Beethoven’s Complete Piano Concerti

I’ve never been a Nikolaus Harnoncourt fan. I can’t say entirely why, though I’ve long claimed that it’s a matter of respecting and admiring his work rather than enjoying it. (It might be an instance of irrational prejudice, but I’ve got so many of those already, I’m hoping that’s not the case.)

I am, however, a (fairly recent) fan of pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, thanks in large part to my recent brush with Pianomania. And I’ve always been a fan of listening to a composer’s entire “genre” — like the complete piano sonatas, or violin concerti, or symphonies — performed by a single group of musicians. It emphasizes a lot of the musical similarities that way, while avoiding some of the sometimes-distracting differences that can be built into multiple performers. I like the homogeneity, because it helps me to establish a musical “baseline.”

So, I LOVE this. You’re welcome. (Like most long-form YouTube classical videos, it will probably not last forever. Especially not if Teldec or Warner are pro-active on that front. So enjoy it while you can. And go here.)

Also, just in case you missed that long-form clip of Furtwangler’s complete Beethoven symphonies, HOLY COW! The InterWebs can be an amazing place, can’t they?