PETRI PLAYS BEETHOVEN AND BUSONI

Egon Petri plays Beethoven in a number of outstanding performances of the piano sonatas including the very popular Pathétique, Moonlight, Appassionata, and Les Adieux sonatas as well as the Hammerklavier and the last three of Beethoven's extraordinary works in the genre. Ten of the thirty-two great sonatas which to my way of thinking represent the essence and evolution of Beethoven's creative greatness are offered here.  Needless to say, Petri plays Beethoven as superbly as he did everything he touched.

His dedication to Busoni is very much apparent in the many of the latter's transcriptions of pieces by Bach.  Among the original works by Busoni is a definitive performance of the Fantasia Contrappuntistica, a colossal summation of the composers respect for the past and his vision for the future.

But it may be that a number of these works are not all that familiar to some, and many do not display to my satisfaction the genius that is Petri.  Of the selection available on this page, it is the way Petri plays Beethoven that fully demonstrates the supreme mastery of his art.

Bach-Petri  "Sheep may safely graze" BWV 208 and "I step before thy throne" BWV 668

recorded in 1958