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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
I had never heard of Steven Lubin and purchased this set of recordings mainly because of Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music. In addition to the five concerti, there are also recordings of several piano sonatas. The "period piano" was initially a shock to the ears but having said that, this is now the set that I play as a matter of choice. Mr. Lubin is a very fine pianist and his artistry and musicianship shines through every performance, both in the concerti and the piano sonatas. I can recommend this set but for listeners who are used to hearing Beethoven played on a 9 foot ten inch Steinway, these performances will initially come as a shock. My other set is of Andras Schiff with Bernard Haitink as conductor. This is also a fine set with one proviso; the choice of cadenza in the first movement of the first concerto, which is nearly five minutes long and totally out of context to the remainder of the movement.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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5 reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Buy it Now
26 April 2006
Format:Audio CD
Universal deserves our thanks for making these seminal performances available once again, at mid-price and with the addition of three top drawer sonatas to boot. I own the fortepiano/period instrument cycles of Levin/Gardiner, Lubin/Hogwood, Newman/Simon and Tan/Norrington. The Lubin and Levin cycles are my favorites and I can't really decide which is better. Both are well played and conducted. Both also use different fortepianos to match the increasing demands Beethoven placed upon the instrument as the mechanical and range capabilities improved and his style matured. The orchestras are both colorful and handle their parts with aplomb - no sawing or scraping strings or squawking woodwinds here. The instruments reveal all sorts of wonderful details that tend to be swamped by modern strings.
I would have preferred the performers tackle the Choral Fantasy and the Triple Concerto as well when these were recorded, but the sonatas make a nice bonus.
With Levin/Gardiner increasing hard to find and commanding high prices on the used market, my advice is to snap this one up while its generally available. You won't be disappointed.
I would have preferred the performers tackle the Choral Fantasy and the Triple Concerto as well when these were recorded, but the sonatas make a nice bonus.
With Levin/Gardiner increasing hard to find and commanding high prices on the used market, my advice is to snap this one up while its generally available. You won't be disappointed.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Dynamic
22 July 2008
Format:Audio CD
This is one of my favorite sets of the Beethoven Concertos, on any types of instruments. It is beautifully recorded. Lubin uses three different fortepianos to reflect the differing instruments from the periods when the concertos were premiered. He even uses his own cadenza in No. 1, because the one Beethoven supplied was from years later, and Lubin deemed it inappropriate for the pianoforte of the concerto's time. All of the fortepianos have interesting sounds, more so than the one instrument Melvyn Tan used on his set. The fortepiano on the first two concertos has a very light, sort of twangy sonority, but it still can create real drama and is allowed by the composer to cut through his orchestration. In the entire set, much of the keyboard expression that a modern instrument would accomplish through power and a saturated tone instead is accomplished with a sensitivity to articulation and the play of light and shade. There is no shortage of drama anywhere in these performances. Hogwood's accompaniments are among the best I've ever heard, easily in the same league as Bernard Haitink's for Perahia and George Szell's for Fleisher. I also feel that the soloists, especially the first horn, show more individuality than do Norrington's London Classical Players. The sonatas are a welcome addition, if not quite at the adrenaline level of the conceros, with the exception of The Tempest. This set is a vital addition to anyone's collection of Beethoven Concertos.
The unsatisfying sound of the piano
19 May 2012
These are wonderful performances marred by the use of feeble, weak, unpleasant, thud-sounding fortepianos. But as unpleasant as the sound is, the engineers could have at least turned up the gain on the thin sound of these solo instruments to create a better balance with the orchestra. I think even Beethoven would have turned up his nose at the sonic poverty of these fortepianos. I was sometimes reminded of a toy piano.
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