Aristocratic, elegant, tasteful, cultivated. These are only four clichés that most lazy critics use to describe the artistry of cellist Pierre Fournier, yet those four words constantly came to mind as I reacquainted myself with his Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Philips recordings, all gathered together here for the first time, complete in one package. Where […]
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The Pierre Fournier Edition: Get It While You Can!
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Big Boxes: Carl Schuricht’s Complete Decca Recordings
Recalling his first Decca Vienna Philharmonic recording sessions, producer John Culshaw wrote that Carl Schuricht couldn’t make up his mind when it came to the Schubert “Unfinished” Symphony’s first-movement tempo, calling the conductor “senile”. Yet hearing this performance for the first time, I’m struck by its decisive, steady, flowing, and sweet-toned nature–in both movements! These […]
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Big Boxes: Karl Böhm’s Early Recordings
Collectors of historical recordings on LP may recall “Karl Böhm in Dresden: A Phonographic Documentary Issued in Honor of his 85th Birthday”. This was a series of boxed sets issued on the German Electrola label, encompassing Böhm’s complete early recordings with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, where he served as music director between 1934 and 1942, […]
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Historical Gems: Hindemith Conducts Hindemith (in Decent Mono)
In the early 1950s, DG had the bright idea of asking Hindemith to record his own orchestral works. For a variety of logistical, aesthetic, and financial reasons, it turned out to be a very frustrating experience for everyone, and after three CDs-worth of material, the project got picked up (in stereo) by EMI. Still, although […]
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Big Boxes: Essential Toscanini, Really
This twenty disc set, curated by Christopher Dyment and Harvey Sachs and drawn from RCA’s epic 80+ CD box of Toscanini’s complete authorized recordings, really does constitute an “essential” selection. Fans will quibble, as will I, but you can’t argue that the set contains a representative sample of the Maestro’s finest work, in the best […]
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Markovina Aces CPE Bach, Plus 25 Greatest Hits In Score
This 26-CD set containing CPE Bach’s complete solo piano works represents a landmark of the highest importance and, more significantly, listening pleasure. Ana-Marija Markovina has made a specialty of playing these works. She previously recorded the Prussian and Württemburg sonatas (for Genuin), but it is difficult to overstate the richness and variety found on these […]
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Bernstein’s Sony Mahler Box Re-Boxed and Re-Coupled
First, let’s understand why this reissue is a typical example of major-label stupidity (no, they never learn). If you’re going to celebrate Bernstein’s Sony recordings of Mahler, why not include them all? For example, Des Knaben Wunderhorn was a major recording, ripe for remastering, and the various song cycles included in the previous symphony box […]
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Bernstein’s DG Beethoven Revisited
Leonard Bernstein’s DG Beethoven cycle has withstood the test of time and remains one of the finest sets available, but I wouldn’t toss out that fat original CD issue in favor of this nifty, slim and trim box. Why? Because DG has foolishly decided to omit the disc of overtures accompanying the previous release. This […]
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Samson François’ Idiosyncratic Debussy & Ravel
Samson François recorded all of Ravel’s piano music and completed roughly 75 percent of a projected Debussy cycle shortly before his death in 1970 at age 48. Like his mentor Alfred Cortot, François imbued this music with tremendous insight, imagination, and tonal resources. Furthermore, he knew how to make Debussy sound both sensuous and incisive. […]
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Big Boxes: Erick Friedman’s Complete RCA Recordings
Erick Friedman (1939-2004) came to prominence as a Jascha Heifetz protégé when he recorded the Bach Double Concerto with his mentor. RCA subsequently signed Friedman to a contract, positioning him for a career. However, several incidents thwarted Friedman’s early momentum, including his unsuccessful bid at the 1966 Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, after which RCA dropped him […]
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Big Boxes: 65 Fabulous Cluytens CDs
Belgian-born André Cluytens was a splendid conductor, equally at home in German, French, and Russian music, and this 65 disc set containing his complete orchestral and concerto recordings represents him ideally. There’s a good bit of duplication from mono to stereo, particularly in Beethoven (with the Berlin Philharmonic, no less), and Ravel (with various French […]
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Big Boxes: Rudolf Serkin’s Complete Columbia Recordings
The arrival of Sony/BMG’s complete edition of Rudolf Serkin’s Columbia Masterworks and RCA Victor recordings presents a welcome opportunity to explore his artistry in depth. Serkin was a beacon of the literalist aesthetic that gradually took hold in the mid-20th century in the wake of musicians like Artur Schnabel and Arturo Toscanini, both of whom […]
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Big Boxes: Helmut At The Harpsichord
Helmut Walcha’s sober, unselfregarding interpretations of Bach’s organ music relate to this composer much as Otto Klemperer did to the Beethoven symphonies. He brought a similar interpretive outlook in his extended series of Bach harpsichord recordings for German Electrola in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tempos are conservative for the most part, phrasing is […]
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Big Boxes: Richter’s Schubert From Profil
Profil’s boxed set purportedly devoted to Sviatoslav Richter’s Schubert “live in Moscow” actually derives from various sources. Let’s nail these down. Three selections come from Kiev concerts. Two Paris studio sessions are tacked on as “bonus” items. One is EMI’s oft-reissued 1963 Wanderer Fantasy/D. 664 A major sonata coupling. The other is a long-out-of-print 1961 […]
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Gielen’s Superb Mahler Returns, Even More Complete
Now reissued on 17 CDs, plus a bonus DVD containing a live concert of the Ninth Symphony, this is practically a Mahler “complete works” edition. Yes, Das klagende Lied is missing, but you get the three major song cycles, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, both the Adagio from the Tenth Symphony plus the Cooke completion, and finally, […]
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Big Boxes: The Best of HvK, Really
Every so often a major label offers signs of a guiding intelligence. DG has released a series of boxed sets, eight CDs each, featuring specific orchestras and conductors: Abbado/Chicago, Bernstein/Vienna, Boulez/Cleveland, and this one: Karajan and Berlin. Three of them are not especially attractive, with odd repertoire choices and a hodge-podge of good and less […]
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Big Boxes: Solti’s Complete Chicago Recordings–For What They’re Worth
Since this 108 CD set contains the complete Solti/Chicago recordings, there’s no need to discuss its contents disc by disc (thank God). It’s all in there, including the fine RCA Verdi Requiem. It does, however, raise some issues worth considering if you’re contemplating purchase and are not otherwise a rabid Solti fan. There is very […]
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Big Boxes: A “Goldbergs Reissue to End All Goldbergs Reissues”
A cultural icon and perpetual best seller, Glenn Gould’s 1955 Columbia Masterworks debut recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is to classical music what Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is to jazz and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is to rock. The so-called “Gouldbergs” has been reissued and remastered ad infinitum, from the […]
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17-Plus Hours of Radiant Sound From Gundula Janowitz
Her voice was neither the most potent nor her interpretations particularly deep, but there were few disappointments in the career of Gundula Janowitz. A gleaming soprano without the slightest hint of mezzo coloration, she excelled in music by Mozart and Richard Strauss as well as in the “jugendlich dramatisch” Wagner-soprano roles (Elsa, Elisabeth) and the […]
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Big Boxes: Kissin’s Complete RCA and Sony Recordings
Evgeny Kissin’s Sony Classical and RCA Victor recordings date from the popular pianist’s teen prodigy years up through his early 30s. They testify to both extraordinary technical prowess and interpretive inconsistency. To cite one example, the Chopin “Funeral March” sonata’s first two movements are nothing short of hair-raising (sound clip), while the Funeral March placidly […]
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