Incl: D.Barenboim III • I.Biret • S.Kovacevich • S.Lipkin • A.Lucchesini • A.Øland • A.Sako • C.Sheppard • D.A.Wehr • G.Willems
  | Gerard Willems 1997 - 2000 - ABC The pianos used were Australian Stuart & Sons instruments which differ from a standard grand piano in a few salient points and promise, among other factors, greater dynamics and increased sustain. (Nigel Tufnel approves: This piano's number of pedals goes to four!) Recorded at the Newcastle Conservatorium of Music. Availability - directly from Australia.
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 | Anne Øland 1995 - 2001 - T.I.M. Availability:
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 | Andrea Lucchesini 1999 - 2001 - Stradivarius Availability:
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 | Akiyoshi Sako 2001* - Camerata Live recordings from Kobe Shimbun Matsukata Hall. Nine individ. volumes which can, with some effort, be tracked down on Amazon. (* Patching sessions done in 2003.) Availability:
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    | Stephen Kovacevich 1992 - 2003 - EMI / Warner I remember the Gramophone Magazine fuelled hype well, when this came out. It felt disingenuine, shortly after the magazine had felt EMI's brunt for not backing the Rattle-Vienna Beethoven Symphony cycle sufficiently. Especially given all that lavish praise, it went out of print surprisingly fast. It's now, 2017, been re-issued by Warner. (Which have of course acquired the EMI Classics catalogue in the meantime.) Availability:
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 | Ichiro Nodaira 1998 - 2003 - Nami / Livenotes Available in Japan in 12 volumes on 12 CDs. Very complete, incl. Diabelli Variations, the WoO 47 Sonatas, et al. Availability:
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 | David Allen Wehr 1998 - 2004 - Connoisseur Society Piano used was a Yamaha CF111S. Availability:
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  | Seymour Lipkin (stereo) 2002 - 2004 - Newport Classics Recorded at the Curtis Institute where Lipkin is on the piano and chamber music faculty. (He also teaches at Juilliard.) The cycle is available on CD as three sets of three discs or on one CD ROM as mp3 which comes with the complete score, as well. Availability:
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 | Craig Sheppard 2003 - 2004 - Romeo Records Availability:
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 | Idil Biret 1994 - 2005 - IBA This sonata cycle is part of a Beethoven Edition that launched Idil Biret's own label, Idil Biret Archive. It's practically (if not technically) a sub-label of Naxos, the company that has brought her from relative obscurity to becoming a household name. The Beethoven Edition will include not only the sonatas and concertos but also Liszt's Symphony transcriptions which are being re-released on CD for the first time since Biret took them down on LP for EMI in the mid-eighties. The whole thing is also available as one massive 20 CD box. Availability:
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  | Daniel Barenboim III 2005 - EMI (DVD) Live performances of the complete sonatas at the Staatsoper Unter der Linden in Berlin, paired with masterclasses. The soundtrack (as it were) has since been released on Decca, as part of their "Beethoven for All" series. Availability:
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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
* 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 5: 1996 - 1999
Part 7: 2006 - 2009
Ronald Brautigam Special
Part 8: 2010 - 2013
Part 9: 2014 - 2016
Part 10: 2017 - ____
If you have additional information about recording dates, availability, cover art -- or corrections and additions -- your input is much appreciated.
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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