The major news for collectors is this first official CD release of Artur Schnabel’s 1942 recordings of the Beethoven Op. 109 and Op. 111 Sonatas. Never approved by the artist, they neverheless were issued by RCA Victor in the mid-1970s. Granted, they’re besot with missed notes and snatched-at rhythms, yet Schnabel still generates concentrated tension in both sonatas’ mighty variation movements. Philips’ transfers improve tenfold upon the bygone LP. Less rare but arguably more important are the first and best of Schnabel’s three studio traversals of Beethoven’s Fouth Concerto, the familiar 1934 “Waldstein” Sonata, and the highly charged if not always tidy Diabelli Variations. The transfers here lack the registral differentiation, ringing overtones, and bloom disntinguishing Seth Winner’s for Pearl, but boast less surface noise. Too bad Philips missed a golden opportunity to license the Schnabel/Beethoven Op. 119 Bagatelles from EMI, which still await CD release. That would have made this set even more attractive.
