Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Vladimir Ashkenazy :: Beethoven: Piano Sonatas

Ashkenazy makes magic.

06/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vladimir Ashkenazy is one of the century's great pianists. After listening to this cd you will find out why. The tempos (or tempi) that Ashkenazy chose for some of the movements are exactly what I think Beethoven would have chosen them to be (Sonata no.8 Mov't 1 for example). He is and always has been my favorite Beethoven interpreter and this cd belongs at the top of every Beethoven library...a definite five stars!"

Not nearly as good as I expected

01/06/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"While it's a legitimate interpretive technique to emphasize a downbeat by delaying it slightly, I find it extremely distracting that Ashkenazy does this automatically and mechanically, over and over, in the opening movement of the Moonlight Sonata. Not really an appropriate kind of accent for this movement, and he fails to use other ways to emote, like building or contrasting dynamics, ritardando, etc.Altogether bland and disappointing enough that I'm looking to buy a replacement and consider the money spent already to be nearly wasted. 2 stars only because it could be worse . . . this is Ashkenazy, of course."

If You Listen to the Alfred Brendel, You Won't Want This One

10/23/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Nothing wrong with it, mind you. It just doesn't have the grit, the intellectual muscle (and the rhythmic urgency) that one finds in the Brendel recordings. A great Waldstein, though!"