Recommendation - Complete Beethoven Sonatas

many of the above are impeccable -- especially Brendel (probably first choice) and Arrau (if you like Beethoven more as Liszt's predecessor than as Hayden's successor). But I also really like Ashkenazy. He gets such fabulously muscular yet purling tone out of the keyboard, and plays with such control and command, always thinking through the piece fully. The op. 2 sonatas are sparkling and idiomatic, and the great lates are as ethereal and strage as you could want. I'm not sure why his cycle isn't better loved than it is. Perhaps he's just assumed to be a Rachmoninov guy, and his classical era stuff is consequently overlooked. Certianly his playing on the Beethoven violin and piano sonatas is superb. On the other hand, his Mozart is a bit clunky, and his Schubert is no match for Brendel's, though no one else's is either,'cept maybe Perhia.

RNM

The Claudio Arrau complete sonatas on Philips are certainly deserving of consideration here. Yes, they are currently available, but you have to get them in a big boxed set which includes the major piano variations, the five piano concertos, and the triple concerto.

Mixed review of Schnabel's? The only thing you could quibble with would be the sound quality. If you get the Pearl set, the piano tone is rather well preserved along with all the hiss =)

Performance wise, Schnabel's set stands head and shoulder above everything else available. Supplement judiciously with some Gilels on DG and Stephen Kovacevich on Philips.

I would agree with Gileon. The Schnabel set doesn't have the best "sound", but the performances are transcendental. I can't think of a better set... and the late sonatas are the best... period.

The Beethoven Piano Sonatas are so complex, that almost any fine pianist is likely to find something interesting to "say," but, I agree with those who think very highly of Kempff. His performances are magesterial.