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Caballero del febo | Antony, France | 08/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Kocsis's 1975 recording remains one of my favorite Bartok discs. The selection focuses on the composer's most rewarding piano music -- avoiding the brief musical exercises which compose much of his output -- and includes an imperious "Allegro Barbaro" and a "Rumanian Folk Dances" whose 3rd movement here has the weightless, cristalline beauty of an icicle slowly melting in the first rays of the morning sun. The set as a whole is well-balanced and has a "felt" quality which sets it apart, judging from an admittedly brief comparison, from Kocsis's later complete piano works series. Not for the first time, I have the impression that a performer returning to well-known works with the benefit of greater maturity somehow managed to iron out the personality which made his early recording so compelling."

Once more the Hungarian pianism!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 04/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
Zoltan Kocsis and Andras Schiff are the best and until now, the last exponents of a vast tradition of legendary pianists through the XX Century. From Erwin Nyiregyhazi, Louis Kentner, Edith Farnadi, György Sandor, Geza Anda, Andor Foldes and Annie Fisher.



However Kocsis ' colossal stature would seem to be reserved just only for a reduced audience. He has demonstrated widely his abilities. I knew about him through an excellent performance of Bach's The Well Tempered Klavier. And his Bartok ` s interpretations though are not at the cosmic level of Sandor are provided with musicianship. He owns the famous three T: technique, tune and temperament.



These are interesting performances of the dissonances master : Bela Bartok who, according a personal statement of Artur Honneger : "Bartok is the real Ambassador of the musical evolution. Less sparkling than Stravinsky, less dogmatic than Schöenberg, is perhaps, the most intimately musician of the three and also in what development concerns has organized himself inside the most constant effort and best disciplined".

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