Wilhelm Backhaus - Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas (10CD) (1986)

10 CD box set celebrating the work of the German Beethoven-pianist of international renown, Wilhelm Backhaus. It contains all of his concert recordings, the most popular sonatas and waltz-variations.

Wilhelm Backhaus (1884 - 1969) was internationally recognized and celebrated as an outstanding authority for classical-romantic piano music. Just how well deserved this admiration is, can especially be heard in the Beethoven-concerts and the Diabelli-variations, which are included in this 10-CD-Box and regarded as "trend setting" by critics until today. Early on, Backhaus had become a German pianist of world renown. As a sixteen-year-old he gave his first concert in London.

In 1905 he won the coveted Anton Rubinstein Prize in Paris, pitted against Klemperer and Bartok. His US debut in 1912 was followed by tours across South America and Australia. Twenty-eight years later, he returned to New York, a period which is also impressively documented in this CD collection.

As an interesting "encore" for collectors, there are also examples of rolls that Backhaus had recorded in the 1920s for use in player pianos, which were often preferred to the gramophone back then because of their superior sound quality.