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Jed's Piano Box Set Wish List · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Distler, and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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recordings.
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This is our second to last episode for 2024, and I've decided that we will start what
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I'll call season number two, right when the new year starts.
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And we're going to celebrate the start of our second season with something special.
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For the first three weeks of January 2025, and perhaps beyond, we're going to have a
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special daily, or at least five times a week, I haven't decided just yet, series discussing
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recordings of the 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven.
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And I'm pleased to tell you that you can now find the Piano Maven podcast on Substack.
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A paid subscription to my Substack page enables us to chat about all things related to the
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piano, and piano recordings, and piano topics, and piano news, and well, everything about
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the piano.
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And you also will receive invitations to participate in live Zoom chats, where we will be sharing
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listening experiences, and I also will host special guests.
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So please consider a paid subscription to my Piano Maven Substack page by visiting the
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link provided in the episode description.
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You will be glad that you did.
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I guarantee that.
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But let's get to the topic of this episode, which is the topic of box sets that I would
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like to see happen.
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Around the time that my friend and colleague, David Hurwitz, began his YouTube channel,
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and he started making videos for the channel, he posted a video about box set projects that
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he really wanted to see happen.
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And quite a few of these actually did come to pass.
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For example, those complete Eugene Ormandy box sets, the Sony BMG box set containing
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the complete RCA and Columbia recordings of Dimitri Metropolis.
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I can't remember if Dave had actually mentioned any piano box sets that he wanted to see happen
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in that video.
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But I have been cultivating a wish list of piano boxes for years, and as you probably
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would imagine, my list goes on forever.
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And my list is overly ambitious, and in many cases, the list has positively unrealistic
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items, or the kind of items that appeal more to piano geeks than piano mavens, or piano
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crazies, which are even crazier than geeks.
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Anyway, I have made a list of 10 piano box sets that I suspect would fall within a group
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consensus pretty much.
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And also, these are projects that I think are very doable and really quite plausible.
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And I think the record companies involved would really be well-served in putting these
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out.
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And only in a few cases are any of these 10 ideas, let's say, esoteric.
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So we have 10 box sets of piano recordings that I would like to see happen.
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So here's my first box set idea.
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Number one, I would like to see Warner Classics, or even APR, give us a complete edition of
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the British pianist Solomon's commercial recordings.
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Most of what he recorded was for the EMI or the HMV labels.
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He did record for British Columbia before World War II, and I'm sure that Warner Classics
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can get hold of the Columbia items.
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But we have never, never, never had an absolutely complete and systematic reissue of Solomon's
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complete recordings.
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And they all should be remastered from scratch and properly pitched.
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Now, I don't know how many CDs that would take up, but I think there is certainly a
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market for it.
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To be sure, we've had many Solomon reissues, we had the EMI icon box, profile box set,
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and then there were all those single releases on the testament label.
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But there's also material that still has not turned up on CD from Solomon's discography,
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so far as I know.
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So that's my box set request number one.
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The complete and freshly remastered Solomon.
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Number two, this may not really be a box set, and it may only occupy a couple of CDs.
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But that said, I would love to see the complete recordings that Lucas Foss made for the American
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Deka label as a pianist.
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We all know Lucas Foss as a composer and as a conductor, but he was an absolutely amazing
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pianist, especially as a Bach player.
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And by the way, here's a true story.
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Lucas Foss was playing the Bach D minor concerto from the piano in concert, conducting from
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the piano, and Glenn Gould was in the audience.
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So Gould goes backstage and Lucas Foss sees him and he says, Glenn, why are you here?
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And Glenn Gould said, because you're the only one who plays this concerto right.
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Well, at least that's what Lucas Foss told me when I interviewed him many, many years
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ago.
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Anyway, for American Deka, Lucas Foss recorded the Bach D minor and F minor concertos conducting
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the Zimblor Sinfonietta.
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He also conducted the Zimblor Sinfonietta from the piano in the Hindemith for temperaments.
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I am not sure if that was the first commercial recording of that piece, but it's a wonderful,
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wonderful performance.
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And Lucas Foss also was the pianist in a recording of his second piano concerto that came out
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on American Deka.
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And he did one solo piano LP for American Deka that consisted of the Bach three-part
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inventions, the symphonias.
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And I have that on LP, and it's just extraordinary Bach playing.
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For years, I have been asking Cyrus Mayer Homgy of Australian Eloquence to bring out
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a reissue of all the Lucas Foss piano recordings on American Deka.
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I think it can be done and it should be done.
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These are really, really special recordings.
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Concert number three, the recordings that the great Brazilian pianist Guilmar Novaes
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made for the Vox label from the late 1940s until I think the late 50s or the early 60s.
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They've mostly appeared on various CD and download reissues, but there has never been
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a truly complete and systematic Guilmar Novaes Vox recordings edition.
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Now wouldn't it be great to have her entire Vox output remastered and all shoved into
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a Vox?
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I mean, and all shoved into a box, original jacket style?
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I think that would be a great idea and it's something that I think is really needed.
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Every time the Vox catalog gets a new distributor or if there's a new person overseeing the
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catalog, I always reach out to the people involved and I pitch this project.
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Has anyone ever responded so far?
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No, of course not.
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I always get crickets.
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But I think this really can be done and I think there's a market for it.
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So come on, let's get the complete Guilmar Novaes on the Vox label all in a box set.
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And if you can do it original jacket style, so much the better.
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Now here is box set request number four.
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And with this, I'm getting into totally esoteric territory.
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And this may not be a box set that would have general appeal.
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I think it would appeal to piano geeks for certain.
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This would be a box set that contains the complete international piano archives recordings
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of Irvin Nirachazi.
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Nirachazi, who lived from 1903 until 1987, was one of the most highly scrutinized child
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prodigies ever and he astonished audiences as a child and as a teenager.
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But when he came to New York in his late teens, after making a pretty sensational debut, his
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career and his life began to unravel as a result of bad luck plus his own impossible
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temperament.
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Basically throughout his adult life, he wound up living in cheap hotels, basically in poverty.
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And he would spend most of his time prolifically composing the most lugubrious music ever.
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And he would have endless sexual entanglements that resulted in 10 marriages.
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But in 1972 or 1973, he started playing again in public after having not played in many,
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many, many years.
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And he was rediscovered by a small coterie of piano fans.
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And eventually, he came to the attention of Gregor Benko, the founder of the International
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Piano Archives, who helped Nirachazi launch a comeback.
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And thanks to some grant money from the Ford Foundation, Nirachazi was able to make some
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studio recordings in 1978 for the International Piano Archives.
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Gregor Benko also had produced some studio recordings with Nirachazi in 1974, released
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on the IPA's label.
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Anyway, what happened in the late 70s, Nirachazi suddenly got lots of press attention as the
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so-called Skid Row pianist, a pianist who didn't own a piano and never practiced.
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Yet, he could still make tremendous sounds.
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And he had this compelling, if rather controversial, interpretive personality just dealing in extremes.
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And with a lot of stumbles and wrong notes and all kinds of weird stuff happening pianistically
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wise, a lot of piano professionals considered Nirachazi to be a joke.
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But others did find him fascinating and compelling on his own terms.
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In any case, Nirachazi was a difficult figure.
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Yet, there is something there in his music making for sure.
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You just have to listen and decide for yourself.
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So I think it might be a good idea to see all of his released and unreleased International
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Piano Archive studio recordings boxed up, plus any private recordings of Nirachazi that
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have not yet been published by Sonnetto Classics, which is the small label that has released
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several Nirachazi concerts complete, including his famous Old First Church 1973 concert.
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And maybe, just maybe, this box set could include Nirachazi's 1980 and 1982 concerts
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in Japan complete.
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That would be kind of interesting.
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But at least all of the IPA, International Piano Archive's studio material should finally
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come out all together under one roof.
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The question is, what label could do this?
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I really don't know.
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But it's just an idea.
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OK, let's get off of Nirachazi and let's get back to reality and reasonable piano maveness.
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Box set number five that I would like to see would be a really wonderful Beethoven cycle
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that came out in 1970 on the Valois label on LP to mark the composer's 200th birthday.
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This was a cycle encompassing 12 LPs.
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And it featured the wonderful Norwegian pianist Robert Riefling.
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And you can hear transfers of the LPs of Riefling's Beethoven cycle on YouTube.
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And these are very aristocratic and intelligently planned and technically excellent performances.
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And I'd love to see a newly transferred digital edition either on CD or through downloadable
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files.
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This is a Beethoven cycle that I've enjoyed for many years.
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And even though the world honestly doesn't need another Beethoven sonata cycle, I've
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always said that excellence is its own justification.
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And I think that reissuing Robert Riefling's Beethoven cycle from 1970 or around that time
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would really draw attention to this pianist's wonderful musicianship.
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Now for box set number six, the American Pro Art label that was active in the 1980s and
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1980s recorded a lot of material with Peter Sirkin.
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And some of these Peter Sirkin recordings have been licensed to various groups for download
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purposes.
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I've talked about the Bach Guild big box download bundles that have revived some of the Pro
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Art catalog.
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Anyway, Peter Sirkin recorded extensively for Pro Art.
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Some of his recordings for that label can be found in these download bundles, but not
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all of them have appeared.
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He recorded not just on a modern Steinway, but also some of his Pro Art recordings were
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made on a forte piano.
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And there's a lot of wonderful material here.
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He recorded Bach's Goldberg variations with all the repeats and the Italian concerto.
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He recorded the late Beethoven sonatas on forte piano and he made a Steinway version
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of the Beethoven Hammerklavier sonata that has not been available for years.
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But this is one of my absolute favorite Hammerklavier recordings on record.
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He recorded the Diabelli variations for Pro Art.
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He did some Mozart solo works.
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He did a Chopin disc.
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He recorded the two Brahms concertos, which I find are rather underplayed.
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But still, I think that maybe musical concepts would be the label to bring out the complete
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Peter Sirkin Pro Art catalog and shove it all in a box, original jacket style.
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Why not?
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I mean, musical concepts already brought out the late Beethoven sonatas on forte piano,
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so why don't they go the whole hog, so to speak?
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So that's box set number six on my list, the complete Peter Sirkin on Pro Art.
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Now this next box set again may not turn out to be a box set.
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Maybe it's only two CDs, maybe a third CD.
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I don't know.
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But this is something that I would love to see happen.
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When the American pianist Anne Shine was in her early 20s, she recorded a series of releases
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for the American CAP label.
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That's K-A-P-P. CAP was a subsidiary of American DECA and part of that family of labels.
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And it's now controlled by Universal Classics, so far as I know.
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I think they have all of the American DECA and Westminster labels.
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Anyway, Anne Shine's recordings for CAP were highly acclaimed, and justifiably so.
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And they've had kind of a cult following.
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There was one release on the MCA label on CD, oh, maybe about 20 or so years ago, maybe
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30 years ago.
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I can't remember.
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And this release coupled Anne Shine's recital of etudes along with the four Chopin scherzos.
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These were two LPs on one CD.
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And she also recorded an excellent Rachmaninoff third concerto for CAP.
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And also for the label, she recorded Chopin's second concerto.
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I cannot think off the top of my head if she did more recordings for CAP.
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But a few years ago, I did meet someone at a small label who was seriously thinking about
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reissuing the Anne Shine CAP recordings.
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But since CAP, as I said before, is controlled by Universal Classics, maybe this might be
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another project for Australian eloquence.
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I guess it would take two CDs, maybe a third CD.
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So this really isn't a big box, so to speak.
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But this would be a wonderful reissue that I think a lot of people would enjoy.
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The complete CAP recordings by Anne Shine.
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So that's my box set or box set-ish release number seven.
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Box set number eight on my list of box sets I would like to see.
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Well, I'm going to slightly cheat here because I'm going to propose the same artist in two
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different box sets.
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From Warner Classics, I would like to see this label gather all of Shura Cherkasky's
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HMV and EMI recordings and remaster them all from scratch.
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We've never had Cherkasky's HMV and EMI recordings brought all together in one absolutely complete
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collection.
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So what about it?
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And the same goes for Universal Classics.
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Could Australian eloquence, again, shove all of the Shura Cherkasky recordings for Luazzo
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Lira, British Deka, Deutsche Gramophone, and ASV in a box, original jacket style?
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And would these also include the series of British Deka releases drawn from BBC material
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and have everything properly pitched while we're at it?
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I know there's a market for both of these box set ideas, the complete Shura Cherkasky
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on Warner and the complete Shura Cherkasky on Universal.
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Box set number nine.
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The piano duo of Jarrah Tull and Andreas Groteisen have made numerous CDs for Sony Classical.
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And not just the complete Schubert piano four hands repertoire, but tons of other releases
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featuring interesting and really varied repertoire.
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I have no idea how many CDs these pianists have made for Sony altogether.
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But I think a complete Tull and Groteisen duo recordings for Sony would make a really
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cool multi-disc big box set.
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And you'd get uniformly excellent recordings encompassing a great deal of the one piano
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four hands and two piano repertoire.
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I think this would really fill a need repertoire wise and it would be so easy to put this together,
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original jacket style of course.
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And now that we've landed at planet Sony BMG, I've come to the holy grail of my piano box
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set requests.
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This is box set number 10.
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And if you are a fan of Vladimir Horowitz, you know exactly where I am going with this.
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Just about every Vladimir Horowitz acolyte I know wants to see Sony BMG bring out an
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absolutely complete or as complete as possible edition of all of the concerts that Horowitz
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played at Carnegie Hall that he had arranged for the Carnegie Hall Recording Corporation
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to record for him privately.
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These private recordings live at Yale University and some of this material has been released
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to the public on Sony BMG as well as RCA Victor in previous years.
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And also a couple of concerts have leaked out so to speak and have floated around the
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underground.
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Yet, I know that serious piano mavens all over the world would give anything to see the entire
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Horowitz Yale collection made available at long last to the public in a box set.
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I think this is top priority of all the Horowitz projects that may be cooking.
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I also should mention, this is just a little sidebar, that there is a three disc set that
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I actually had annotated back in 2021 but it is still in contractual limbo so far as
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I know.
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And it involves Vladimir Horowitz and his 1968 television special.
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It includes all the performances, all the takes, all of the inserts, all of the false
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starts, all the rehearsal takes, all the talking and all the noodling around on the piano in
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between takes, I mean the whole kit and caboodle.
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And I hope that will come out pretty soon because it's absolutely fascinating.
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Also there still are miscellaneous Horowitz studio recordings that he did not originally
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approve for release.
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Yet I wonder if the masters exist because there are some odds and ends from the early
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1950s that have escaped from the vault and have floated around the so-called underground.
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I know that there are outtakes from the 1960s and 70s and I'm very curious to see what's
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there and what might be able to be issued.
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Also I wonder if the master tape exists that was edited down from various concerts recorded
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during Horowitz's disastrous 1983 tour.
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These were concerts where he was having memory lapses and playing tons of wrong notes and
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his playing was quite incoherent a lot of the time.
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A copy of this edited master tape was brought to Horowitz for his approval but he wouldn't
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even bother to listen so nothing ever happened.
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I guess that's understandable but does that edited tape exist anywhere?
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I would be very curious about it.
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But the most important thing is the 1940s and early 1950s Carnegie Hall material recorded
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privately for Horowitz, the entire Yale collection and I really hope that will come out on CD
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in our lifetime I hope.
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And let's hope that at least some of these piano box set ideas will eventually materialize
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into reality in 2025.
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In the meantime I wish you all the best for your health and well-being in the new year
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2025 and that you pursue what is important to you and to live as positively and lovingly
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as you can.
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This is Jed Disler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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guide to piano recordings and I look forward to being with you for the beginning of season
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number two in the new year.
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Oh and we do have one more episode in season one.
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It's going to be the best releases of 2024.
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Do you want to know what those are?
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Well you have to listen to our next episode.
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Be well.
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Enjoy the show.