The sound for Piatigorsky and Solomon's 1954 Beethoven sonata recordings is more focused and better defined than ever before. You can hear all sorts of coloristic nuances and dynamic shading that were masked on LP, such as the pianist's haunting, almost disembodied trills in the Fifth sonata's slow movement. Such revelations add substance and spiritual weight to the protagonists' suave, Apollonian decorum. Both players dovetail each other and melt into each other's sonorities with a kind of elegant nonchalance that contrasts to the more overtly dramatic Rostropovich/Richter or Fournier/Schnabel traversals. On the other hand, Piatigorsky and Rubinstein bring more spontaneity and freedom to their 1936 Brahms E minor sonata than their stricter RCA remake from 30 years later. Testament's transfer filters out some of the roughage retained in RCA's unvarnished yet brighter remastering for the Complete Rubinstein Edition. Lastly, the Weber selections sing out with controlled generosity of tone, putting an eloquent cap on a valuable reissue. [9/29/1999]

--Jed Distler