Passionato

I was ruminating on some of my favorite EMI recordings to recommend during our 25% off EMI sale this week, and there are so many to choose from, including what is still probably my favorite Beethoven triple concerto (conducted by Karajan with Oistrakh. Rostropovich, and Richter), the heart-tugging Elgar Cello Concerto played by Jacqueline du Pre, and the inevitable Elgar Violin Concerto by the maddeningly talented Nige. But my favorite EMI recordings of all, and the ones I turn back to most often, are the late Beethoven Piano Sonatas played by Artur Schnabel.

Some notes of warning here. These recordings are not for the faint of heart. The sound is monaural, and is pretty mediocre; you can hardly hear the soloist as he sings along. Saying his tempos are 'variable' is to be kind; he can put a pedal to the accelerando that can become comic at times. And last but not least, HE MAKES MISTAKES, which I'm assuming the engineers at EMI wanted in the recording.

But in return for this exposure of human flaws, you get Beethoven as I always imagined Beethoven would have played it himself. His crescendos are thunderous, his speed at times defies belief, yet his tender slow movements are achingly beautiful. His playing is truly manic depressive. You have to hear it to believe it; I won't belittle it with my further praise. Suffice to say that in Beethoven playing, I consider Kempff and Barenboim to be a very-acceptable-to-most-people medium rare, whereas Schnabel is what the French call ''bleu''. Try a couple of the samples we have that you can play for free; then if you like what you hear, with the sale discount, you can get 2 1/2 hours of glorious piano playing at a very good price.