Most of the 20 volumes in DG’s mammoth Beethoven Edition face wide and direct competition from other boxed sets, but this volume, containing Beethoven’s complete works for keyboard apart from the 32 piano sonatas, inhabits its own niche. It is in many ways a collector’s dream, tidying up miscellaneous loose ends. The pieces range from the towering greatness of the Diabelli Variations to the numerous relatively trivial sets of variations from Beethoven’s youth, encompassing familiar works such as the Eroica Variations and the Bagatelles as well as many that are less well known.
The set contains a mixture of old and new recordings. Those made especially for this release have been undertaken by Mikhail Pletnev and Gianluca Cascioli, and they are comfortably the busiest pianists, contributing approximately two discs’ worth each. Of the reissued recordings, Gilels’s classic Eroica Variations are happily included, as are Barenboim’s less wholly successful Diabelli Variations. Being a ‘complete’ edition, there are also some oddities, including two two-part canons, five pieces for mechanical clock (played here on the organ), and the rarely heard piano-duet version of the Grosse Fuge, an appropriately daunting musical and technical tour de force.
Beginning, then, with the newly recorded material, Pletnev and Cascioli offer some of the most rewarding playing of the set. Disc 1 gives us the three sets of Bagatelles, Opp. 33, 119 and 126, of which Pletnev plays the first two. His manner is cool and precise, always neatly proportioned and crisply articulated (try the Fifth and Seventh Bagatelles from Op. 33 as examples of his spirited playfulness, the Seventh offering an illustration of his control of tone and pedalling). It is a pity that he wasn’t asked or persuaded to record Op. 126 as well; instead DG have reused Anatol Ugorski’s rather enigmatic recording which is not entirely satisfactory.
Cascioli’s two debut discs for DG (7/97) signalled a promising talent, a thoughtful and lucid pianist in the Pollini mould. Here he has accepted the task of recording the host of lesser-known and unpublished works that give the edition its completeness. Some of these works are trivia one may wish to hear only once, but it’s good to have them. Cascioli is scrupulous in his attention to detail and has an attractive tone, although he never approaches sentimentality. Like Pletnev, his articulation is clean and exact, although he utilizes a fuller dynamic range, allowing himself a bolder forte. His performance of the extraordinary G minor Fantasie, Op. 77, conveying its strangely episodic and improvisatory character, is totally convincing and persuasive. He copes admirably with the multitude of rarities, portraying an absolute dedication and commitment even to the slightest pieces which Beethoven wrote as distractions from larger, more serious projects. Both Pletnev and Cascioli are given excellent recorded sound, DG’s typically forward, almost analytical perspective suiting their playing.
Of the remaining items, there is space to summarize only selectively. Barenboim’s Diabelli Variations have a disc to themselves; this is not a recording for a desert island – other pianists have more successfully extracted the sheer wealth of moods and emotions, from the deep inner intensity to the humour and parody – but it does have a seriousness and integrity that is always involving, even if it doesn’t quite leave you in a daze of wonderment. Gilels’s magisterial Eroica Variations are self-recommending; unfortunately Olli Mustonen’s severe and percussive approach to four sets of Variations (including those on God Save the King and Rule Britannia) is less enjoyable. Mustonen’s lack of natural phrasing (in sharp contrast to the innate stylishness of Pletnev and Cascioli), with strange and unexpected accents, gives no shape to the music, and his brittle ping-pong sound soon becomes wearing. It seems a pity that DG chose to ‘borrow’ this material from Decca rather than give it to the far more sensitive Cascioli.
So, in summary, this volume, of all those of the enterprise, is perhaps the most collector-friendly. With relatively few exceptions (and with such a disparate set some unevenness is inevitable) the playing is excellent throughout. Additional recordings will be complemented rather than replaced by this set, and for some works (the Diabellis, for example) alternative recordings are always desirable. DG’s presentation, with a detailed booklet-essay by Barry Cooper, is beyond reproach, and the recordings, while obviously variable, are mostly very good. Highly recommended.'