John O’Connor: Beethoven – The Complete Piano Sonatas (9 CD box set, FLAC)

Performer: John O’Conor
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 9 CD box set
Format: FLAC (tracks+cue)
Label: Telarc
Size: 1.67 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

# Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor (“Pathétique”), Op. 13
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor (“Moonlight”), Op. 27/2
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor (“Appassionata”), Op. 57
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major (“Waldstein”), Op. 53
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor (“Tempest”), Op. 31/2
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major (“Les Adieux”), Op. 81a
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major (“Pastoral”), Op. 28
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 16 in G major, Op. 31/1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major (“Hunt”), Op. 31/3
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2/1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2/2
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2/3
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10/1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10/2
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10/3
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major (“Funeral March”), Op. 26
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14/1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14/2
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49/1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major, Op. 49/2
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major (“A Thérèse”), Op. 78
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 25 in G major (“Cuckoo”), Op. 79
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major (“Hammerklavier”), Op. 106
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major (“Grand Sonata”), Op. 7
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major, Op. 22
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

# Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat major (“Quasi una fantasia”), Op. 27/1
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
with John O’Conor

You won’t be sorry!

If you’re considering getting this box set of 9 CDs of Beethoven “The Complete Piano Sonatas,” perhaps I can help you make a decision by saying……do it! You won’t be sorry. There are three things I can say about this collection. 1.) Telarc – I first encountered Telarc CDs in the early nineties in a classical CD store. I had never heard of them before until then. I think it was a Bach “Organ Works” by Michael Murray. I was impressed and I continued to encounter Telarc CDs from time to time. I would say I have approximately 15 Telarcs in my collection and they’re all real nice. But this collection just stands out. Telarc goes to the trouble of telling the listener all kinds of details about the recording such as the type of mics used, how the signal was not passed through any transformers at any point in the recording process, no processing devices were used (compression, limiters, etc.), where and when the recording took place and the type of piano used and more. I don’t know about you, but being a musician, or even if you’re not, I like to read about this kind of stuff as I’m listeneing to the CD. I just do. The liner notes are great too. I’m currently reading a biography of Beethoven entitled “Beethoven: Biography Of A Genius” by George R. Marek. It’s wonderful. But the liner notes are nuggets of information about the sonatas that I’ve never read before. So that’s nice too. Even the total playing time for each CD is there. Telarc’s got it covered. 2.) John O’Conor – I first encountered John O’Conor about six years ago on some John Field CDs, also on Telarc. I had never heard of him and wondered “Who’s this John O’Conor?” The only O’Connor’s I knew used to live up the street from me. I was pleasantly suprized. I can’t get into details. You just have to hear for yourself. He’s a wonderful pianist. You can hear the humor in some of Beethoven’s sonatas. Sometimes you hear stress and heaviness as well as light-heartedness. It seems to jump out at the listener and I have a lot of these sonatas on individual CDs and vinyl as well and none of them have gotten my attention like that before. There’s more about John O’Conor in each of the CDs. 3.) Lastly, it’s the recordings themselves. Of course it’s digital, but I’ve never heard such super clean, quiet recordings like these before. Every little subtlety is there. Full-bodied, not thin sounding. Maybe I was just in a certain receptive state of mind upon hearing these, but they continue to please. Digital and analog both have their good points, especially if you play music. But these recordings seem to transcend. I feel like it’s Beethoven the way Beethoven was meant to be heard. Either way, I don’t think you can possibly be a loser by acquiring this box set. Even the paintings that grace the individual CDs are very nice and appealing to the eye. The box itself looks nice too on the shelf with the other CDs. Oh yeah…..did I mention that I like this box set?