P0773. WILHELM BACKHAUS: Pastoral Sonata #15 in D, Op.28; Sonata #18 in E-flat, Op.31, #3; Waldstein Sonata, #21 in C, Op. 53; Sonata #30 in E, Op.109 (all Beethoven). (Germany) 2-Audite 23.420, Live Performance, 18 April, 1969, Berlin. Specially priced. - 4022143234209

CRITIC REVIEWS: “More remarkable historic releases come in some two-CD sets from the label Audite, well-known for its superb remastering of original tapes from German broadcast companies (especially RIAS Berlin). On 18 April, 1969, the pianist Wilhelm Backhaus came to Berlin to play Beethoven at the Philharmonie. Backhaus was always admired as one of the finest interpreters of Beethoven’s music, and it is moving to hear the great old man in the Sonatas Nos. 15, 18, 21 and 30. A few months later Backhaus died, aged 85. His sense of the essential in this music, his awareness of its structure and spiritual depth, opens the ears of the listener. All the technical aspects of piano playing are subservient to the musical expression. These are really memorable recordings.”

-Norbert Hornig, CLASSICAL RECORDINGS QUARTERLY, Autumn, 2010

“Even as a young man Wilhelm Backhaus was the epitome of a pianist who focused on performing a work as objectively as possible. With this aim, he proved a strong influence on the succeeding generation of pianists and constituted the opposite pole to Wilhelm Kempff’s playing. Backhaus’ domain was the classic-romantic repertoire from Bach to Brahms with Beethoven at the centre. During his long career on the concert platform, which lasted for over 70 years, Backhaus intensively explored the piano sonatas of Beethoven with remarkable technical reliability and a profound mastery of musical substance. This live recording of a concert – featuring four major sonatas, including the Waldstein Sonata, Op. 53, and the Sonata in E major, Op. 109 – given in Berlin during the last year of Backhaus’ life (1969) - once more demonstrates the merits of Backhaus’ clear and, in the most positive sense of the word, classicist interpretational approach: like almost no other pianist, he knew how to illustrate the content and architecture of this music without sacrificing the detail – but also without losing himself within it.”