Most achingly-beautiful music

This is Beethoven at his peak. What a stroke of genius! The achingly beautiful spun-from-gold melody.... the dynamic build... the majesty and nobility... the first piano notes falling like a light misty rain over the orchestra.

For me-- the single greatest stretch of music of any kind ever penned. In the right hands, that is--- it's easy to rush it and ruin the thing entirely.

As for an aria-- the most beautiful sung thing I've ever heard is Beverly Sills' performance of 'Ruhe zanft... mein holdes leben' from Mozart's Zaide.
My god-- what incredible legato and breath. The voice is diamond-bright and radiant. Unearthly beautiful. Superhuman.

Sorry -- forgot to say it's the second movement of the Emperor-- piano concerto no. 5!!

Abramsmatch,

Can you recommend a version of this piece? There are so many!

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Dseid,
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I second the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto (The Emporer). It is just heavenly.
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Try Artur Rubenstein playing on CD RCA # 61260 (also available also on LP) with Josef Krips conducting the Symphony on Air. Rubenstein also recorded the 5th another time with Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony ( (CD RCA # 5676).
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There is a version with Ashkenazy playing ( on CD) that is wonderful, but I don’t recall the Label..
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Rgds.
Larry
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If it's Ashkenazy, it's likely the London/Decca label. You're right, that is a beautiful piece.