Beethoven: Piano Sonatas in A Flat Op 110; in C minor Op 111; in F Minor Op 57 (Appassionata)

Which Claudio Arrau do you like best: The young virtuoso? The elder statesman of the recording studio, whose grave, sometimes ponderous persona obliterated his younger self? Or the mature master who continued to let his hair down in concert in ways he denied himself in the studio? This Swedish concert recording from 1960 will surely come as surprise to anyone who only knows the great man's Beethoven from the studio recordings he made for Philips. It's not that the playing doesn't have Arrau's trademark thoughtfulness. But there's a fluidity of movement, and sometimes a kind of determined fire that, however carefully moulded the style, can make the heart race. This is very much the live end of live music-making. url.ie/e6sy