# Good and Great recordings of Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata?



## gekotron (Aug 11, 2012)

As we know, Horowitz admitted regularly that he always made a mistake playing the Fugue, the 4th Movement in Samuel Barber's Sonata For Solo Piano, Op. 26.

What recordings of the Barber Sonata do you like? I have Horowitz's early 40s recording, and I want to branch out.

Gekotron


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

gekotron said:


> As we know, Horowitz admitted regularly that he always made a mistake playing the Fugue, the 4th Movement in Samuel Barber's Sonata For Solo Piano, Op. 26.
> 
> What recordings of the Barber Sonata do you like? I have Horowitz's early 40s recording, and I want to branch out.
> 
> Gekotron


Marc-Andre Hamelin's Hyperion album is superb (arrestingly introspective and searching), with excellent sound. And I like how it's paired with Ives' Concord Sonata. The contrast between these two works (and between these great Americans) cannot be anymore startling (and original). Then again, there's a quiet though eerie introspection in Ives' piece also (akin to, say, Central Park in the Dark). A great package and a great idea by Hyperion. 
-->http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...lin&qid=1452102696&ref_=sr_1_1&s=music&sr=1-1


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

*Barber Op 26*



gekotron said:


> As we know, Horowitz admitted regularly that he always made a mistake playing the Fugue, the 4th Movement in Samuel Barber's Sonata For Solo Piano, Op. 26.
> 
> What recordings of the Barber Sonata do you like? I have Horowitz's early 40s recording, and I want to branch out.
> 
> Gekotron


I have the Barber Sonata played by Joanna Macgregor on Collins 11072. It is paired with Ives' Sonata no 1, played phenomenally, and Barber's charming Op 20 Excursions. Macgregor's astonishing virtuosity in the Ives is nicely balanced in the Barber Sonata. I don't know the Horowitz recording: wouldn't have thought it was his comfort zone?


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

There's also an all-Barber program from Daniel Pollack on Naxos.


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