Almost without exception, these performances by pianist Wilhelm Kempff, violinist Henryk Szeryng, and cellist Pierre Fournier are the most magnificent, the most magisterial, the most monumental, and the most fun of any ever recorded of Beethoven's piano trios. Separately, Kempff, Szeryng, and Fournier were among the best Beethoven players of the middle years of the twentieth century, and together they play like old friends whose affection for each other and the music has only grown deeper over the years. And, of course, the amazing thing is that these were, for the most part, ad hoc performances, performances done in the studio for Deutsche Grammophon's 1970 Beethoven edition but performances that have withstood the test of time so well that DG reissued them for its 1997 Beethoven edition. From their emotionally extravagant Op. 1 trios through the superlatively balanced Op. 70 trios to their final grand and sublime Op. 97 trio, Kempff, Szeryng, and Fournier's performances are superb. And while one might quibble with the inclusion of the Beaux Arts Trio's stolid performance of Beethoven's arrangement of his septet, no one would quibble with the exquisite performance of Beethoven's arrangement of his Symphony No. 2 by Besch, Brandis, and Boettcher. And the inclusion of every work Beethoven wrote for piano trio only increases the set's value.

This review is from: Paul Van Kempen Conducts Beethoven 3 7 8 Symphonies -Berlin Philharmonic (2 CDs) (Philips) (Audio CD)
The admirable directorial talent of Paul van Kempen still remains in the most absolute mystery. His fame as well as Victor de Sabata was not major just because they were a sort of gypsies conductors, without a fixed Orchestra, they were true wanderers, conducting here and there and being recognized from time to time.
In the particular case of Van Kempen, the main feature was his astonishing ability to transform the sound enriching of clever features I had the opportunity to get (thanks to the infinite kindness of a friend) a live performance with the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam around Brahms Fourth Symphony, twelve years ago and believe me this is the most incandescent and mercurial version I have ever heard.
This set reveals with undeniable veracity, the masterful conduction and accurate phrasing around Beethoven that has nothing to do with previous conductors. Imagination, mercurial breadth and flaming approach are among others, remarkable factors to take into account respect this distinguished director.
Pitifully, this notable director has not received the deserved support through his countless apparitions with this Dutch orchestra. My fervent hope is that someday the priceless files of the Concertgebouw decide definitively to release once for all the enormous amount of treasures that must remain nestled and forgotten; because to my mind this would be the expected chance the people around the world knew more about this neglected genius of the baton

过去现在以及将来，贝多芬带来的音乐，常使人迷惑究竟是尘世间曾诞生过一位神，抑或是一位神曾光顾了人间，究竟是何等的才华，才能使最伟大的交响乐，协奏曲，和室内乐，能如此完美的结合于一身；又究竟是何等的恩赐，带给后代的艺术家们亲自体验经典重现的机会。无须再去费心设想如果没有贝多芬和贝多芬的音乐，人间将会失去多少的感动与欢乐，此刻的我们所应完成的，是在巨星逝去的一百八十年后，在那仍璀灿无比的光辉之下，静静聆听。

L’adolescent, l’homme, le dieu” was Liszt’s description of Beethoven’s successive stages of development so patent in the 32 piano sonatas completed between 1795 and 1822, a series as remarkable for the composer’s constant quest for variety of pattern within the traditional sonata mould as his response to the challenge of the piano itself in crucial days of the instrument’s development in strength, compass and colour.
The Grande Sonate Pathetique, as its publisher first issued it, dates from 1798/99. Never before had Beethoven extracted more drama from C minor, always his most fateful key, than in the turbulent opening movement starting with an imposing Grave introduction twice recalled in the course of the sonata-form argument(like Clementi and Dussek he had already tried out a similar device in a sonata written at eleven). It is no surprise to learn from letters that already in the later 1790s he was secretly tormented by early symptoms of deafness. Assuagement comes in the idyllic, recurrent song melody of the Adagio cantabile in A flat, though tension mounts in two contrasting episodes. The finale is an urgent sonata-rondo back in the home key of C minor.
Composed in 1801, during an ill-starred romance with its youthful dedicatee, the Countess Giuleatta Guicciardi, the C sharp minor Sonata testifies to Beethoven”s tireless pursuit of formal adventure: like its predecessor in E flat it carries the subtitle “quasi una fantasia”. His boldest stroke was in opening with an Adagio sostenuto, music sufficiently hypnotic in its calm to remind the poet-critic Rellstab of moonlight on Lake Lucerne- hence the nickname appended after Beethoven’s death. For the Alegretto, a gracious old-style minuet and trio following without sharp break, Beethoven slips enharmonically into D flat major. The finale in the home key is a passionately disturbed Presto agitato in sonata form.
Following hard on the heels of the “Moonlight” in the same year of 1801, the D major Sonata reverts to a traditional four-movement sequence. The nickname “Pastoral” came frome the publisher Cranz. But the music exudes enough of the relaxationg and simple joy Beethoven always found in the country(openly confessed in the Sixth Symphony) to make it easy to believe Czerny’s contention that the sonata was one of the composer’s favourites. Repeated low Ds, like a rustic drone, support the opening tune of the sonata-form Allegro. The lilting main theme of the sonata-rondo finale, again with a drone-like accompaniment, is still more redolent of the village green. Though the D minor-major Andante, with its regular, march-like tread, is tinged with regret, the Scherzo is one of the composer’s most playful.
Beethoven was in his 40th year when composing the F sharp major Sonata in 1809, after four years away from the genre; in total contrast to its stormy F minor predecessor, the “Appassionata”, this gracious work in only two movements was dedicated to the Countess Therese von Brunsvik, who though no longer accepted as his legendary “immortal beloved”, was one of the few closest to his heart whose character approached his own exalted ideals of womanhood. With the unpredictability of genius Beethoven rejects heart-searching, after only the briefest Adagio cantabile introduction, to write a radiantly lyrical Allegro non troppo in concisely expressed sonata form. In the scherzando-like concluding Allegro vivace, also in(for him) the unusual key of F sharp major, he springs constant surprises of tonality, register and dynamics.

阿本德洛特1949-1956录音
阿本德洛特(Hermann Abendroth)，德国指挥家。1883年 1月19日生于美因河畔法兰克福，1956年 5月29日卒于耶拿。
曾从L.图伊莱学习理论。
1903～1904年任慕尼黑管弦乐团指挥。
1905～1911年任吕贝克市歌剧院指挥。
1911年在埃森任指挥。后去科隆，同时在伦敦及其他欧洲城市担任客席指挥，确立了国际声誉.。
1915年起任科隆音乐学院院长。
1922年莱茵河音乐节上担任指挥。
1934～1942年继瓦尔特之后任莱比锡布店大厦（格万特豪斯）管弦乐团首席指挥。
1947年任魏玛音乐学校校长。
1949年任莱比锡广播电台音乐指导。
1951年他举办了布拉格春天国际音乐节。
阿本德洛特二战后留在东德，并且成为战后第一位获苏联政府之邀请在莫斯科亮相的德国指挥。他以擅长指挥德国古典音乐而著称，他的指挥特点是忠实于总谱、严谨而热情。

貝多芬一生總共寫了七首鋼琴三重奏，本集收錄其中的兩首，包含第三號，作品1-3，以及第5號，作品70-1「幽靈」。本輯中兩首作品，分別錄製於1958與61年，分別於德國波昂的貝多芬故居，以及卡薩爾斯親手創立普拉德音樂節錄製。當時卡薩爾斯已近85高齡，但其藝術性與技巧性依舊令人折服，並與霍佐夫斯基、聖多．維及殷格爾等好友，共同營造親密的音樂氛圍，樹立室內樂演奏的最高標準以及鑑賞的最高境界。儘管是五十多年前的錄音，如今聽來依舊令人動容。

Ludwig van Beethoven - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.3 C Minor op.37
1. Allegro con brio
2. largo
3. Rondo (Allegro)
Jean Sibelius - Symphony No.5 E-Flat Major op.82
4. Tempo molto moderato - Largamamente - Allegro moderato
5. Andante mosso
6. Allegro molto

So good that one could only wish it were better, János Ferencsik and the Hungarian State Orchestra's cycle of the complete symphonies of Beethoven just misses greatness. Little known in western Europe and nearly unknown in the United States, Ferencsik was the only member of the great generation of Hungarian conductors born around the turn of the twentieth century -- Szell, Reiner, Solti, Ormandy, Dorati -- who declined to leave his native country despite successive dictatorships by Fascists and Communists but stayed and rose to prominence in postwar Hungary. However, though an ardent Hungarian, Ferencsik was also a fervent believer in the Austro-Germanic symphonic tradition, and he regarded Beethoven's symphonies as the highest manifestation of that tradition. In these recordings made in stereo between 1969 and 1976, this combination resulted in performances that are both highly individualistic yet steeped in tradition. As soloists, the woodwinds are wonderfully characterful: check out closing pages of the Sixth's Andante molto mosso. As a body, the brass are smoothly muscular: check out the opening of the Fifth's Finale. As an ensemble, the strings are suave but strong: check out the whole of the Ninth's Adagio. And all by himself the timpanist is enough to shatter the firmament: check out the start of the Ninth's Scherzo. Ferencsik masterfully pulls all these individuals together, and these performances are consistently tight and propulsive. Unfortunately, Ferencsik's interpretations do not always rise to the level of the music, which is, after all the highest manifestation of the Austro-Germanic tradition. His lighter symphonies are lyrical but perhaps too straightforward, while his heavier symphonies are dramatic but possibly too hard pressed, and the resulting performances are convincing but not compelling. Hungaroton's stereo sound is rich, deep, and lush, but the soloists have an odd added reverb around their voices in the Ninth's Finale, which is quite disconcerting.