Extended Information

By the mid-1960s, the 80-year-old Otto Klemperer, greatest of all living Beethoven conductors, had recorded the nine symphonies, the Violin Concerto, Fidelio and the Missa solemnis, but not the piano concertos, which he had performed with legendary figures, including Schnabel, Arrau, Edwin Fischer and Wilhelm Backhaus. In 1967 he recorded Mozarts Concerto K503 with the twenty-four-year-old Daniel Barenboim, the prodigiously talented pianist and conductor, whose EMI recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas were already taking the world by the ears. There was an immediate rapport between the two musicians, out of which came a set of the Beethoven concertos like no other the gramophone had yet given us. The sessions in the autumn of 1967 were scheduled to cover only the first three concertos, yet such were their success that all involved went on to record, with the same sense of spontaneity and discovery, not only the remaining two concertos but also the Choral Fantasia, here at last afforded its true place and stature on record. Disc 1:
Piano Concerto No.1 in C Op.15 (Cadenza by Barenboim) (2006 Digital Remaster)
1 I. Allegro con brio (2006 Digital Remaster) 16:17
2 II. Largo (2006 Digital Remaster) 13:13
3 III. Rondo (Allegro scherzando) (2006 Digital Remaster) 9:21

Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat Op. 19 (2006 Digital Remaster)
4 I. Allegro con brio (2006 Digital Remaster) 14:39
5 II. Adagio (2006 Digital Remaster) 9:43
6 III. Rondo (Molto allegro) (2006 Digital Remaster) 6:80

Disc 2:
Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor Op.37 (2006 Digital Remaster)
1 I. Allegro con brio (2006 Digital Remaster) 18:53
2 II. Largo (2006 Digital Remaster) 10:57
3 III. Rondo (Allegro) (2006 Digital Remaster) 9:49

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Op. 58 (2006 Digital Remaster)
4 I. Allegro moderato (2006 Digital Remaster) 20:52
5 II. Andante con moto (2006 Digital Remaster) 5:46
6 III. Rondo (Vivace) (2006 Digital Remaster) 11:60

Disc 3:
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in E flat, 'Emperor' Op. 73 (2006 Digital Remaster)
1 Allegro (2006 Digital Remaster) 22:55
2 Adagio un poco mosso (2006 Digital Remaster) 8:59
3 Rondo (Allegro) (2006 Digital Remaster) 11:60

4 Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra Op. 80 (2006 Digital Remaster) 21:60