Rafal Blechacz - Piano Recital

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

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Advantages: Sheer luxury of tone and sonority
Disadvantages: Can we ever have enough time for such diversity?!

...Chopin from a female hand! I'd say, if you want just one set of these nocturnes you'll do no better than shop here with this lovely lady! There are so many ways to interpret Chopin no one pianist will ever get him wired 100% but here is a very good offering from Deutsche. I previously had a set by Ashkenazy and I way prefer this: less of the thundering concert pianist and more the subtlety of a chamber recital which for me is the style Chopin himself aspired to: he constantly shunned the concert platform and was best at home in Parisian salons. Still some thunder and lightning here, tho'! Probe Chopin's inner soul in his most enigmatic, restless, vital, original, diverse dynamic set of works for solo piano. Super for the student: listen before you learn, and sublime for the classical connoisseur, I think secretly even concert... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful