Search - William Kapell, Albeniz, Bach :: Great Pianists 52

Brilliant performances

pm444 | Okemos, MI USA | 11/06/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having heard and read a great deal about the Kapell Edition from BMG, I was very interested in this set from the "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" series. Kapell's performances of the Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Cto and the Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini are justifiably legendary. The Prokofiev is excellent, too. I have found that I am listening to these performances much more than I normally would with a historical reissue. The remastered sound is quite good---full, warm mono from the early 50s. But it's the perfomances that win over the listener, especially the Rhapsody, which is often described as demonic. Kapell brought an urgency to these Romantic warhorses, but never at the expense of their fundamental lyricism. The listener is left with a profound sense of sorrow that he died so young, as well as extreme gratitude that we have these recordings with which to remember him."

Genius

Alyce L. Gibson | New York, New York | 05/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have 10 wishes I wanted fulfilled before I died. One of them was to have William Kapell's genius reissued. At long last, I am a contented and happy woman. Kapell is the greatest pianist of our or any time. I get goosebumps when I hear his 2 Rachmanioffs and the Prokofiev -- in fact, anything he plays. There is no one like William Kapell. I suspect Franz Liszt could not have matched his brilliance at the keyboard"

The legendary Kapell

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 03/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"William Kapell (1922-1953) died tragically when only thirty-one, in a plane crash coming back to the US from a recital in Sydney. He was without question the most famous American pianist of the era and there is also no question that he was destined for a magnificent career. His early death has enhanced his status as a legend, but close listening to these recordings gives us additional reasons to think he was one of the 'Great Pianists of the 20th Century' and that he deserves, no matter how short his career, inclusion in this redoubtable collection from Philips. Other reviewers have commented primarily on his performances, on disc 1, of the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, as well as Prokofiev's Third Concerto. I won't comment on them particularly except to note that his virile (some say steely, but never harsh) tone is coupled with a romantic sensibility that gives these performances world-class prominence.



However, at the time of his death he was moving away from the showy showpieces such as the Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev (and the Khachaturian D Flat Concerto, with which he'd made his first splash and which he had come to abhor as Rachmaninoff had long abhorred his own Prelude in C Sharp Minor ('they won't let me play anything else') and immersed himself more and more in the central European literature of Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and the like. And thus of particular note is his traversal of Bach's D Major Partita, BWV 828, preserved here. The Partita is missing its final Gigue and the Partita is listed in the booklet simply as 'incomplete,' but apparently the real story is that he never approved for release the Gigue, which he DID record, because of his fanatical perfectionism. No matter. This is marvelous Bach and the pity is that we don't have much more of his Bach on records. His performance of the Chopin Third Sonata in B Minor is both titanic and superbly nuanced. The Scherzo is quicksilver, the Largo so tender it almost brings tears. The Finale is a virtuosic whirlwind that takes one's breath away. (His recordings of many of the Mazurkas are also worth seeking out.)



The disc is filled out by a movement from Albéniz's Iberia, Book I, 'Evocación' and three Liszt works: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca, the 11th Hungarian Rhapsody, and the First Mephisto Waltz. Each is special in its own way: Albéniz atmospheric, sultry, erotic; the Sonetto lyrical and poetic, the Hungarian Rhapsody evocative, in both its moods, of a wild Gypsy cimbalom ensemble; the Mephisto Waltz (recorded early in his career) taken at breakneck speed with utter élan.



This is a treasurable release. Many of these performances, when first issued, were immediate classics and they remain so today.



Scott Morrison"