List Best Late Classical/Early Romantic Solo Piano Recordings stereoooooooo

[mn dave]

Open to your interpretation of what Late Classical/Early Romantic means.

[Todd]

How many suggestions you looking for?  I can think of more than one or two.

[mn dave]

How many suggestions you looking for?  I can think of more than one or two.

Bazillions.

[bwv 1080]

These are probably my top two

[Todd]

Assuming that Wilhelm Kempff's Schubert recordings are in your collection - and if they are not, they should be - I will start with some Schubert and one enjoyable Weber set.  It is my understanding that there are some good Beethoven recordings out there, as well.  I will have to look into that.

[mn dave]

Assuming that Wilhelm Kempff's Schubert recordings are in your collection - and if they are not, they should be - .

They are indeed. Excellent stuff.

It is my understanding that there are some good Beethoven recordings out there, as well.  I will have to look into that.

Who???

[Brian]

My list is HIP!

[asin]B002ZVM4V0[/asin]

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(Fun Amazon review: "if I were permitted to take only one recording of the three sonatas to a Tea Party Forced Labor Camp in West Texas, it would be this performance by Penelope Crawford." But you know, I agree...I think.)

[asin]B0096HNE42[/asin]
(Amazon is wrong, this is a hybrid disc, using a piano similar to Crawford's)

If you like late Haydn and Beethoven's really early sonatas, please do consider this HIPster treat:

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I'd also like to second all recommendations of Lupu, Endres, and Schuch.

[North Star]

+1 to Lubimov & Crawford (I'm listening to the latter now, and was already before I read this thread)

More Schubert:

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[asin]B0000B09YZ[/asin]
[asin]B0017TZ90E[/asin]

[DavidW]

Lupu Schubert

[Brahmsian]

These are pretty good:   

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[asin]B000066CQP[/asin]

[Mandryka]

Vorisek sonata, Demidenko
Chopin Sonata 3 - Pletnev
Mendelssohn Songs without Words, Grinburg
Schubert D960 - Afanassiev (ECM)
Beethoven Diabelli Variations  (Kovacevich - either of the recent recordings, preferably the live, not the Philips)
Schumann, Op 11 sonata, Elisso Virssaladze
Liszt sonata, Ernst Levy (I think it's stereo)
Berlioz/Liszt Symphonie Fantastique, Roger Muraro
Beethoven/Liszt, Idil Biret
Schubert/Liszt, Simone Pedroni

[North Star]

Are we including Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt, too?

[Mandryka]

Are we including Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt, too?

You think they're too late for early romantic do you?

[North Star]

You think they're too late for early romanic do you?

Well not necessarily, but they're certainly not of the transitional period, which is what I thought Dave meant. But, seeing that he wrote this, I suppose we can include Alkan too.

Open to your interpretation of what Late Classical/Early Romantic means.

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[bwv 1080]

[PaulSC]

Hummel:

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[asin]B0000CE0YX[/asin]

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Lupu Schubert

Yes.

[Ken B]

Ok, I will prove my fearlessness.

Brendel Schubert, the bestest Schubert I have heard.
Do your worst! 

[Moonfish]

Ok, I will prove my fearlessness.

Brendel Schubert, the bestest Schubert I have heard.
Do your worst! 

Hmm, I tend to prefer Richter when I listen to the Schubert sonatas...       
I keep bouncing back to the two cds (#4 and 5) in this collection:

[asin] B0002E4ABY[/asin]

[San Antone]

Early Romanticism : the solo piano music of John Field and others

The characteristic texture is that of a chromatically decorated melody over sonorous left hand parts supported by sensitive pedaling. Field also had an affinity for ostinato patterns and pedal points, rather unusual for the prevailing styles of the day. Entirely representative of these traits are Field's eighteen nocturnes and associated pieces such as Andante inedit, H 64. These works were some of the most influential music of the early Romantic period: they do not adhere to a strict formal scheme (such as the sonata form), and they create a mood without text or program. These pieces were admired by Frédéric Chopin, who subsequently made the piano nocturne famous, and Franz Liszt, who published an edition of the nocturnes based on rare Russian sources that incorporated late revisions by Field.

Along with Field two other composers deserve to be mentioned, Jan Latislav Dussek and Václav Tomášek.

Dussek wrote numerous solo piano works, including 34 Piano Sonatas as well as a number of programmatic compositions. His The Sufferings of the Queen of France (composed in 1793, C 98), for example, is an episodic account of Marie Antoinette with interpolated texts relating to the Queen's misfortunes, including her sorrow at being separated from her children and her final moments on the scaffold before the guillotine.

Tomášek wrote a good deal for the piano and became a forerunner of the lyric piano piece which later reached its apogee in the works of Schubert and Chopin. At first he remained loyal to the Classical style, but later was influenced by the newly born Romanticism.  He created a form which he called ecologues, which were almost stream of consciousness piano solos.  He also wrote rhapsodies and dithyrambs.