Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat; Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat / Debussy: Images - Hommage à

For Beethoven, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's outsized dynamics, overwrought articulation, and plain old-fashioned breaking of hands at lyrical moments frequently transform the music's red-blooded lyricism and brio into statuesque, sonatalike replicas preserved in formaldehyde. At least the Op. 7 Sonata's great slow movement proceeds with more paragraphic fluidity in this live 1982 performance than in the pianist's DG studio version. When it came to Debussy and Ravel, however, Michelangeli was a genius. His 1959 BBC Gaspard de la Nuit belongs in every serious piano collection. Michelangeli plays the daunting opus absolutely straight, orchestrating the sonorities, the tricky balances, and dynamics with awesome technical finesse and masterly control of color and nuance. And Debussy's Hommage à Rameau bears a similar stamp of authority to the pianist's studio recording, without the supple magic of his 1957 live traversal on Testament (also from Royal Festival Hall). Get this for the Ravel. --Jed Distler