Well I do have her good friend John Lill's survey of the piano sonatas in the 40 CD Brilliant Classics "Beethoven Masterworks" set, so I think it quite likely that they will also turn up in their 'complete' edition, too. ;-)

Right, the Sony/Warner 60 CD set arrived from amazon.fr today. Total charge, including p&p was £31.68 (i.e. €46.40). The set comprises the symphonies, overtures and concertos from Zinman and his Zurich band. The Creatures of Pometheus comes from The Lithuanian Chamber Philharmonia under Rickenbacher, Wellingtons Sieg is the Vianna Phil., under Maazel, ad that disc is filled up with odds and sods from various forces. The violin sonatas are from Zukerman and Neikrug. The 'cello sonata have Bylsma and Immerseel. The Piano Trios are played by the Seraphin Trio (who are an unknown team, to me), and the string trios, Sextet Op. 81b, the duo WoO 32 and the Op.47 "Kreutzer" string quintet are from L'Archibudelli (which are very worthwhile recordings, in my opinion). The Op. 103 octet, the Op. 71 Sextet and a few little pieces find the group "Mozzafiato" at the helm. The string quartets are from the Arte Nova set by the Alexander String Quartet, which has received many strongly positive reviews, including by the late Lord Menuhin. Most of the piano sonatas are played by Yukio Yokoyama, (techinically very fine, but not really to my taste), but some are shared out between Robert Casadesus, Justus Franz, Gerard Oppitz, some bloke by the name of Vladimir Horowitz (that's the "Waldstein", by the way), and the lates are played by Charles Rosen (so good to at last replace my LPs). The bagatelles (the sets) and middle Opus number variations are from Yokoyama, too, but the Diabellis have Olli Mustonen, who throws in a few minor bits and pieces to top up the disc. There's a disc of "Songs from The British Isles". "Christ on the Mount of Olives" is presented by the Philadelphia Orchestra, etc., under Ormandy. The Mass in C has Ensemble of Tokyo, under Wolfdieter Maurer, with the Tokyo Oratorio Society joining in. It's back to Zinmam for the Missa Solemnis, then to Schippers for Op. 65 and the Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II. That disc is 'filled up' with the Bundesleid, Op. 122 under MTT. Finally we have Fidelio from Masur and co.

The accompanying notes are on a CDROM, in English and German.

So, even if you have a fair few of the recordings already, how can you resist?

It's ionic that the set seems to have been released in France ahead of the U.K. issue, but there are no programme notes in French.

[P.S. THe box design is daft. It is after the style of the Brilliant Classis Masterworks and Complete Bach and Mozart editions, (strudy flip-top box), but the CDs only take up under half of the space within. The rest is shaped card packaging, after the style of book-ends. The illustraion and general design of the graphics of the box are also a blatant rip-off of the Brilliant Classics complete editions, hence my initial confusion when first coming accross their listing on amazon.fr.]

The title of this thread refers to Hanae Nakajima in the 1st and 5th concertos and then says nothing more of her.

I recall that her 5th came as a bolt from nowhere and won loads of accolades. But IIRC, her next Beethoven concerto recording didn't score so well with the critics. Was this the 1st?

I've recently acquired a charity-shop copy of her 2nd conc c/w four of the Op 33 Bagatelles. The band is once again the legendary Nuremburg SO under Rato Tschupp. And it still has its original clear-plastic covering complete with Woolies price tag (89p - Naxos, eat yer heart out... ). Haven't dared play it yet and I'm not sure what to expect.

So, was the reference in the title a salute to long-lost favourite versions? Did they record all five? Is my Woolies special worth a six-figure sum???

[I've just checked an old Penguin Guide that lists her 5th as on Meridian. It scores *(*) for poor recording and orchestral playing. So what's the story here, guys??  }