PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 1

PIANO LIBRARY (YELLOW BOX)

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION

DG Eloquence 484 3089 (22 CDs)

During the early 1980s, when I was building a library of recordings on vinyl (those were the days before compact disc), I chanced across a selection of piano recital albums issued by Deutsche Grammophon under the Concours series. These were priced a few dollars lower than the premium series (featuring the famous likes of Pollini, Argerich and Barenboim), comprising recitals by young pianists who had been winners in recent international piano competitions. 

None of their names were known to me, but I took a chance on one such album by Boris Bloch from the Soviet Union, who had won the 1977 Busoni Competition in Bolzano.

His unusual programme included Beethoven’s short and humourous Sonata in F major (Op.10 No.2), several Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux, Rachmaninov’s Lilacs and Vocalise (as transcribed by the uncredited Zoltan Kocsis), Busoni’s Turandots Frauengemach (the best transcription ever of Greensleeves) and the Liszt-Busoni Fantasy on Two Motifs from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. The then-unfamiliar music and virtuoso playing simply blew my mind, and I became determined to purchase several more from the series.

Eight such albums, hitherto unavailable on CD, have been reissued by the Eloquence label of Universal Australia as part of a 22-disc boxset titled Piano Library (Deutsche Grammophon Edition). I just prefer to call it the Yellow Box, to distinguish it from the 21-CD Blue Box also issued at the same time. Listening to these recordings were a walk down memory lane, seeing old names (many of whom have been lost through time), admiring original album covers and savouring performances which honestly do stand the test of time.

Who were the other pianists? Another LP I had bought was devoted to the Cuba-born Jorge Luis Prats, prizewinner at the Marguerite Long Competition. His more standard competition-fare programme saw excellent performances of Beethoven’s late Sonata in A major (Op.101), Schumann’s Toccata (Op.7) and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. I did not own the Argerich recording then, but Prats was as good as it gets.

Another LP in my collection was that of the American pianist David Lively (winner of the Dino Ciani Prize of La Scala, Milan in 1977) who later settled in France. His very attractive dance-themed programme coupled Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin with Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka, Tango and Ragtime. For some unknown reason, this box-set has omitted Munich’s ARD Competition laureate Hans-Christian Wille’s disc of Mussorgsky, Ravel and Ginastera.

Still actively performing today is the German Alexander Lonquich (prizewinner at the 1976 Casagrande Competition in Terni, Italy), the youngest pianist in the boxset, represented by Schoenberg’s Three Pieces (Op.11) and Schubert’s Sonata in A minor (D.845). While the atonality of Schoenberg is soft-edged, the contrasts presented are stark. 

The Pole Ewa Poblocka (finalist at the 1980 Chopin Competition, the edition of Pogorelich infamy) showed she was not just a Chopin player, displaying width and breadth in both books of Debussy’s Images and J.S.Bach’s Aria Variata. A superb Chopin Scherzo No.1 (Op.20) was included for good measure.

The Soviet Mikhail Faermann (from Moldova) was the first prizewinner of the 1975 Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition, and showed his considerable chops in Prokofiev’s Sixth Sonata and Brahms’ Paganini Variations, with typical Russian flair for technical exactitude. He defected to Belgium in 1978, but strangely never made a further recording after this.

Some of the featured pianists have since passed on, including the South African Steven de Groote (1953-1989), winner of the 1977 Van Cliburn Competition, who died of delayed complications from injuries sustained in a self-piloted plane crash. His patrician programme paired Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques (Op.13, without posthumous variations) with Beethoven’s Eroica Variations (Op.35), a very satisfying listen all round.

The late Brazilian pianist Diana Kacso (1953-2022), 2nd prizewinner to Michel Dalberto at the 1978 Leeds Competition, is represented by a strong and characterful Liszt Sonata in B minor, matched by an equally epic Chopin Polonaise-Fantasy (Op.61) and Etude in A flat major (Op.10 No.10) as encore. I did not buy the original LP as it split the Liszt sonata over two sides but am glad to have finally caught it on CD.

Youri Egorov

The Dutch-Soviet pianist Youri Egorov (1954-1988), prizewinner at the 1975 Queen Elisabeth Competition, tragically died of AIDs in the Netherlands at the height of a fast-rising career. His Schumann Carnaval, not issued as part of the Concours series but a strong fill-up for the Faermann album, serves as a loving memory of what could have been.

Continued in Part 2:

pianomania: PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 2

PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 2

 

PIANO LIBRARY (YELLOW BOX)

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION

DG Eloquence 484 3089 (22 CDs)

Continued from Part 1:

pianomania: PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 1

The best-known name of all is the 17-year-old Vladimir Ashkenazy, whose recorded live performances at the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw include the Second Piano Concerto (with orchestral tuttis cut, as it was traditional but errant) and solo pieces (including Ballade No.2, two Etudes, two Mazurkas and Scherzo No.4) which constituted his very auspicious debut album. The fill-ups were a selection of Rachmaninov Etudes-Tableaux (Op.33) recorded in 1956 by his then Moscow Conservatory teacher Lev Oborin (1907-1974), himself a Chopin winner in 1927.

Vladimir Ashkenazy

The next Chopin competition in 1960 (won by Maurizio Pollini) saw the Belgium-born Michel Block (1937-2003) awarded a special prize by Arthur Rubinstein despite finishing in eleventh place. His splendid recital from the competition includes the Second Sonata (Funeral March Sonata), a Waltz, three Mazurkas and the Heroic Polonaise (Op.53).

Michel Block congratulated
by Arthur Rubinstein in 1960.

Still on Chopin, there are two discs by Hungarian pianist Julian von Karolyi (1914-1993), another prizewinner of the Warsaw competition in 1932. The earlier, from the early 1950s, includes all four Ballades, four Impromptus and the Berceuse (Op.57), while the 1964 recording has the Third Sonata, Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise (Op.22), a Mazurka, a Waltz and the rarely heard Bolero (Op.19), all in serious good fun.

Julian von Karolyi

The Italian pianist Dino Ciani (1931-1974), student of Alfred Cortot, was a rising star when he died at a tragically young age in a car accident. He eclectic tastes extended to a disc which includes the Second and Third Sonatas by Carl Maria von Weber, with early Romantic era piano writing combining bel canto and finger dexterity, a forerunner of Chopin’s style. A second disc includes a previously unreleased recording of Debussy’s Preludes (Book One) from 1971, coupled with the Children’s Corner Suite. Comparisons with Michelangeli in this repertoire are inevitable, with Ciani sounding warmer and more engaging than his legendary peer.

Continued in Part 3:

pianomania: PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 3

PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 3

 

PIANO LIBRARY (YELLOW BOX)

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION

DG Eloquence 484 3089 (22 CDs)

Continued from Part 2:

pianomania: PIANO LIBRARY: DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON EDITION (YELLOW BOX) / Review Part 2

Veronica Jochum von Moltke (born 1927, still living) is the eldest daughter of German conductor Eugen Jochum. Her Klavierabend of Schumann mixes the familiar with the unfamiliar, early and late music; the Second Sonata in G minor (Op.22) coupled with three Fantasiestucke (Op.111), four Nachtstucke (Op.23) and a single Novelette (Op.21 No.8). Her sense of lyricism allied with technical prowess make this an hour well spent.

Veronica Jochum with her father Eugen.

Not the most attractive of covers?

Of an similar but older vintage is Elly Ney (1882-1968), infamous for being a loyal Nazi and anti-Semite, is represented by four popular Beethoven sonatas spread over two short discs. The Pathetique (Op.13) is coupled with the late A flat major Op.110, while the Moonlight (Op.27 No.2) is paired with the Appassionata (Op.57). The playing is solid and idiomatic, and a curiosity is the inclusion of a repeat in the finale of Op.57, which extends the movement by a further three minutes.

Previously released as a single CD on the Australian Eloquence label was an unusual coupling of two variations sets by two pianists who made a single recording each with DG. The German Erik Then-Bergh (1916-1982) is heard in Max Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Telemann, a relative rarity, recorded in 1951. A very secure performance of a curiosity, which cannot be said of the established classic that is Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, recorded by Swiss pianist Paul Baumgartner (1903-1976) in 1952. Lots of competition for this but Paumgartner more than holds his own. Got to love those "boring" stylised yellow DG covers of old.

The American pianist Zola Shaulis (1942-2021) made her DG debut in 1971 with J.S.Bach’s Goldberg Variations, recorded with absolutely no repeats and playing for some 36 minutes, even swifter than the legendary Glenn Gould recording of 1955. As if to showcase her versatility, a very good performance of Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata is the unusual coupling. My late grand-uncle owned the original LP, and that was my first exposure to both works. Her 1974 recording of five Bach Toccatas (BWV.911-915) cemented her reputation as a Bach specialist.

The Frenchman Claude Helffer (1922-2004), well-known as an avant-gardeist, recorded Pierre Boulez’s atonal Second Sonata and Alban Berg’s Sonata in 1970. Both are released on CD for the first time, the former being overshadowed by Maurizio Pollini’s famous recording of 1978. This astringent music is incongruously coupled with the fun and games of Darius Milhaud’s Carnaval d’Aix, a 1964 recording partnered with the Monte-Carlo Opera Orchestra led by Louis Fremaux.

Claude Helffer

The Brazilian Roberto Szidon (1941-2011) has been well represented by DG in his complete sets of Scriabin Sonatas and Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, but his contribution in this boxset comes left of field. This was my first jaw-dropping introduction to Charles Ives’ Second Sonata (or the Concord Sonata), a seminal work of modernist American pianism. This recording includes the rarely-heard obbligato flute and viola parts in the first and fourth movements, representing Emerson and Thoreau respectively. The album is completed with Ives’ Three-Page Sonata, an anarchic melange of disparate ideas.

Roberto Szidon

This box-set has given me immense satisfaction, with hours of enjoyable listening and the realisation that great music can still be heard from the lesser-known and forgotten names of 20th century pianism. Their priceless art should not be forgotten.