Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 (complete)

Wilhelm Kempff was one of the truly great German pianists and one of the most remarkable performing artists of the 20th century. Kempff was renowned for his interpretations of Beethoven and this 10-CD compilation features performances of all five of the composer’s Piano Concertos made with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1953, and the Waldstein, Moonlight, Pathétique and Les Adieux Sonatas. The set also includes performances of Mozart, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms recorded between 1953 and 1958.

Claudio Arrau was born on 6th February 1903. Such was his prodigious talent that he gave his first public recital in Santiago at the age of five.

When he was nine he was sent, with support of the Chilean Government, to study in Berlin where he was a pupil of Martin Krause at Stern’s Conservatory for six years, he never went to another teacher.

He received many awards during his student days such that his name was already in circulation when he gave extensive tours in Germany and Scandinavia following his first recital in Berlin in 1914. He embarked on a tour of Europe after WW1. Conductors of the highest calibre – Nikisch, Mengelberg and Furtwängler amongst them – accompanied him.

After a successful return visit to his homeland in 1921 he visited London the following year where he appeared in a concert with Dame Nellie Melba and Bronislaw Huberman, the violinist who, at the age of 14, had won Brahms admiration for his performance of his concerto. In 1923 he toured the USA.

He joined the staff of Stern’s Conservatory in 1924 and taught there until 1940. In Berlin he played the complete works of Bach over 12 concerts but decided that the piano was not the instrument for these works and never played them in public again. Leaving Berlin in 1940 he returned to

Chile, where in its capital, Santiago, he founded a piano school. It was whilst on a highly successful tour of the USA during the following year that he decided to settle his family in New York.

Arrau’s reputation is built on his special affinity for the music of Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and, above all, Beethoven whose complete sonatas he played in many major cities. His performances had all the virtuoso technique required but it was accomplished without the least ostentation; for him the music was what should remain in the audience’s ear and should not be disturbed by the flamboyance of the pianist in the audience’s eye.

Twenty years have passed since he departed but these recordings will bring back happy memories for all those lucky enough ever to have attended his concerts.

As Alfred Brendel celebrates his 80th birthday on 5 January 2011, Decca is marking this momentous occasion with FOUR major catalogue releases.

He’s a legend of the piano world, revered and applauded the world over. For long an exclusive Philips Classics artist, Alfred Brendel is the recipient of the 2010 Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award. Famed for his peerless interpretations of Viennese classics, 2011 sees Brendel celebrate his 80th birthday and for it we present four iconic sets – available at budget price for the first time.

This stunning collection of Beethoven’s entire Piano works, is a Beethoven and Brendel fan must -have. Brendel’s Beethoven is represented by his analogue traversal (1970 – 77) of the 32 Piano Sonatas and the 5 Piano Concertos, long unavailable and including the Choral fantasia [with LPO/Haitink, recorded 1976-77] and now packaged as a cap box.

Triumphing over deafness and turbulent political times, Ludwig van Beethoven singlehandedly changed the course of music history, laying down the foundations for the Romantic era. His nine symphonies grew out of the forms established in the time of Mozart and Haydn, but show a remarkable evolution which embraces heroic grandeur in the Third Symphony, patriotism and innovation in the Fifth Symphony, countryside imagery and narrative in the Sixth Symphony, and choral inspiration in the Ninth Symphony, the ‘Ode to Joy’ from which has become the Anthem for Europe.

Even Beethoven couldn’t entirely escape the influence of Mozart, and this lineage can be traced in the melodic grace to be found in the symphonies as well as the concertos. Imposing in their stature, the five Piano Concertos are filled with lively inventiveness as well as some of the most beautiful music ever to emerge from this genre. Beethoven’s single work in the popular symphonie concertante form is the ‘Triple’ Concerto, but it is the distinctive nobility of the Violin Concerto which has seen it gain an unassailable position as one of the greatest works in the repertoire.

Beethoven considered music ‘a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy’, with greatness of conception and painstaking craftsmanship his hallmarks. The Overtures are no exception in this, reflecting the drama and excitement of the theatre and including the opening of his only opera Fidelio.

Last year it was the Kempff solo recordings which brightened up our winter days at the start of the new year and sold nearly 6,000 copies of the 35-CD box.

Now for the first time, comes a compact 14-CD set of his complete concerto studio recordings. They span from his 1925 recording of Beethoven’s First Concerto (the first ever to be made of that work) to his visionary 1977 performances of Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 21 and 22, now receiving their first international CD release. Unlike the solo recordings set, this edition is non-limited.

Kempff traversed the set of Beethoven Concertos three times in the studio (only No.2 was not set down during the shellac era); all those performances are included in this set. There’s more Mozart, Brahms and Schumann. In addition, 1950s Decca recordings of two Mozart concertos, the Liszt and Schumann concertos are also featured.

19CD/1DVD

A deluxe, limited-edition box containing the three main sets of Beethoven for All, plus bonus material, is scheduled for release in October in anticipation of Barenboim’s 70th birthday on 15 November 2012

This premium collector’s set includes one CD of podcast material (previously available as a promotional tool only) featuring James Jolly, Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief, interviewing Daniel Barenboim, as well as the Beethoven For All documentary on DVD and a 64-page hardback photobook celebrating Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in a selection of informal and performance images.

“The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's woodwind section deserves a gold medal. Rarely in any orchestra do you hear tone quite so gorgeous and ensemble so unified, each individual’s artistry flowering to the full within the whole. Through the symphony they became a group of soloists within the larger ensemble, Beethoven’s harbingers of hope.” The Independent July 2012

“WEDO's Beethoven project has been under way for three years. That dedication showed.” The Guardian July 2012