, and from the square's point of view, too. Generous cuts from Gerry Mulligan's Quartet have me snapping my fingers and reaching for my sunglasses. Forget the sushi and pass the nutmeg!

What I love about the Beat Generation Box Set is that in addition to serving as a great social portrait of the era, as well as hipster culture, throughout it maintains a sense of humor and focuses on its strange relationship and rivalry with American pop culture. Beyond mere literary readings, a colorful cast of charactors make the scene... from beboppers to hipsters, bongo beating philosophers to comedians and pop icons arise. One track might be Annie Ross's bebopistic tribute to Schizophrenia "Twisted", the next a recitation by Lord Buckley or Ken Nordine - in other tracks, square singers try to cash in on bebop and hipster culture... reporters go out on the streets of Greenwich village in search of America's lost youth, while others show beat generation icons in action from Dizzy Gillespie to Slim Galliard and Ray Brown Jr. - - Cuts from the rare, "How to Speak Hip" and even Lenny Bruce's Psychopathia Sexualis (I'm in Love With a Horse That Comes from Dallas) appear.

While by no means comprehensive, the three CDs along with the illustrated booklet are not only educational but incredibly entertaining.

If you enjoy this album, be sure to check out a reissue of Ken Nordine's Colors, as well as stuff by Harry The Hipster Gibson, Slim Galliard and Leon Watson, as well as the movie, "Sweet Love Bitter" (based on the life of Charlie Parker.)

Zino Francescati was a very solvent violinist with a pleasant tune and a warmth temperament. His phrasing was kind and delicate, and this is perhaps his main virtue and his main defect, because many works don't resist such approach.

But in this case, Beethoven' s Violin Concerto works out because the sublime inspiration of this Opus, allows to be expressed under this considerations and particularly this vision is carefully performed in this case.

Elegance and refinement feature this version. So please, don't miss it.

In the case of Sibelius violin's concerto, there are better options in the market such Ginette Neveu, ivry Gitlis and Jasha Heifetz.

Francescatti's Beethoven concerto is shapely and engaging, and the playing is warm and refined throughout. My ultimate preferences with this piece are Shumsky's 1988 recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Davis, and Menuhin's recording under Furtwangler, but I admire Francescatti's beautiful lines and devoted intelligence. The reason, however, for seizing this remarkable offer (who knows anymore how long any recording will remain available!) has to be Oistrakh's incomparable recording of the Sibelius under Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orch. Of the many versions of this great work, for me, there is none that matches this particular Oistrakh/Ormandy recording. Of more recent versions, Cho-Liang Lin turns in a stupendously musical performance of this piece - convincing and beautiful. I believe five or six D. Oistrakh recorded versions of this concerto remain in print; his Melodiya recording with Rozhdestvensky is a rival, but Ormandy's command of the glacial cast of Sibelius' orchestral writing is just amazing, and, underpinning Oistrakh's inimitable conception, the playing of the Philadelphia Orch is rich and perfectly attuned to Sibelius. The remastered sound is first-rate, you'd think it was a modern recording. Whether you love this concerto, or dont yet know it, you've found here a defining performance to reveal its mysteries. I've treasured this recording for thirty years, and urge you to give it a hearing.

I don't play the violin at all, but I love these two concerti (They're among my favorites for violin).

The Beethoven is pretty good, actually very good. This is one of the first pieces I heard live at a concert. The length of the whole piece doesn't matter when you're actually listening to it. I've heard more romantic versions, but I actually prefer Francescatti's interpretation. It's very fine, nothing too showy to make the music more than what it is. For a more "modern" recording, I would choose Hilary Hahn's.

I haven't listened to the Sibelius as much as the Beethoven on this CD, but I actually prefer this playing to the artists of today, such as Bell, Chang, etc. Oistrakh's tone is wonderful.

I would definitely recommending this CD to anyoone, to introduce these pieces to a new listener, or to add this to a classical music connoisseur's collection.

The Toscanini NBC recordings of Beethoven are, as they have been from their inception - the one essential set of recordings that everyone seriously interested in hearing Beethoven as this music was intended by the MASTER to sound - should own - the centerpiece of any classical collection. I used to own these recordings as Mono LPs - and, in those long gone days, they still sounded great. We can thank BMG and its fleet of engineers for keeping Toscanini up with the demands of the times.
As for Beethoven - despite his disciple Chuck Berry's assertions (wonderful as they are) - he remains very much alive - in the words of his awesome biographer, Romain Rolland, the Prometheus of the Moderns - and Toscanini, in perceiving that the soul of Beethoven is his energy - perceives that - and keeps that tremendous, explosive dynamism at the core of his interpretation.
We can also thank BMG for including the Missa in this package, which really gives the prospective buyer an 'essential Beethoven' package in some ways - not really to be found anywhere else on the market. Although there are a number of other versions of the Missa I also like, and perhaps prefer, no attempt has ever matched Toscanini's powerhouse renditions of the 9th and the 5th (during Toscanini's lifetime the 5th was considered Beethoven's signature orchestral statement - so pervasive was his recording of that piece), the combination of both the symphonies and the Missa in their pen-ultimate recording, and classic rendering, is a rare treasure not to be passed up by any with an intent to procure a boxed set of Beethoven's symphonies.

The moment this CD started, the music filled the room and blotted out all other considerations. Toscanini's work is masterful -- this recording really grabbed my attention and held it. I am not qualified to discuss the nuances of the orchestra's playing, but I can truly say that I felt as if I was in the presence of genius. I think that Beethoven would have approved of this performance! I urge fans of Beethoven's symphonies to buy this and compare it to other performances; I think that they will agree that this ranks as one of the greatest recordings of "the glorious ninth."

For some reason my review below was not posted in its entirety. Here is the complete review...

Like other listeners, I was skeptical when these new CDs were issued. My thoughts were that the early 1990s Complete Toscanini reissue was probably the best that could be humanly done to restore the very pinched and nasal sounding originals. Since I had already bought half of that set, I wasn't about to spend more of my hard-earned money on a marginally improved RE-reissue.

I was wrong. In 1997, RCA totally reorganized and inventoried its massive vaults, which had been in disarray for decades. As a result, many original sources which had been declared "lost" were now "found." This new remastering is strikingly improved sonically over all earlier issues. Utilizing the best technology now available, RCA has also done the right thing by hiring a musician--conductor Ed Houser--rather than whiz-bang technicians to supervise the remastering. The NBC Symphony Orchestra now sounds better than ever before, with smoother strings, fuller winds, and less blotting out during fortissimos.

Perhaps no conductor of the 20th Century has been as misunderstood as Arturo Toscanini, as evidenced by the critical backlash with which he was assailed in the years after his death. That criticism was partly in reaction to the equally unbalanced adulation heaped upon him during his lifetime. I remember once mentioning to an acquaintance my admiration for Toscanini's Beethoven and Brahms, and he shot back, "He conducts everything too fast!" In fact, in comparison with other recordings and broadcasts of his era, Toscanini's conducting was not generally faster than average. In relation to TODAY'S phlegmatic tempos, however, Toscanini's pacing is definitely brisk. But what most people are hearing as fast is, in fact, Toscanini's characteristic rhythmic vitality and, occasionally, drive, which brings the faster movements to sparkling life. (The finale to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is an example: the tempo is not unusually fast, but it SEEMS faster than normal because of the precise articulation and clarity.) Likewise, the slow movements are never dragged, and glow with Italianate warmth.

It is worth noting that RCA has made one major change in this reissue of Beethoven Symphonies: the 1949 studio recording of the "Eroica," heard in previous LP and CD versions, has been replaced by the 1953 live Carnegie Hall version. RCA does not credit the liner notes, but they are reprints of Mortimer H. Frank's excellent notes originally written for the early 1990s CD release.

RCA has so far only released Toscanini's core repertoire with the NBC Symphony--but they are more than welcome additions to the catalogue. The Maestro's recordings with the New Your Philharmonic, and The Philadelphia Orchestra should also be remastered, post-haste. Then, RCA, which has given us magnificent reissues of Kapell and Rubinstein, should get to work and replace their thoroughly botched Vladimir Horowitz reissue from the 1990s, using this magnificent Toscanini reissue as a template.

This set is a magical match of performer, conductor, and orchestra. Early 50's Kempff at his best with the Berlin Philharmonic under van Kampen, all in excellent sound. These readings are both lyrical and powerful at the same time. Kempff was always a wonderfully lyrical player, but here he is also powerful--witness his mind boggling performance of the Emperor. Also of note are Kempff's wonderful cadenzas throughout the set. A desert island set of the Beethoven concertos.

Don't waste your time (and money) with other readings. This is absolutely the finest cycle out there.

Kempff had perhaps the best innate understanding of Beethoven's lyrical architechtonics; plus he had the wonderful techinque to execute his realizations. Kempff had splendid taste and vibrant exhilaration.

There have been very good teams around this set. Consider Fleisher-Szell in the sixties
But the remarkable aspect is the happy combination of the craft singing piano of Wilhelm Kempff still in his sixties, with a conductor so underestimated as Paul van Kempen (died in 1955).
Van Kempen and the Berlin Philrmonic had a very close relationship in the fifties and reciprocal admiration.
van Kempen a frequent director of the famous Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, could combine the sublime and powerful of the Berlin Philarmonic, who certainly lived its golden age under the unique Wilhelm Furtwangler.
In these conditions , the happy meeting of this trio made it possible, a result who goes beyond all the worthy efforts that Kempff repeated a decade after but lacking expresiveness, power and sense of bliss.
All the concerts are played with powerful elegance, poetry,comittment and a sense of cosmical gaze.
Don�t miss this set. It's unvaluable. The best results are the second, third fourth and specially the fifth concert, Emperor.

This is a "Fidelio" quite different from but equal in performance value to the Vickers-Ludwig set or the Furtwaengler-Flagstad set.

Knappertsbusch's concept of the piece is idiosyncratic but, in its own terms, as valid as Toscanini's speed-freak approach or Furtwaengler's outright romanticism.

The three main principals are a triad of surpassing wonder! Jurinac is luminous. Neidlinger out-Alberichs Alberich as Don Pizarro. Peerce, of all recorded tenors, achieves just the right frazzled heroic sound of a noble man unjustly imprisoned, forgotten and facing death in the dark.

Anyone who has heard the legends surrounding German conductor Hans Knappertsbusch knows that "Kna" favored under-rehearsed, spontaneous performances and slow tempi. Well, yes, and those idiosyncrasies mark his recordings as well as "live" radio broadcasts that have survived. His 1961 Westminster studio recording of Beethoven's "Fidelio" has always been reckoned something of a failure for these very reasons, but I think it's time for a reappraisal, especially now that Deutsche Grammophon has cleaned up the sound so remarkably for this new reissue. Sure, Kna's tempos are often times slower than the norm, but this just underscores how attentive he is to giving his singers space to breathe (as well as carefully underlining Beethoven's harmonic structure). And what singers! Every member of this cast is world-class, headed up by the remarkable Sena Jurinac. Vocally secure and possessing an incomparably creamy legato, Jurinac was a true dramatic soprano and a memorable singing actress. Too few of her stage performances are available today and this, along with a wonderful Octavian on the Decca/Erich Kleiber "Rosenkavalier," showcases Jurinac at her best. Singing Florestan to Jurinac's Fidelio/Leonore is the American tenor Jan Peerce. Peerce was approaching the end of his operatic career when he made this recording and his voice at times sounds a bit worn. But that quality fits the role of the falsely imprisoned Florestan to perfection in a performance otherwise notable for a truly remarkable intelligence and sense of humanity. (It's amusing to recall that, about 15 years earlier, Peerce recorded the same role with Toscanini for RCA. Thus, Peerce has the distinction of working for both the fastest and the slowest "Fidelio" conductors on record!) The evil jailer Pizarro is a fabulously memorable Gustav Neidlinger, while the smaller roles are filled by such stalwarts as Deszo Ernster, Maria Stader and Murray Dickie. (The only performance that disappoints is that of a woolly-sounding Frederick Guthrie as the Royal Minister.) What we wouldn't give to hear such a cast today! But Knappertsbusch is the real star of this production and, if you're prepared to live with those slow tempi (and some sloppy ensemble now and then), he has many thought-provoking things to say about Beethoven's only opera. Note that the performance includes the Leonore III overture interposed before the final scene of Act II. That's the way many conductors performed "Fidelio" fifty and a hundred years ago after Gustav Mahler introduced the trick around the turn of the last century. People still debate whether it works as a musical device but, in Kna's hands, the performance of the interpolated overture helps transform a story about particular people living in a particular place and time into a universal epic of human love and freedom. Very moving.

This performance is gripping. Sena Jurinac was just a little to small, vocally, to sing Wagner's heroic-soprano roles, but she's just right for Leonore's music and her acting is very powerful. She is nicely matched with jan peerce, in a rare german performance, and the rest of the cast is excellent, especially Gustav Neidlinger's effortless Pizarro and Maria Stader's sweet Marzellina.

Denzo Ernster is the token human in a cast of supermen and superwomen, but he conveys Rocco's personality well.

Knappertsbusch as usual pays careful attention to the personalities of the individual singers. Occasionally he seems to drag, but only occasionally.

A great investment to get your classical music library going. Hits all the big ones - the ubiquitous first movement of the 5th symphony, the Vivace and "Ode to Joy" Choral from the 9th, the "Moonlight" Sonata and Fur Elise, Eroica, and, just for fun, the Turkish March from Ruin of Athens. Everyone's heard snippets, but for those looking to get a bit more in-depth, this CD's a great way to go. Good performances by the Boston and New York Philharmonics and talented individuals such as Emmanuel Ax. Sound quality is respectable as well.

It's hard to imagine how someone could not be inspired by Beethoven's art. Listening to the Ninth is a transcendent experience if ever there was one. The music carries emotions that we try to give labels to such as joy, grief, and wonder, but the music defines them so much better than words. In any case, I was asked to review the CD not Beethoven - so, in short, this is a very good CD!

Excellent CD along with Mozart in the same series.
All were momentous pieces espcially 5th and 9th symphony.
I bought this CD as a beginner and did not liked the 9th very much. But when I saw Stanley Kubrick's film "Clockwork Orange". I was truly amazed at the power of this 9th symphony especially the Molto Vivace and Ode to Joy of the Finale.Zubin mehta's performance was very good. Excellent Buy.

This cd is a wonderful way to get acquainted with the brilliant works of Beethoven. This one, as well as the other classical music cd's in the RCA Victor series, is a great beginning to a long and enjoyable journey through the world of classical music.

I agree with the music fan from Stockholm. This is a superb performance. Even the least known and least played of the three sonatas (no. 1) comes to life in the hands of Mr. Kovacevich. Compared with other popular performances of these works (for example, by Brendel, Ashkenazy, O'Conor), superlatives apply to Kovacevich's performances. The words unsurpassed, brilliant, magnificent, exhilarating, and dramatic come to mind. If you think you have heard these Beethoven sonatas before, think again. You will change your mind after listening to Mr. Kovacevich. In agreement with the reviewer from Sweden, I also find the recording a little shrill at times. The sound of other recordings (e.g O'Conor) is better. Also, the accompanying booklet needs rewriting.

I have not listened to this particular cd!but going by the other sets of kovacevich's performances of beethoven's piano sonatas(sonata nos30,12,19,20,27,28,32)one can safely buy the complete set!coming to the sonata no17,the TEMPEST,i have recordings by gilels,pollini and BARENBOIM.The gilels is too dry,the one by pollini is better but the best is by BARENBOIM in an EMI recording.This performance by barenboim is full of coiled fury with pregnant pauses which hightens the dramatic impact.it is hard to see how this performance can be surpassed!
I would also recommend the excellent recordings of the beethoven piano sonatas by the argentinian pianist ALFREDO PERL on the NOVA ART label.Perl's tempos are just right and he plays with the right blend of sensitive lyricism and athletic vigour,without interpretative exageration!the sound quality is top class!

Stephen Kovacevich has become the foremost interpreter of Beethovens pianoworks. He had his breakthrough at the end of the sixties with the Diabelli variations and the Piano concertos with Sir Colin Davies. Both the variations and the concertos are to this day unsurpassed. He has had some downs in his career, especially the pianoconcertos recorded with the Australia chamberorchestra. Hopefully we'll have a whole cycle of the sonatas soon. He has recorded 21 of the 32 sonatas now on EMI and this has the potential of becoming the best version of the greatest music known to man. There is only one letdown among those, the sonata no 32 where I wish he would have listened a bit more to Schnabel's more sesitive and lyrical touch. In these sonatas however he is better than his closest competitors Schnabel and Kempff. He has the clarity, the playfullness and the technique. He avoids Kempff's somewhat too stiff treatments and sometimes to slow approach. Schnabel probably still earns his nickname "Master of the Adagio", but he sometimes blurred the notes in the fast passages, something we never hear from Kovacevich. He doesn't try to dazzle the listener with his technique, even though he accomplishes that in difficult passages (here most noteworthy in no 16), where one can hear that he doesn't have to exert himself. These versions are even better than the ones he made on Phillips in the 70's. Here he shows the neccessary ingredients of being able to play strictly classical, romantically raging and at the same time apply a sense of humour. Schnabel said this music is better than it can be played, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. The somewhat jumpy no 16, the mysterious Tempest(not many can make the arpeggios sound coherent) and the gay and beutiful Hunt. My only complaint is that the pianosound is a little too shrill, which is strange coming from a Steinway.

A Hockeyfan

I am awarding 5 Stars here strictly for the magnificent performances by the Busch Quartet. Their late Beethoven Quartets are superbly played and profoundly communicative. To my ears, their only rivals are the later recordings by the Budapest Quartet and the Hollywood Quartet. These Busch readings are an indispensable component in any serious chamber music collection.

BUT ..... Pearl has ruined these fine 1930's recordings with absurd amounts of added reverb. Listening to these on my car's CD player was no problem - ambient noise in that environment is unavoidable. However, listening at home in my living room, or worse, when listening with headphones, the ruinous effects of Pearl's botched transfers are painfully apparent. Horribly echoey, un-natural sound - even worse than the old "rechanneled for stereo" LPs of yesteryear. What a shame! I have found many of Pearl's other transfers of historic material to be excellent -it's rather inexplicable what came over them here.

Quartets 11,12 and 14-16 can be found in EXCELLENT transfers on EMI 65308, a 4-disc CD set that also throws in Quartets 1 & 9, plus the wonderful 3rd Violin Sonata (with Serkin), the Schubert 8th Quartet (terrific!), and Mendelssohn's Capriccio.

Quartet #13 is coupled with the Busch account of #7 on Sony CD 47687. The transfers are superb.

Currently, the Grosse Fugue - which is not with the Busch Quartet, but with Adolph Busch conducting a student chamber orchestra - is not available elsewhere. The reverb here was truly awful. But even though I am a great Busch admirer, I think this music sounds best in the original quartet version (both the Budapest and Hollywood versions were outstanding). Of the orchestral arrangements, the finest I have heard was by Hermann Scherchen and the English Baroque Orchestra on an ancient Westminster LP that deserves a good CD transfer.

Bottom line: avoid this Pearl issue's mangled sound, and seek out superior alternatives from EMI and Sony.

While today's string quartets may play in a way which is more polished and clean, there is simply no quartet anywhere that can come close to the beauty, passion, and nobility that the Busch Quartet achieved.
They recorded mosty in the 1930's so the sound is somewhat poor and the style of play is dated but if you care at all about the quartets of Beethoven then you will want to hear them played by the Busch Quartet.
I thought I had all their available recordings but was very glad to find this one to add to my collection.

I've heard many recordings of the Beethoven late quartets through the years and although many other ensembles may have the advantage of digital sound no quartet can match the Busch in terms of musical insight and spirituality. Their interpretations are extremely well-thought, polished and profound. Don't let the surface noise of the transfers deter you...there is real music making of the highest caliber here.

The second piano cto though published later is really LvB's first so it's not in the same league as the fourth. The fourth holds together better than any of the other cti, though it's not so profound as the third (which Fleisher plays best). The best recording of the fourth is Schnabel's RCA recording with the CSO and Frederick Stock. Though the sound is nowhere near so good as this disk, the playing is the better.

In this recording, Fleisher demonstrates that he is one of the finest musicians ever; he has such great depth and spirit. His fourth concerto is simply divine (maybe Emil Gilels' 4th concerto is close to parallel Fleisher's); he plays it with so many colors and with incredibly warm, singing sound (and this sound quality is extremely hard to produce on the piano). He reaches every listener's soul and leaves them infinitely inspired. The second concerto is also amazing; it is warmth, energy, and charm combined all at once. Bravo, Maestro!

The Fourth Concerto can lay claim to being the most profound of the five, and Leon Fleisher provides an interpretation which has never been equalled. The playing of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell is absolutely superb, and the 1959 recording, now on Sony, still sounds well. This remains one of the greatest piano concerto recordings ever made. The Second, recorded a year or two later, is also excellent.

Alongside Fleisher, most pianists fall short in the Fourth, but mention should be made of the great Emil Gilels, whose recording with Leopold Ludwig conducting the Philharmonia has been reissued on Testament, with a fine Emperor Concerto as coupling.