pianomania: PIANO: GREAT RECORDINGS from SONY MUSIC / Review Part II

PIANO: GREAT RECORDINGS

Sony Music 88843091752 (30 CDs)

Continued from Part I:

pianomania: PIANO: GREAT RECORDINGS from SONY MUSIC / Review Part I

A generation of OYAPs (Outstanding Young American Pianists) were born in the 1920s, gaining fame and prominence in the 1950s and 60s. They are represented by Leon Fleisher (1928-2020), whose recordings of Beethoven piano concertos (the Second and Fourth Concertos included here) with George Szell are still celebrated for freshness and vigour. Byron Janis (1928-2024) was a natural in Romantic repertoire, and here we enjoy his takes on Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Liszt’s Totentanz.

Several non-Americans also made their mark with Columbia and RCA. From Frenchman Philippe Entremont, both Liszt Piano Concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy are excellent if not wholly representative of his art. The Canadian Glenn Gould (1932-1982) is surprisingly not represented by either his 1955 or 1981 recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, instead one hears the Six French Suites and his humming along. From the Briton John Ogdon (1937-1989), one gets his mighty take on Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and very unusually, the Chaconne (Op.32) and Suite (Op.45) by Danish composer Carl Nielsen.

There are five women pianists in this set. The Hungary-born Lili Kraus (1903-1986) was a born Mozartian, and one will enjoy her performances of the first five Mozart Piano Sonatas (K.279-283) and Rondo in D major (K.485). Instead of Spanish repertoire (Albeniz, Granados and Mompou), its most significant champion Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009) is instead heard in Mozart’s Piano Concertos No.22 and 26 with the English Chamber Orchestra led by Sir Colin Davis. Honestly speaking, she deserved two discs.

From Martha Argerich is a rare solo disc from 1976, with Schumann’s Fantasy in C major (Op.17) and eight Fantasiestucke (Op.12), before she abandoned recording solo repertoire altogether. Filipina legend Cecile Licad, last winner of the Leventritt Award, gets her due in Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto and Paganini Rhapsody with Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. The fifth woman pianist, is part of the duo of Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen, who perform both books of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances (Op.46 and 72).

The unique Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) comfortably straddled between classical and jazz, and his album Mozart No End and The Paradise Band is piano marmite, an acquired taste for sure. He performs Mozart in an inimitably free-spirited way; the Fantasie and Sonata in C minor (K.475 and 457), with several jazz pieces of his own. Love it or hate it. Emanuel Ax is represented by four popular Sonatas of Haydn, Hob.XVI: 20 (C minor), 23 (F major), 48 (C major) and 50 (C major), all worth listening for their wit and humour.