Beethoven: Piano Concertos

Beethoven’s piano concertos have never sounded better than they do in this historic collaboration between two world-class artists. Hungarian conductor Sir Georg Solti illuminates the powerful-but-delicate substance of these works; in the *Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor*, the composer evokes the stormy tumult of Beethoven’s middle period. Ashkenazy’s performances alternate between furiously aggressive and unabashedly tender, and their rendition of the *Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major*, otherwise known as the *Emperor*, is stately and masterful. His playing on its centerpiece, the Adagio un poco mosso, borders on the divine.