 | Beethoven: Die Späten Klaviersonaten
Buy new: $23.98 / Used from: $13.23 Ultimately, Pollini's masterful recordings of Beethoven's late piano sonatas deserve their legendary status. Beethoven's late period was inaugurated by No. 28, opus 101. My personal favorites are the formidable Nos. 29, 31, and 32. While other sets could be mentioned, I will remain committed to this one in particular.
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 | Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello & Piano
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $26.24 Cello sonatas 4 and 5 come within his late works, but as a bonus all recordings of Beethoven's cello works are issued as a complete set. The 4th is amazing, and Frenchman Fournier is an incomparable cellist. Gulda is a well-paced partner, and the result is beautiful. The cerebral nature of these works is celebrated here in full form.
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 | Beethoven: The Music for Cello and Piano
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $13.58 Again, Fournier is the feature. I am not a huge fan of Kempff's Beethoven, but here it is a good mix. You would be fine with either set.
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 | Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $7.58 Beethoven's 33 Variations on a simplistic tune are amazingly varied, and again I have to stay with Pollini's interpretation. His critics call him unemotional, but his precision playing brings up a depth of emotion that just isn't in some other versions.
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 | Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Buy new: $11.98 / Used from: $6.99 A fresh and humane appeal resounds throughout this recording, which gets much of the fun of these pieces that Pollini's precision does miss.
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 | Missa Solemnis in D major, op.123 by L.V. Beethoven
Buy used from: $34.99 A perfect standard instrumentation approach by Klemperer that gets the perfect mix of religious solemnity in the concert hall. Highly recommended!
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 | Beethoven - Missa Solemnis / Margiono Robbin Kendall Miles (Archiv)
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $3.90 Beethoven's Missa Solemnis hardly needs my commentary, especially this seminal period instrument recording led by Gardiner. Normally, I don't appreciate the period instrument approach, but my exceptions have to be this and Rene Jacobs' renditions of Mozart's operas.
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 | Beethoven: Symphonies 6, 8 & 9; Carlo Maria Giulini; London Symphony Orchestra by Robert Tear
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $4.99 My personal favorite among the interpretations of the ninth, but only barely, is Giulini's underappreciated recording. It follows more of the traditional approach, but I think that is a better introduction to this music before going into the more radical versions.
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 | Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $5.40 Karajan's Ninth is perhaps the most exciting rendition of this masterpiece. Forceful and swift, it is easy to see why this recording is so popular.
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 | Beethoven: Symphonie No. 9; Overture "Egmont"
Buy new: $31.99 / Used from: $13.35 Fricsay is a magnificient conducter, and I had to put in his very 'free-speaking' Ninth, which allows Beethoven's notes to shine through without so much personality enforced on it by the conducter. For all the beauty of Furtwangler, he often makes Beethoven too overtly romanticised.
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 | Beethoven - Symphony no. 9 'Choral' / Furtwängler, Schwarzkopf, Höngen, Hopf, Edelmann (Great Recordings of The Century)
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $4.54 Furtwangler is a titan among Beethoven symphony recordings, and this revered Bayreuth version is a wonderful choice for the most joyful exclamation of the "Ode to Joy."
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 | Furtwangler Conducts Beethoven - Beethoven: symphonies no 3,4,5, & 9, Leonore
Buy new: $45.98 / Used from: $26.50 This is probably Furtwangler's most powerful and dramatic recording of the Ninth. It was done during World War II, and the frightening first movement captures a lot of that emotion. The other recordings are fine as well.
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 | Beethoven: The Late String Quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven
Buy new: $45.99 / Used from: $28.64 These relatively new recordings are a revelation to such a densely recorded medium: Beethoven's Late String Quartets. The Takacs bring out many aspects of this music, and they most successfully capture the feeling each of us has when playing the string quartets in our heads solely from memory. Their full cycle has quickly become an essential.
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 | Beethoven: String Quartets by Takacs Quartet
Buy new: $30.49 / Used from: $11.04 Even though these aren't from Beethoven's Late Period, I have to put them the Middle and Early String Quartets in.
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 | Beethoven: The Early String Quartets (Op. 18, Nos. 1-6)
Buy new: $30.49 / Used from: $19.48 Why? Beethoven's String Quartets are to music what Shakespeare's plays are to literature and what Rembrandt's self-portraits are to painting. They reveal the self, not only of Beethoven, but of the listener. Judge your response well...
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 | Beethoven: The Late String Quartets
Buy new: $34.98 / Used from: $21.50 I don't care what set you have, you need more than one interpretation of Beethoven's Late String Quartets. The Busch Quartet is well-loved, and the sound quality on this remastered recording has got to be one of EMI's grandest achievements.
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 | Great Performances From The Library Of Congress, Vol. 6: Budapest String Quartet In Concert At The Library of Congress
Buy new: $33.99 / Used from: $19.95 The Budapest Quartet's live recordings at the Library of Congress are their most experimental, and I applaud them for it. If you doubt me, go to this YouTube video of the 3rd movement of No. 15, the "Heiliger Dankgesang." I heard this recording first, and I've been disappointed with other renditions ever since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN3HzEWQl0c
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![Beethoven: Complete String Quartets [Box Set]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E2AaNWppL._SL75_.jpg) | Beethoven: Complete String Quartets [Box Set]
Buy new: $77.99 Another exceptional set, though not my top set.
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