Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven) - Prominent Recordings

Prominent Recordings

• In March 1927 Ignaz Friedman recorded the Emperor Concerto with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood but this recording no longer exists.
• Also in the 1920s, Wilhelm Backhaus recorded the 4th and 5th concertos very successfully.
• In the early 1930s Artur Schnabel recorded all five Beethoven concertos under Sir Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra.
• Arthur Rubinstein recorded it three times, with Josef Krips, Erich Leinsdorf, and Daniel Barenboim.
• Walter Gieseking and Artur Rother made a stereophonic tape recording in 1944, apparently the earliest surviving such recording, for German radio.
• Vladimir Horowitz recorded it in a 1952 live performance at Carnegie Hall with Fritz Reiner and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra.
• Wilhelm Kempff recorded it with Paul van Kempen in 1953 and with Ferdinand Leitner in 1961.
• Edwin Fischer recorded it with Karl Böhm in 1939 and Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1951.
• Rudolf Serkin created three recordings. He recorded it in 1962 with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, after having already recorded it in 1953 with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His final recording was with the Boston Symphony recorded in January 1981 with Seiji Ozawa conducting.
• Bernstein recorded a live performance of the concerto in the late 1980s, shortly before his death, with Krystian Zimerman as soloist. The orchestra was the Vienna Philharmonic. The Zimerman performance was also filmed and released on DVD.
• Leon Fleisher recorded all the Beethoven piano concertos with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra from 1959 until 1961.
• Claudio Arrau recorded it four times: with Alceo Galliera in 1958, Bernard Haitink in 1964 and twice with Sir Colin Davis, first with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and later with the Staatskapelle Dresden.
• Glenn Gould recorded this concerto with Leopold Stokowski (the only recording the two ever made together) using somewhat non-traditional phrasings and tempi, as was typical of Gould's interpretations.
• Alfred Brendel recorded all Beethoven's piano concertos at least three times over his career.
• Paul Lewis recorded all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jiří Bělohlávek.
• Murray Perahia recorded all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with conductor Bernard Haitink, 1988.