A Beethoven bargain

In the decade between, roughly, 1993 and 2003, the American pianist Stephen Kovacevich (born 1940) recorded all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas, and a pricey boxed set was issued shortly after the completion of the series.  Now, more than a dozen years later, that set has been re-issued as a Warner Classics bargain box at an unbelievably low price, especially considering the quality of the performances.  I bought some of the individual issues as they came out, and the recording quality was somewhat variable -- at times excellent, at times a bit "boomy" -- but never less than acceptable, at least to my ears.  This latest re-issue does not seem to have been the result of a re-mastering, but at the price, one can hardly complain.  It isn't as "bare-bones" a production as some of the recent Sony/RCA boxes, for it does contain an informational booklet and the discs are in sleeves that carry the "original cover art" (pictured above is the original cover of one of the original issues). All this is to say that, if you're into the Beethoven sonatas, you should get this.  I'm not saying it's better than anything else, but it's right up there with Brendel, Arrau, Serkin,and Pollini, to name the pianists whose companies have issued recent sets, and it's in better sound than some of these. Back in the 1970's, Kovacevich recorded for Philips, and a couple or so years ago all of his Philips recordings were re-issued in a very handsome Decca box. That box includes all the concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, and Bartok, as well as some of Mozart's, and of course, there's the solo work and some chamber pieces. This box is a great bargain too, though much bigger and a bit pricier than the Warner one.  Piano fans should scoop up both.