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12CD Claudio Arrau
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Well, this is great news!
This is the LONG OVERDUE reissue of Arrau and Philips' glorious Beethovenian partnership in the 60s and 70s!
It's also quite bad news for collectors and dealers as their old, out-of-print holdings will fall dramatically in value. Fortunately I'm not one of the losers and I've been waiting for this release for years. I fell in love long ago with Arrau thanks to his Philips Beethoven and Schumann cycles, which I was lucky to be able to borrow and work upon in my youth.
Finally Decca has given us this treasure of sound - at last a great reissue and not a mediocre one as we were being accustomed by the recording giant, which gobbled up Philips at the turn of the century, a fact I'm still mystified with (all things Dutch used to be close to perfection, including business management!)
I love this reading alongside that of Yves Nat, who couldn't benefit of a life as long as Arrau's and therefore great sound (and Arrau mellowed with age, unlike Kempff for example); it has stood up there pretty much unassailable for the newer generations. Let's rejoice it's been given a new lease of life! no more need to part with great sums of cash in order to get your hands on it.
This is the LONG OVERDUE reissue of Arrau and Philips' glorious Beethovenian partnership in the 60s and 70s!
It's also quite bad news for collectors and dealers as their old, out-of-print holdings will fall dramatically in value. Fortunately I'm not one of the losers and I've been waiting for this release for years. I fell in love long ago with Arrau thanks to his Philips Beethoven and Schumann cycles, which I was lucky to be able to borrow and work upon in my youth.
Finally Decca has given us this treasure of sound - at last a great reissue and not a mediocre one as we were being accustomed by the recording giant, which gobbled up Philips at the turn of the century, a fact I'm still mystified with (all things Dutch used to be close to perfection, including business management!)
I love this reading alongside that of Yves Nat, who couldn't benefit of a life as long as Arrau's and therefore great sound (and Arrau mellowed with age, unlike Kempff for example); it has stood up there pretty much unassailable for the newer generations. Let's rejoice it's been given a new lease of life! no more need to part with great sums of cash in order to get your hands on it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
supreme Beethoven from a 20th century giant
26 Mar 2012
By jsa
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 1970, High Fidelity magazine published a comprehensive survey, in book form, of the composer's recordings that were available at the time. Their distinguished piano critic, Harris Goldsmith, wrote the sections on the piano music and concertos, and his opinions and insights are still valuable today. Of the Arrau cycle of the 32 sonatas, Goldsmith wrote the following:
"Following Arrau through the sonatas was a stimulating, sometimes perplexing experience: stimulating because of the pianist's mastery and profound insight into the music; perplexing because although I am a confirmed adherent to an opposite musical polarity (e.g., the Schnabel/Toscanini axis) I kept finding myself fascinated and drawn into Arrau's interpretations in spite of myself. Granted, I look for metrical severity and Arrau's inflected phrasing is sometimes stretched to theoretical limits; I also gravitate toward fast tempos and headstrong brio, while Arrau's approach more often than not is leisurely and reasoned. But this is not the cliché-ridden self-indulgence of a typical stock-in-trade 'Romantic' pianist: there is vast scholarship and harmonic analysis behind Arrau's seeming arbitrariness and it always manages to clarify some aspect of the writing. The pianist is helped, of course, by a superbly finished technique and a fabulous tone - solid, velvety rich, full of glint and gleaming color. Chords are luscious and well balanced, his scales are even and caressing. Arrau takes care to reveal inner melodic lines; he is scrupulous about observing rests, and unlike so many players, always begins his appoggiaturas on (rather than before) the beat. He is, I might add, the only artist to observe every repeat (which one might consider a mixed blessing). These details are important, of course, but ought not cloud the real point of Arrau's music-making which provides a deeply expressive, subjective thesis about Beethoven's music." ("The Recordings of Beethoven as Viewed by the Critics of High Fidelity," 1971)
The "subjective thesis" observed by Goldsmith was expressed by Arrau himself in an illuminating essay that accompanied the Philips box set of the pianist's complete sonata cycle in 1971:
"Like all cultural heroes, Beethoven exemplifies in his creative output all the spiritual and psychic battles of the mythic hero - the hero who is given superhuman tasks to overcome and who after untold struggles (truly bloodied but undaunted) emerges the victor and, as in the case of the greatest creative giants (Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Goethe) finally attains the highest state of self-realization and illumination. This is especially true of Beethoven, who struggled creatively possibly on a more titanic scale than even Michelangelo - in the sense that he wrought his works into shape with an inexhaustible inner sense and vision of perfection and completion. In the end he reached a mystical union with the godhead, as it were, and on a higher plane of transcendence than almost anyone else in the history of Western art." ("Thoughts on Beethoven and the Piano Sonatas")
This outlook limns Arrau's interpretations of the Beethoven sonatas. My own point of view after having lived with these recordings for over forty years is that Arrau's genius, diverse as it was given his masterful interpretations of Liszt, Brahms, Debussy, and Schumann, revealed itself most completely in the music of Beethoven, especially those works (and there were many) with which he fully identified. The supreme statements of Arrau's Beethoven can be heard in the Appassionata, Funeral March, Pastoral, Les Adieux, Waldstein, Moonlight and Tempest sonatas, as well as the five late sonatas (opp. 101, 106, 109, 110 and 111). He also turned in exceptional performances of opp. 2, no.3; 10, no. 3; 27, no. 1 (Sonata Quasi una Fantasia); 54; 78 and 90 as well as the Eroica and C Minor variations. In fact, his playing and insights are on such a consistently high level that out of the 32 sonatas, Arrau hardly registered a "miss."
Of the last five sonatas Arrau pondered "Where did all of that come from? [How did Beethoven] enter spheres of such transcendent meaning as were never encountered in music before or, in all truth, since? Who could foretell such a span of evolution which sees him create at the end what can only be called a metaphysical language of music...where trills become a trembling of the soul and arpeggios reach out into the infinite altogether.... In Op. 111...Beethoven reaches into cosmic spaces which open up into infinitude, into a state of mystical rapture which Goethe called 'der Fall nach oben' - the fall upward...."
Given this level of perception, it's no wonder that Arrau's readings of the triple opus numbered sonatas uniquely penetrate the inner dimension of this music. While not everyone approved of his approach to late Beethoven (Harris Goldsmith called some of the interpretations too rhetorical and "Furtwanglerish"), I think these documents reign supreme in the canon of Beethoven recordings.
After decades of listening to Beethoven including the cycles set down by Schnabel, Kempff, Brendel, Frank, and Backhaus among others, it is Arrau whose recordings are the most consistently insightful and compelling, not to mention the most technically polished. This reissue set on the Decca label deserves a place in every music library.
Addendum: For a perspective of Arrau at work, I highly recommend a recently issued 2-dvd set of the pianist's appearances at the 1970 and 1977 Beethovenfest in Bonn: Claudio Arrau: Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Between the two recitals Arrau plays eight Beethoven sonatas (op. 2, no. 3; op. 27 no. 1; op. 27, no. 2; op. 53; op. 57; op. 81a; op. 109; and op. 111). These are unforgettable documents that capture the pianist at his titanic best.
Addendum II:
There have been a number of comments regarding the sonics on this set, so I thought I would add my own to the mix. The previous Philips box set, which was issued in 1998, offered 24 bit sound and I can't say that it was much of an improvement over the original cd set except for the elimination of intrusive electronic clicks that some mistakenly believed were Arrau's fingernails striking the keys (as it happens, his nails were trimmed to the nub). There's only so much that can be done with fifty year old source material and it wouldn't surprise me if maximum remediation had already been done by the engineers at Philips.
Having said that, with the exception of the above-mentioned electronic noise in the original cd box set which has been corrected, I've never found the sound picture to be "claustrophobic" or "boxy" - descriptions that have been repeated numerous times over the years. To the contrary, I think this set projects a good deal of Arrau's unique sound - the richness, the color, the organ-like fullness and warmth. The sound picture, however, is not completely consistent. First of all, Arrau began his cycle by recording sonatas nos. 11-15 in 1962, and these are the only ones I find to be sonically challenged. They sound thin and rather strained, but they're still way ahead of what EMI's engineers were producing for Arrau in 1960 (an example of which is Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3; Fantasy). Sixteen months later, he recorded the Pathetique, Waldstein and Hammerklavier sonatas and followed this with a batch of early sonatas (nos. 1-7) in 1964. The rest were recorded over various sessions in 1965 and 1966. The point of all this is that while I tend to listen to the sonatas in chronological order, they were not recorded that way; however, the sound, never less than acceptable, definitely improves along the way - even though it may seem variable if you listen chronologically.
"Following Arrau through the sonatas was a stimulating, sometimes perplexing experience: stimulating because of the pianist's mastery and profound insight into the music; perplexing because although I am a confirmed adherent to an opposite musical polarity (e.g., the Schnabel/Toscanini axis) I kept finding myself fascinated and drawn into Arrau's interpretations in spite of myself. Granted, I look for metrical severity and Arrau's inflected phrasing is sometimes stretched to theoretical limits; I also gravitate toward fast tempos and headstrong brio, while Arrau's approach more often than not is leisurely and reasoned. But this is not the cliché-ridden self-indulgence of a typical stock-in-trade 'Romantic' pianist: there is vast scholarship and harmonic analysis behind Arrau's seeming arbitrariness and it always manages to clarify some aspect of the writing. The pianist is helped, of course, by a superbly finished technique and a fabulous tone - solid, velvety rich, full of glint and gleaming color. Chords are luscious and well balanced, his scales are even and caressing. Arrau takes care to reveal inner melodic lines; he is scrupulous about observing rests, and unlike so many players, always begins his appoggiaturas on (rather than before) the beat. He is, I might add, the only artist to observe every repeat (which one might consider a mixed blessing). These details are important, of course, but ought not cloud the real point of Arrau's music-making which provides a deeply expressive, subjective thesis about Beethoven's music." ("The Recordings of Beethoven as Viewed by the Critics of High Fidelity," 1971)
The "subjective thesis" observed by Goldsmith was expressed by Arrau himself in an illuminating essay that accompanied the Philips box set of the pianist's complete sonata cycle in 1971:
"Like all cultural heroes, Beethoven exemplifies in his creative output all the spiritual and psychic battles of the mythic hero - the hero who is given superhuman tasks to overcome and who after untold struggles (truly bloodied but undaunted) emerges the victor and, as in the case of the greatest creative giants (Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Goethe) finally attains the highest state of self-realization and illumination. This is especially true of Beethoven, who struggled creatively possibly on a more titanic scale than even Michelangelo - in the sense that he wrought his works into shape with an inexhaustible inner sense and vision of perfection and completion. In the end he reached a mystical union with the godhead, as it were, and on a higher plane of transcendence than almost anyone else in the history of Western art." ("Thoughts on Beethoven and the Piano Sonatas")
This outlook limns Arrau's interpretations of the Beethoven sonatas. My own point of view after having lived with these recordings for over forty years is that Arrau's genius, diverse as it was given his masterful interpretations of Liszt, Brahms, Debussy, and Schumann, revealed itself most completely in the music of Beethoven, especially those works (and there were many) with which he fully identified. The supreme statements of Arrau's Beethoven can be heard in the Appassionata, Funeral March, Pastoral, Les Adieux, Waldstein, Moonlight and Tempest sonatas, as well as the five late sonatas (opp. 101, 106, 109, 110 and 111). He also turned in exceptional performances of opp. 2, no.3; 10, no. 3; 27, no. 1 (Sonata Quasi una Fantasia); 54; 78 and 90 as well as the Eroica and C Minor variations. In fact, his playing and insights are on such a consistently high level that out of the 32 sonatas, Arrau hardly registered a "miss."
Of the last five sonatas Arrau pondered "Where did all of that come from? [How did Beethoven] enter spheres of such transcendent meaning as were never encountered in music before or, in all truth, since? Who could foretell such a span of evolution which sees him create at the end what can only be called a metaphysical language of music...where trills become a trembling of the soul and arpeggios reach out into the infinite altogether.... In Op. 111...Beethoven reaches into cosmic spaces which open up into infinitude, into a state of mystical rapture which Goethe called 'der Fall nach oben' - the fall upward...."
Given this level of perception, it's no wonder that Arrau's readings of the triple opus numbered sonatas uniquely penetrate the inner dimension of this music. While not everyone approved of his approach to late Beethoven (Harris Goldsmith called some of the interpretations too rhetorical and "Furtwanglerish"), I think these documents reign supreme in the canon of Beethoven recordings.
After decades of listening to Beethoven including the cycles set down by Schnabel, Kempff, Brendel, Frank, and Backhaus among others, it is Arrau whose recordings are the most consistently insightful and compelling, not to mention the most technically polished. This reissue set on the Decca label deserves a place in every music library.
Addendum: For a perspective of Arrau at work, I highly recommend a recently issued 2-dvd set of the pianist's appearances at the 1970 and 1977 Beethovenfest in Bonn: Claudio Arrau: Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Between the two recitals Arrau plays eight Beethoven sonatas (op. 2, no. 3; op. 27 no. 1; op. 27, no. 2; op. 53; op. 57; op. 81a; op. 109; and op. 111). These are unforgettable documents that capture the pianist at his titanic best.
Addendum II:
There have been a number of comments regarding the sonics on this set, so I thought I would add my own to the mix. The previous Philips box set, which was issued in 1998, offered 24 bit sound and I can't say that it was much of an improvement over the original cd set except for the elimination of intrusive electronic clicks that some mistakenly believed were Arrau's fingernails striking the keys (as it happens, his nails were trimmed to the nub). There's only so much that can be done with fifty year old source material and it wouldn't surprise me if maximum remediation had already been done by the engineers at Philips.
Having said that, with the exception of the above-mentioned electronic noise in the original cd box set which has been corrected, I've never found the sound picture to be "claustrophobic" or "boxy" - descriptions that have been repeated numerous times over the years. To the contrary, I think this set projects a good deal of Arrau's unique sound - the richness, the color, the organ-like fullness and warmth. The sound picture, however, is not completely consistent. First of all, Arrau began his cycle by recording sonatas nos. 11-15 in 1962, and these are the only ones I find to be sonically challenged. They sound thin and rather strained, but they're still way ahead of what EMI's engineers were producing for Arrau in 1960 (an example of which is Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3; Fantasy). Sixteen months later, he recorded the Pathetique, Waldstein and Hammerklavier sonatas and followed this with a batch of early sonatas (nos. 1-7) in 1964. The rest were recorded over various sessions in 1965 and 1966. The point of all this is that while I tend to listen to the sonatas in chronological order, they were not recorded that way; however, the sound, never less than acceptable, definitely improves along the way - even though it may seem variable if you listen chronologically.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
well worth it,, but don't neglect his EMI Icon Beethoven
30 Sep 2012
By Kirk List
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
These early sixties performances found Arrau at a crossroads. He was still a great virtuoso but more inclined to slower, more deliberate performances. Compare these sonatas to his LVB sonatas and five piano concerti in the EMI Icon series from the mid 1950s. More speed and virtuosity in the earlier set. The sonatas on ICON: #s 7.22, 23, 24, 28, 31, 32. One can hear the most difference in opus 53 and 57, which outstrip the Philips versions-considerably more electric. This is true also of the five concerti w/Alceo Galliera c.f the Philips set with
Haitink and the RCOA, excepting Arrau's #4 with Haitink (see my review), which at least ties the EMi #4
HOWEVER,in the Philips set, there is sufficient speed and elan in #s 1-16 and 24-32. Incredible clarity and precision, poetry and analytic prowess. All abound in these groups. Try the negelected opus 7 and opus 31/1
(my favorite of the opus 31s-in which he joins a titanic group in reclaiming an orphan: Serkin, Annie Fischer,
Brendel} .I prefer his 31/1 to his 31/2 and 3. 31/2 is insufficiently stormy and the Waldstein I find too sedate c.f his live You Tube Waldstein* from 1970 which sounds more like his 50s recordings.*** I also heard Arrau play the Emperor in Boston in 1967 even better than he had with Galliera. The differences could not be stereotyped. Of one judgment I remain confident. In the final five sonatas Arrau remained titanic-his Hammerklavier and opus 110 -my favorite of the final three;listen to Arrau's dolente and fugue for example- are pinnacles of metaphysical exploration, not to slight the other three sonatas.
Even with his sometimes imperfect Mozart sonatas in the late 70s and 1980s, he could play flawlessly. His disc with k570, 576, and 540 is peerless even by his standards, with the greatest ever Adagio k 540; ditto his k310 and 330 and the 70s sonata k457 + shorter works (k475, 397, and 511). Still, his great Orfeo Salzburg Mozart recital in 1956 parallels his Icon Beethoven and must be heard to complete the picture. At this new price, this set is a must-but so are the seven sonatas and five concerti on Icon.
*** I have not yet heard/seen the remainder of the two Beethoven DVDs recorded in Bonn (1970 and 1977) with seven
additional sonatas
Peers in complete or partially complete sets: Serkin, Brendel, Pollini, Backhaus, Annie Fischer, Richter, Gilels, Gelber
Haitink and the RCOA, excepting Arrau's #4 with Haitink (see my review), which at least ties the EMi #4
HOWEVER,in the Philips set, there is sufficient speed and elan in #s 1-16 and 24-32. Incredible clarity and precision, poetry and analytic prowess. All abound in these groups. Try the negelected opus 7 and opus 31/1
(my favorite of the opus 31s-in which he joins a titanic group in reclaiming an orphan: Serkin, Annie Fischer,
Brendel} .I prefer his 31/1 to his 31/2 and 3. 31/2 is insufficiently stormy and the Waldstein I find too sedate c.f his live You Tube Waldstein* from 1970 which sounds more like his 50s recordings.*** I also heard Arrau play the Emperor in Boston in 1967 even better than he had with Galliera. The differences could not be stereotyped. Of one judgment I remain confident. In the final five sonatas Arrau remained titanic-his Hammerklavier and opus 110 -my favorite of the final three;listen to Arrau's dolente and fugue for example- are pinnacles of metaphysical exploration, not to slight the other three sonatas.
Even with his sometimes imperfect Mozart sonatas in the late 70s and 1980s, he could play flawlessly. His disc with k570, 576, and 540 is peerless even by his standards, with the greatest ever Adagio k 540; ditto his k310 and 330 and the 70s sonata k457 + shorter works (k475, 397, and 511). Still, his great Orfeo Salzburg Mozart recital in 1956 parallels his Icon Beethoven and must be heard to complete the picture. At this new price, this set is a must-but so are the seven sonatas and five concerti on Icon.
*** I have not yet heard/seen the remainder of the two Beethoven DVDs recorded in Bonn (1970 and 1977) with seven
additional sonatas
Peers in complete or partially complete sets: Serkin, Brendel, Pollini, Backhaus, Annie Fischer, Richter, Gilels, Gelber
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic great set. Now affordable.
19 Aug 2012
By Leeber Cohen
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Claudio Arrau was not only a great virtuoso but capable of playing with great beauty. The review of jsa is excellent and summarizes the virtues of this set. This set is ideal as a starter set. The recording quality for the 1960's is fine. Do not hesitate. At this price range this set is now my first recommendation. I am also very fond of The Claude Franke (Music and Arts CD 4640)Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas and Brendel 2nd cycle (Decca Box-4782607). Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas & Concertos There are many other sets and individual recordings. We all have our personal favorites.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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