Artur Rubinstein piano recital

Advantages: Hugely enjoyable music, fresh and free of pretence
Disadvantages: Unfamiliarity?

...Brazil’s most celebrated classical composer wrote some two hundred works for piano, many of which sadly languish in the wilderness. This disc will do much to advocate his appealing musical personality. The collection begins with the suite “As Tres Marias,” a trio of movements lasting barely three minutes. Based on the stars of Orion’s belt, it is one of Villa-Lobos’ most popular pieces, here played with great panache by the Canadian virtuoso Marc-Andre Hamelin. The closing Rudepoema, a fiercesome score from the 1920s dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein, paints a completely different sound picture. It’s a concentrated work, powerful and uncompromising, and perhaps surprisingly it delves into the world of polytonality as realised by Milhaud in the same decade. It takes several listens to fully appreciate the larger scale that Villa... Read review

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Advantages: Cherkassky playing at his best in wide range of solo works
Disadvantages: No Godowsky included

...on the piano, if at all. It is actually a selection of five pieces by Lully, not originally published as a suite, but subsequently assembled into a suite, and reordered by Cherkassky. Cherkassky articulates these early pieces beautifully, bringing out the various voices of the counterpoint with great delicacy and beautiful phrasing. His playing of the ornaments (trills, mordents etc) is especially captivating. He then plays a short piece by Mendelssohn with the light fantasy touch which is required. Here is Mendelssohn back in the same world as the fairies in his famous Midsummer Night's Dream. The centrepiece of this recital is Tchaikovsky's rarely performed Grand Sonata. Cherkassky is one of a small number of pianists who bring this sonata to life (Pletnev is another) and make it sound like a masterpiece. This piece has often been... Read review

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Advantages: Unparalleled playing, Unbelievably good bargain for 6 CDs!
Disadvantages: Um, paper sleeves? No, seriously, it's great

...This box set comprises recordings from 1985-89, when Horowitz was 81 years old! In 1986 Horowitz returned to Russia after 60 years away to give his monumental Moscow recital of which the live recording is included in this set. I personally find this performance of Liszt's Sonetto 104 del Petrarca to be the finest ever recorded. Alongside this is Scarlatti, Mozart, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Schumann, Chopin, Moszkowski, and Schubert. Accompanying this recital is 5 other discs of outstandingly unique playing. As he got older, Horowitz's playing became a sort of caricature of itself in the nicest possible way. By this I mean, his dynamics became more extreme, he became more expressive than ever, and his sense of style was heightened to new levels. Horowitz's Mozart playing has been criticized for being too free and not in Mozart... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful