Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky :: The Great Pianists

Winners All!

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 09/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 2-CD compilation of historical recordings of great pianists doesn't have a single bad performance on it, and most are exemplary. Indeed, it makes one want to hear more from these men and women. That is probably Naxos's idea, too: they are in the midst of releasing a series called 'Great Pianists' and this disc is culled from that series. I'm sure they'd love you to buy the whole series! Understandably there are 'bleeding chunks' here; that is to say, we get single movements of concerti, single pieces from sets of works (like Chopin nocturnes or a single prelude and fugue from the Bach Well-Tempered Clavier). But these are well-loved recordings and serve the purpose of whetting one's appetite. As a former pianist with over fifty years of collecting recordings, many of these selections are familiar to me, although I blush to admit that I'd never heard the 1929 recording of Rachmaninov playing the slow movement of his own Second Concerto (accompanied by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra) and it was a revelation to me. (It also supported my own notion of how it should go, but that's another story.)Presumably Amazon will eventually list the specific contents of this disc, but they haven't yet and I want you to know what's here: CD1:Edwin Fischer: Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 1 from WTC (ca. 1934)Ignaz Friedmann: the entire 'Moonlight' Sonata [not just one movement as the booklet states] and spellbindingly done (1926)Vladimir Horowitz: an electrifying first movement of the Tchaikovsky 1st Concerto, accompanied by his father in law, Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony (1941)Josef Lhévinne: the Schulz-Evler arrangement of 'The Blue Danube,' as exciting a rendition as I've ever heard; this is not the Welte-Mignon piano roll version he made in 1906 (1928)Myra Hess: the last movement of her famous Schumann Concerto recording with unidentified orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr (1937)William Kapell: Rachmaninov Prelude in c-sharp minor (a not generally available take from 1945 and it makes you sit up and take notice)Benno Moiseiwitsch: first movement of the Grieg Concerto, with the Hallé Orchestra under Leslie Heward (1941)CD2:
Sergey Rachmaninov: the aforementioned sensational middle movement of the Second Concerto (1929)Artur Rubinstein: a deliciously drowsy Chopin Nocturne in e minor (1937)Wilhelm Backhaus: just about my favorite Brahms player in a justly famous First Concerto, slow movement, accompanied by [not yet Sir] Adrian Boult conducting the BBC Symphony (1932)Artur Schnabel: last movement of the Beethoven 4th Concerto, with the London Philharmonic under [not yet Sir] Malcom Sargent; spectacular and subtle playing and no dropped notes! (1934)Claudio Arrau: the complete Mozart Sonata in G, K. 283 (probably the least successful recording here; OK but not nonpareil) (1941)Alfred Cortot: Chopin, what else? The middle movement of the 2nd Concerto with Barbirolli/London Philharmonic (1935)Egon Petri: a masculine Brahms Rhapsody in B, Op. 79, No. 1 (1940)Sergey Prokofiev: playing the first movement of his own Third Concerto, with Piero Coppola/London Symphony; I'd never heard this recording, either, and was extremely impressed with his playing (1932)For piano nuts like me, this collection is self-recommending. For music lovers just coming to the notion of collecting historical recordings of pianists, this would be a wonderful place to start. Not only are the transfers miraculously clear--I couldn't believe the piano tone in the Rachmaninov recording from 1929, for instance; my jaw dropped!--but the performances are clearly worth having been preserved all these years. You have to hear Lhévinne or Rachmaninov or Backhaus or even Prokofiev (not generally remembered as a pianist per se) to understand what all the adulation through the years has been about. The price of the twofer is even less than you'd ordinarily pay for CDs from the Naxos budget label. You really cannot lose here.TT=2h 25m 44sRecommended.Scott Morrison"