Part two of a four part collection of the whole set of piano sonatas by Beethoven, performed by Artur Schnabel. Schnabel was the first in history to record the whole set. These recordings were made in the 30s, and released on 78s. In those days the recording was not yet put on tape, so how was it done? HMV made the original recording in the 30s, directly written into wax. From that a metal master was created. That metal master is still kept in the vaults, and can thus be used to create later versions, like this one from the 80s.
I mention this, because I usually am a bit disappointed with these historical recordings. But when I listened to this one my mouth fell open with surprise and my ears popped. Apart from being mono, this is a really good recording!
Schnabels performance surprised me as well. He plays Beethoven with beautiful emotion and quite convincing to me. It is said that he also made mistakes, but I think those can also be attributed to the limits of recording at the time: it all was done in one go, and to restart meant from the beginning. These recordings were made real time.