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Eloquence Piano Library - Westminster and American Decca Edition · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven podcast
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  from my Substack page, and I've put a link to
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  it in this episode's description. A paid subscription
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  will get you a monthly download plus Zoom meetings
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  every few months, and I hope you will consider
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  taking out a paid subscription to keep this podcast
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  in production and to spread the good word among
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  the piano community. The Australian Eloquence
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  label issued two fascinating piano library box
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  sets late last year, and I've been getting requests
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  to talk about them. So, you know me, I always
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  take requests. You know, I used to play in piano
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  bars, and I would always get requests like, hey,
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  can you play Melancholy Baby? Or can you play
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  Feelings? Or New York, New York? You know...
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  I once played a private party where somebody
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  asked me to play a medley of Scott Joplin's Maple
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  Leaf Rag and the Emperor Concerto. That was kind
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  of bizarre. Anyway, let's go through the first
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  of these two boxes. which contains 21 compact
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  discs that are drawn from the Westminster and
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  American Decca catalogs. Discs 1 and 2 are given
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  over to solo recordings by Jörg Demas from the
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  1950s from Westminster, and you get solid and
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  well -shaped readings of Frank's Prelude, Chorale,
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  and Fugue, and Prelude, Aria, and Finale. But
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  the other disc has music of foray, and this really
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  is not York Davis's thing. I find his playing
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  is very dry and foursquare, and you can find
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  much better foray from the 1950s or 60s or 70s
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  or 80s. CDs 3 and 4. feature the Hungarian pianist
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  Edith Farnady, who lived from 1921 until 1973.
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  And she also was a stalwart of the Westminster
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  catalog. She did a lot of Liszt and Bartok for
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  that label. So here in this box set, we have
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  the very first recording of all nine of Liszt's
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  Soiree de Vienne after themes of Schubert. And
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  Edith Farnati is not the most colorful Liszt
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  player, but her facility and her impetuous sense
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  of rhythm are very impressive, I must say. And
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  she plays that Soiree de Vienne No. 6, which
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  is the most familiar of them, in the longer version
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  of Liszt. Many collectors... are more familiar
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  with the shorter version of No. 6 that pianists
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  like Moritz Rosenthal played, and more recently,
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  Vladimir Horowitz. He played this at his Moscow
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  concert and also on the Horowitz at Home album.
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  The fourth CD features Edith Farnati playing...
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  Strauss paraphrases by Godowski and Dakhnani
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  and Schulhoff. You do have to credit Edith Fornati
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  for championing these transcriptions at a time
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  when they had fallen way out of fashion. And
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  she plays them very fluently and, you know, certainly
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  quite efficiently with excellent technique. She
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  doesn't quite have that... extra sparkle that
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  you have from people like Earl Wilde or Shura
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  Tchaikovsky in this repertoire, or even Marc
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  -André Hamelin, for that matter. And the David
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  Saberton recordings of the Kunst der Leben and
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  the Fledermaus, I think, have a lot more sophistication
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  of voicing, and they're a little more airborne,
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  I guess. But it's still good to have these recordings.
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  And by the way, the Scribendum label recently
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  brought out a box set called The Art of Edith
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  Farnati. It's 21 CDs, and it contains most of
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  her commercial recordings. And I'll talk about
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  that in another podcast episode. The fifth CD
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  in this collection. Now, this is an absolute
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  winner. This is a... stunning disc with Clara
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  Haskell playing 11 Scarlatti sonatas. This was
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  recorded for Westminster in 1950, and it first
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  came out on CD as a bonus disc that was part
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  of the Phillips Great Pianist of the 20th Century
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  series that came out in, I guess, 1998 and 1999.
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  You remember that series? But these are amazing
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  performances. I mean, what color and what timing
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  and what gradations of touch and harmonic awareness
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  i mean this is playing that is just sheer genius
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  and then filling out this disc are three chopin
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  mazurkas that yura guller recorded for american
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  deca in 1951 they're not great performances i
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  think she kind of underplays the c major opus
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  56, number two, and the F minor, opus seven,
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  number three, she just kind of stretches that
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  out and goes all over the place. But she did
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  record these mazurkas again to much better effect.
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  in 1956 for an album that contained 11 mazurkas
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  and five nocturnes. And, I mean, it's still interesting
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  to have these unissued Eurogaller performances,
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  but you can find better examples of her playing
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  elsewhere. Now, the CDs... Now, let's see. CDs
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  number six through nine. Oh, these are all four
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  of Raymond Lewenthal's solo. albums for Westminster.
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  And one of them is a first CD release, if I'm
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  not mistaken, of the Beethoven Moonlight Pathétique
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  and the Passionata Sonatas. They're a little
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  glib on the surface, but they are exciting. But
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  I think that the other discs were closer to Lewenthal's
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  heart as far as repertoire. They all reflect
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  his penchant for creative program concepts. There's
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  an all -Toccata's program, and then there's a
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  disc called Moonlight at Keyboard that is more
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  lyrically oriented. And there was an all -Scriabin
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  disc, which was kind of a rarity, certainly among
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  American pianists. He was championing Scriabin
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  at a time when... You only have that one Horowitz
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  disc, and I'm sure there are a few others, but
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  this was kind of an important release, so it's
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  good to have all of these together. CDs 10 and
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  11 feature these two long out -of -print discs
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  that Nina Milikina made for Westminster. They
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  include a wonderful Scarlatti Sonata recital
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  that is... every bit as good as the Clara Haskell
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  disc, and a disc that has sensitive and colorful
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  performances of four sonatas by C .P .E. Bach.
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  And I'm so happy that these were reissued for
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  this collection. Then we have on CDs 12 through
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  14. all of the recordings that Benno Moisejevic
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  made for American Decca. And these last appeared
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  in Deutsche Grammophon's 2011 Liszt Legacy box
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  set. And Moisejevic had a gorgeous tone, and
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  it's very much preserved in these late recordings.
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  phrasing is creamy and aristocratic, but he sometimes
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  struggles in rapid virtuoso movements throughout
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  Schumann's Carnival and Kreislerianna, as well
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  as the finales of Beethoven's Moonlight and Les
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  Adieux Sonatas, and his performance of Mussorgsky's
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  Pictures at an Exhibition. is similar to the
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  one that he did on 78s for HMV, in that he makes
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  numerous cuts and textual changes, and I just
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  find that it's stylistically all wrong. But there's
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  really a lot to admire in the Schumann and in
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  the Beethoven. So anyway, we do have all of the
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  American Decca Moisevich material here. Now we
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  get to CD 15, and this is a real treasure. This
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  is the only recording that the great Brazilian
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  pianist Guilherme Novaes made for the American
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  Decca label in 1963, and this is its first CD
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  appearance. It has selections by Debussy and
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  Liszt that are just masterful. wonderful pedaling
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  and all kinds of gradations of touch that are
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  what this pianist was known for. Then we have
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  on CDs 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, all five of Egon Petry's
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  five Westminster albums. And it's nice to see
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  them in their original. incarnations with original
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  jackets. I like his performances of the three
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  name Beethoven sonatas, you know, the Moonlight,
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  Pathétique and Appassionata. I think they're
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  more seasoned musically than Raymond Lewenthal's,
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  although they're technically a little shaggier,
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  maybe, in the Moonlight and Appassionata finales.
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  But the playing still has a lot of authority.
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  And Petrie's Pathétique, I think, is actually
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  quite wonderful. I think it's a kind of fusion
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  of Rudolf Serkin's ascetic, in a gaunt kind of
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  concentration, and the more robust, extroverted
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  Rubinstein. It sort of takes the best of those
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  two worlds. Also, Egon Petry's Westminster recording
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  of the Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata is here.
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  I actually prefer this one to his earlier version
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  on Columbia. I think it's better recorded and
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  it's less austere and more flexible. and the
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  outer movements. There's also a disc with four
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  of Busoni's large -scale transcriptions of Bach
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  organ works. This is a fabulous, fabulous disc.
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  And then there's another disc that had, I guess
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  originally on vinyl, that one side had... choral
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  prelude transcriptions. And then the other side
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  had Busoni's Fantasia Contrapuntistica. I think
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  this was the second commercial recording of that
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  piece. I think Alfred Brendel made the first
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  one a few years earlier. You know, when I was
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  younger, I thought this was the be -all and end
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  -all of Fantasia Contrapuntistica because Egon
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  Petri was Busoni's disciple and he championed
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  Busoni and so on and so forth. Listening to it
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  again, I kind of find the performance rather
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  sober and matter -of -fact, certainly in comparison
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  with some of the really good recent versions.
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  I'm thinking especially of Igor Levits' recording.
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  That's really quite wonderful. But there is another
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  disc here of a Liszt transcription recital, and
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  I think this really shows Patriot his best. You
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  hear him playing... the Liszt transcription of
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  the Mendelssohn Wedding March from Midsummer
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  Night's Dream, the Faust waltz of Grunow, Adelaide,
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  the Song of Beethoven. Then he plays the Bussoni
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  version of Mephisto waltz number one, which is
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  very, very different from the familiar Liszt
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  version because this one is based on the orchestral
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  version. And the last piece on this disc is the
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  unfinished list transcription based on motives
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  from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro that Busoni
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  revised and finished and edited. This is a wonderful
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  performance. Then the final disc in this collection,
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  CD 21, is the only solo LP that the great Italian
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  pianist Carlo Zecchi made for Westminster. And
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  for years, serious pianophiles considered this
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  disc a kind of holy grail. It begins with the
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  Scarlatti C major sonata, Kirkpatrick No. 159.
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  The performance is a little bit hectic, to be
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  honest. But then he plays the G major Scarlatti
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  sonata. Kirkpatrick 259, and this is just a drop
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  -dead gorgeous performance. And that's followed
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  by equally wonderful and sublime accounts of
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  Bach's F -sharp major Prelude and Fugue from
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  the well -tempered Clavier Book I, the G minor
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  two -part invention, and a wonderful performance
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  of Mozart's D major Sonata Kershaw 311. There
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  are some gorgeous performances here of Chopin
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  Mazurkas, the B minor, Op. 33, No. 4. and the
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  A minor, opus 17, number 4. By the way, the B
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  minor is misidentified on the jacket as opus
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  41, number 1. No, this is opus 33, number 4.
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  And then there's a performance of Schumann's
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  Kindersehnen that has such glow and tenderness
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  and elegance. And I actually prefer this to the
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  earlier version of Kindersehnen that Karl Orzecki
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  made on 78s on Czech. Altogether, this is a really
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  worthwhile collection, and it's mostly hits and
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  only just a couple of misses, and I highly highly
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  recommend it. This is Jed Disler, and you've
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  been listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings. And on our
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  next episode, I'm going to be talking about the
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  Australian Eloquence Piano Library Edition drawn
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  from the Deutsche Grammophon catalog, and that
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  is a very interesting box set. I hope you'll
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  join me for that. Take good care, and I look
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  forward to being with you for our next episode.