DECCA SOUND:
THE PIANO EDITION
Decca 483 2242 (55 CDs)
This was the box-set that sustained me through the bleak Covid-19 pandemic years. Curated by Cyrus Meher-Homji of Universal Australia, this was a significant upgrade on Decca’s previous Piano Masterworks 50 CD super-box-set. Presented on 55 CDs, the emphasis is on artists rather than composers, with 44 pianists presented alphabetically – from Argerich to Thibaudet. With recordings from the post-War 1940s to the last decade, from decent monaural sound to brilliant digital stereo, and with very little duplication, this is a pianophile’s dream.
Decca was not known as specialist piano label, but it did contract a number of significant pianists over the decades. This set does not encompass the subsumed Philips label, thus pianists like Arrau, Brendel, Kocsis and Uchida do not appear here. However, recordings from sister labels like Argo and Oiseau Lyre have added to its interest and variety. Playing on nostalgia value, all original cover art (some displayed below) has been retained.
Since when was Martha Argerich ever on Decca? Somehow, a brilliant live recording of Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Gewandhausorchester with Riccardo Chailly from 2006 has been shoe-horned into the set, making a first appearance on disc. With that “irregularity” out of the way, what are the delights – with very little duplication - contained within?
All of Decca’s “house” pianists have three discs to their name. Vladimir Ashkenazy is represented by Brahms’ Second Concerto (with Haitink), Prokofiev’s Third Concerto (with Previn), the 27 Chopin Etudes and on two pianos both Rachmaninov Suites and Symphonic Dances (also with Andre Previn), all consistently good. Clifford Curzon gets the Mozart Concertos (Nos.20, 23, 24 & 27), Beethoven’s Eroica Variations, Schubert’s Moments Musicaux, and works for two pianos by Benjamin Britten, with the composer on second piano. Solid musicianship ruled.
The tragically short-lived Julius Katchen made a speciality of Brahms – the Paganini Variations and Hungarian Dances (with Jean-Pierre Marty) get pride of place. The rest are glorious concerto recordings – both of Liszt, Rachmaninov’s Second and Paganini Rhapsody, and a real treat – Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Theme. These still hold a special place in all collections.
Among the best recordings are those of Alicia de Larrocha. Her 1973 take on Albeniz’s Iberia remains unsurpassed. Despite small hands, her mastery of Liszt’s Sonata and Schumann’s Fantasy in C major still amaze. One should not be without both her Ravel Concertos, Franck’s Variations Symphoniques, Faure’s Fantasie and a speciality, Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain.
Still on Spanish / Latino music, Cuban pianist Jorge Luis Prats’s 2011 Zaragoza live recital of Granados’ Goyescas, Villa-Lobos’ Bachiana Brasileira No.4 and encores deserve to be heard. Late-lamented Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire has been underrepresented here, but his Brasileiro disc of shorts by Villa-Lobos and other Brazilian composers is truly delightful. In a similar vein, a welcome reissue of former Horowitz student American pianist Ivan Davis’ disc of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s solo works has been long overdue. Alan Feinberg’s The American Virtuoso (originally on Argo) highlights Amy Beach, Percy Grainger, Edward MacDowell and more Gottschalk.
Decca’s biggest coup was to get Radu Lupu into the recording studio. The prize are discs of Beethoven Concertos (Nos.3 and 5), Beethoven Sonatas (Moonlight, Pathetique and Waldstein), late solo Brahms (Op.117-119) and shorter pieces. Invaluable stuff indeed. Another mainstay of the Decca catalogue was Andras Schiff, from whom Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a recital of Scarlatti Sonatas and Mozart’s works for four hands (with mentor George Malcolm) on fortepiano were welcome treats. Another disc featuring the fortepiano sees Robert Levin performing Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos.9, 11 and 12 with Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music.
Interestingly, the pianist who was afforded the most playing time was Frenchman Pascal Roge, whose services Decca secured at a very young age. Besides his calling card Faure and Satie recitals, his takes on three Bartok Concertos and the early Rhapsody were highly idiomatic. As a bonus, Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals (with Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz) has been included. From another charismatic Frenchman Jean-Yves Thibaudet, one gets an all Chopin recital (on his 1848 Broadwood piano), Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F and I Got Rhythm Variations, and transcriptions of Bill Evans and Michael Nyman.
What about the others? There is a all-Beethoven 1954 Carnegie Hall recital by Wilhelm Backhaus coupled with Haydn Sonatas. Also in very acceptable mono sound are shorts by Friedrich Gulda (from Bach to Prokofiev), from whom one also gets to hear Beethoven’s first two piano concertos. From Wilhelm Kempff, his takes on baroque music (Bach, Handel, Rameau) remain very satisfying as is his Schubert Sonatas (D.845 and 960). Also from the 1950s are Dinu Lipatti in Schumann’s Piano Concerto (a rare duplication) and the glamorous Australian Eileen Joyce in Tchaikovsky’s Second Concerto, then a true rarity.
The other woman pianists included in this set are the now-forgotten Kathleen Long in Mozart’s Concerto No.24, Clara Haskil in Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto and Schumann’s Waldszenen, Moura Lympany in two guilty pleasures, the Khachaturian Concerto (a speciality of hers) and Saint-Saens’ Second Concerto. As this set was compiled before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Valentina Lisitsa got an all-Liszt programme to her name.
A strange disc brings together two names not usually associated with Decca: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli with a recital of Beethoven (Op.111), Galuppi and Scarlatti, coupled with Leonard Bernstein on the keyboard leading the Vienna Philharmonic in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.15. Arthur Rubinstein also made it to Decca, through his recording of Brahms' First Piano Concerto (with Zubin Mehta conducting).
The fortunes of two true personalities from piano’s “Golden Age” were revived by Oiseau Lyre / Decca late in their careers. The Cuban-American Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) gets two discs of unfortunate short measure, Godowsky transcriptions of Chopin etudes and waltzes, and Schubert-Liszt Lieder transcriptions. Quality rather than quantity count here. The Ukraine born Shura Cherkassky (1909-1995) was more fortunate, with Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto, Anton Rubinstein’s Fourth Concerto, and his celebrated Kaleidoscope disc of Romantic encores padded with shorter Rachmaninov pieces.
Frenchman Jean-Rodolphe Kars retired and retreated into silence by becoming a Trappist monk, but not before committing the 24 Debussy Preludes to record, lovingly issued here. The late-lamented British genius John Ogdon is remembered here by his formidable take on Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jesus, his then main rival being none other than Yvonne Loriod (Missus Messiaen). Does anybody remember Peter Katin? The English pianist is represented by both Mendelssohn Piano Concertos and shorter concertante works.
Pianists representing a younger demographic are the Swede Peter Jablonski, who tames two warhorses in the Grieg, Tchaikovsky First, and adds the rarity of Lutoslawski’s Paganini Variations. The polarising Finn Olli Mustonen plays Bach (BWV.1052), Beethoven (Op.61, the piano version of the D major violin concerto) and Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes (Op.34). The 2011 debut album of British homegrown hero Benjamin Grosvenor, the youngest pianist of all, is an excellent calling card with four Chopin Scherzi, Chopin-Liszt song transcriptions and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit.
The Israeli piano duo of Bracha Eden & Alexander Tamir was the mainstay of the four hands / two pianos repertoire on record before the Labeque sisters arrived. Their well-filled disc of two piano encores includes Rachmaninov, Arensky, Schumann, Schubert, Poulenc, Milhaud, Khachaturian, Lutoslawski and the like, mostly delightful pieces.
The only East Asian pianist to get into the box-set was the Korean veteran Kun-Woo Paik, whose recordings of the entire corpus of works for piano and orchestra (both concertos, Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise, Fantasy on Polish Airs, Krakowiak and La Ci Darem Variations) deserves a special place in any collection. The playing is highly idiomatic, sympathetic and the recorded sound with the Warsaw Philharmonic (Antoni Wit) is particularly vivid.
This is one box which I will be dipping into regularly and with much enjoyment. No self-respecting pianophile collection should not be without this.
