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11.6.09

Beethoven Sonatas - A Survey of Complete Cycles
Part 5, 1996 - 1999


Incl: A.CiccoliniA.DeGroote • M.Houstoun • G.Kladetzky • Lee • G.PludermacherJ.B.Pommier • R.Sherman • K.Shimizu • R.Silverman • T.Sonoda II • R.Taub • Y.Yokoyama






available at ArkivMusic

Takahiro Sonoda II

1993 - 1996- Evica

Available in 12 individual volumes from Japan.



available at Amazon



Yaeko Yamane

1993 - 1996 - ADAM

10 discs and very complete, including the op.6 Sonata for Four Hands, Sonatas WoO 47 and 51, and the WoO 50 and Anh 5/1 & 5/2 sonatinas... Yaeko Yamane studied with Lazar Levy at the Paris Conservatory and continued her studies in Europe in Zurich, Berlin, and Moscow under Max Egger, Helmut Roloff, and Jacob Friier, respectively. In the 1970s she was one of the first Japanese pianists to perform the complete 32 Beethoven Sonatas in recital.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
ADAM Ltd.Ed.
Yes


Yes


Yes

Yes



available at Amazon



Michael Houstoun

1994 - 1996 - Morrison Music Trust

Kiwi-Beethoven on a Steinway D. Still available in four volumes from the Music Trust itself and sources in New Zealand (Triton Music Ltd.) Available internationally through digital distribution via iTunes music store, emusic.com and the Naxos digital music library.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Trust CDs

No


No


No

No




Pommier Beethoven Sonata Cycle

Pommier Beethoven Sonata Cycle



Jean-Bernard Pommier

1991 - 1997 - Erato

Availability:


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Erato
Yes


Yes


Yes

Yes


available at Amazon



Russell Sherman

1993 - 1997 - GM Recordings



Availability: Most of the five volumes are still available; the complete set isn't. Available used or imported outside the US.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
GM R
1 - 2 - 3
4 - 5


1
- 2 - 3
4 - 5


1
- 2 - 3
4 - 5

1 - 2 - 3
4 - 5


available at Amazon



Robert Taub

1994 - 1997 - Vox

Availability: In five volumes, spottily available. Volume four seems completely oop.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Vox
partly


1 - 2 - 3
4 - 5



No

No






Kazune Shimizu

1995 - 1997 - Sony (Japan)

Live recordings.

Out of print as a set with individual copies hard to find at HMV.co.jp.
available at Amazon
available at Amazon



Georges Pludermacher

1998 - Transart live

Live recordings from the National Music Conservatory Reims on a Steinway with a fourth, "harmonic", pedal.

Availability: Pricey on CDs but incredibly cheap ($16 for the 10 CD set) as mp3 downloads.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Transart
Yes


Yes


Yes

Yes
mp3
Yes


Yes


Yes

Yes


available at ArkivMusic



Aldo Ciccolini

1985 - 1999 - Bongiovanni / Cascavelle

Availability: Looks like it has already been discontinued outside Germany and France, just two years after re-issue.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Cascavelle
No


No


Yes

Yes


available at Amazon



Gotthard Kladetzky

19?? - 1998 - Koch Schwann

Only in the UK do seem (some of) the individual volumes still be available on the used CD market.


available at Amazon



André DeGroote

1998 - Naxos (BeNeLux), Solal

Availability: Originally recorded (at the Brussels Royal Conservatoire) for Naxos, but deleted when they closed their Benelux branch. Just now re-issued by Solal.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Solal
(Yes)


Yes


Yes

Yes



Not available at Amazon



Younwha Lee ( 이연화 )

1994 - 1999 - Sony (Korea)

Two volumes of 5 CDs each. Availability: Made for—and sold on—the Korean market.


Country / Label USA UK Korea Germany
Sony

No


No


Vol.1 | Vol.2

No



available at Amazon
available at Amazon



Yukio Yokoyama

1998- 1999 - Sony (Japan)

Availability: Made for—and sold on—the Japanese market. Available used and as imports, though.


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Sony

(No)


No


No

No


available at Amazon



Robert Silverman

1999 - Orpheum Masters

Recorded 'into' and then reproduced from a Bösendorfer Reproducing Piano. Read about the process here.

Availability:


Country / Label USA UK France Germany
Sony

Yes


No


No

No

This listing of all Beethoven Sonata Cycles will continue as more sets reach completion or as I find more information about sets already completed.* There are certainly plenty sets under way that should or may reach completion soon: Among them Angela Hewitt (Hyperion), Igor Tchetuev (Caro Mitis), Jonathan Biss (Onyx), Akihiro Sakiya (DPIC Entertainment), Martin Roscoe (Deux-Elles), James Brawn (MSR), Paavali Jumppanen (Ondine) [Completed & Added], Yusuke Kikuchi (Triton) [Completed & Added] et al. I will also add a selection of historically important attempted cycles that were never finished but include >20 >9 sonatas. That would add Rudolf Serkin (CBS, 10 sonatas missing), Bruce Hungerford (Vanguard / Piano Classics, also 10 sonatas missing), Emil Gilels (DG, opp.2/1, 14/1, 54, 78, 111), and Glenn Gould (CBS/Sony, opp.7, 22, 49, 53, 79, 81a, 90 missing, op.106 separate, opp.7 [partly], 49/1, 101 available on CBC recordings). There are seemingly abandoned cycles that will not be included, such as those of  Giovanni Belluci,  Bruno Leonardo Gelber,  Yoshihiro Kondo, or  Per Tengstrand. There are cycles that are unworthy of discussion or outright fraudulent, i.e. not actual piano playing and/or of excrutiating quality and/or cobbled together from other performances. Most famously Joyce Hatto, but apparently also Vladimir Morrone, Giancarlo Andretti, Alicja Kot, and Claudio Colombo.**

* If you count, as I did, Backhaus II and Arrau II as complete, despite one and two (respectively) missing sonatas. I do not count Walter Gieseking (tapes of 4, 5, 7, 20, 22 for a radio cycle are lost, a studio cycle for EMI was missing seven sonatas when he died), Wilhelm Kempff "0" (Polydor, opp.2/3, 22, 27/1, 28, 31/2, 101 missing).

** Invaluable research on this end done by Todd, resident Beethoven-Sonata expert (and addict) at the Good Music Guide Forum.


The (Great) Incomplete Cycles
Part 1: 1935 - 1969
Part 2: 1967 - 1974
Part 3: 1977 - 1989
Part 4: 1990 - 1996

Part 6: 2000 - 2005
Part 7: 2006 - 2009
Ronald Brautigam Special
Part 8: 2010 - 2013
Part 9: 2014 - onward
Part 10: 2017 - ____


If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated. | Ed. 22/08/2014 Thanks to Mark Norton for finding the very well hidden US Amazon link to the Robert Silverman set!

This survey is meant to list all complete sets of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and their availability in different markets, not to review them.

An Index of ionarts Discographies



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