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Ripe for Reissue - Four Out-of-Print Piano Box Sets · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler 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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  by going to the link on my sub stack page and
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  I've provided a link in today's episode description.
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  We've been talking lately about box sets that
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  I would love to see released, either box sets
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  that we really need, or box sets that we want
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  rather than need, or box sets that only a handful
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  of piano crazies like myself would have any interest
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  in buying. But today, I'm going to talk about
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  four piano box sets that I happen to find quite
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  interesting and that I feel deserve to be reissued.
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  These are not easy to source in physical format,
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  that's for sure, but I do have them in my collection
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  and they certainly are ripe for reissue. So let's
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  start with the first one. This features the Polish
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  composer and pianist Milos Magin, who lived from...
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  1929 until 1999, and it consists of 10 CDs that
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  contain all of the recordings of Chopin's music
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  that he made for the French branch of the Deca
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  label. I first heard these recordings, oh, many
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  years ago. I heard the Etudes and I heard the
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  Preludes, Opus 28, and I thought they were such
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  stimulating and original. interpretations, and
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  it was only after that that I realized that Milos
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  Magen had recorded much more Chopin for Deka.
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  And like pianists who are primarily composers,
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  Milos Magen tends to give special emphasis to
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  bass lines, and he also underlines Chopin's extraordinary
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  harmonic ideas. but in a way where it's not blatant
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  or overly obvious. Universal Classics' Accord
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  label in France brought out a 10 -disc set that
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  encompasses all of the Milo Smaggin Chopin recordings.
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  It came out in a box. Now, he did not record
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  the complete Chopin, but he did quite a lot.
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  I was really taken with his Polonaises, for example.
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  They have great thrust and rhythmic swagger and
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  emotional intensity. The concertos are very good,
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  although they're not my tip -top recommendations.
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  The nocturnes... are rather close to that angular
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  style that characterizes Arthur Rubinstein's
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  late 40s, early 50s nocturne cycle. We have the
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  14 standard waltzes, the berceuse, the barkerl,
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  the fantasy, and the bolero, and some little
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  sniglets like the largo and the aquecise and
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  the funeral march. We have readings of the four
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  Balads. And I already spoke about the Polonaises.
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  All the standard ones are here. But curiously,
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  he didn't record the Polonaise fantasy. I'm sorry
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  he did not. But we do have all three sonatas,
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  including the first sonata that no one cares
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  about. And the etudes, like I said. The three
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  rondos are here, the opus 1, opus 5, and opus
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  16. And there are 44 of the Mazurkas. And Milos
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  Magin really understands the Mazurka idiom. He
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  brings out all of Chopin's sophisticated harmonic
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  wizardry, but he's not afraid to get down and
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  dirty as well when the music calls for it. So
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  I would love to see this 10 -disc collection
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  of Milos Magen playing Chopin gain a new lease
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  on catalog life. My next box set that is ripe
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  for reissue is a Mozart piano concerto cycle
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  that no one ever talks about. I reviewed it fairly
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  recently for ClassicToday .com, and I wager that
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  few Western collectors in the 1970s even knew
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  about it. It features the piano soloist Anna
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  Rosa Schmidt, who lived from 1936 until 2022.
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  And it's conducted by Kurt Mazur. He's leading
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  the Dresdener Philharmonie. And these recordings
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  originally were issued on LP by the East German
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  Eterna label. They were recorded between 1972
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  and 1978, if I'm not mistaken, appearing more
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  or less in tandem with their contemporaneous
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  Murray Pariah and Alfred Brendel editions, which
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  of course Western collectors knew much more about.
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  And... The sonics are a little reverberant and
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  they turn kind of diffuse and loud tooties and
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  there really isn't a lot of bottom to the sonics.
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  But I like the performances and I feel that the
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  salient virtues of Kurt Masur's conducting are
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  clearly audible such as his unerring tempo choices,
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  and the sweetly singing, yet never cloying Dresden
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  strings, and the woodwinds have real characterful
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  bite. It kind of reminds me of the Czech Philharmonic
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  of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. And for her part, Anna
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  Rosa Schmidt proves that she's just as stylish
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  and enlivening a Mozart pianist as any of her
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  other better -known colleagues. She has a pearly
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  legato that's very attractive and it allows for
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  subtle variations in articulation while shapely
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  and vibrant interaction between both of her hands
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  consistently points up the music's harmonic felicities
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  and dramatic inferences. Some really good examples
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  of what I mean are to be found in the E flat
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  concerto, Kershel 449, in the finale. The contrapuntal
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  clarity at the outset is very impressive. And
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  we have a really joyful and ebullient recording
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  of that underrated D major concerto, Kershel
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  451. I don't know why this concerto doesn't get
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  the attention that others get. I mean, this is
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  a wonderful work. And the G major concerto, the
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  Kershaw 453 third movement theme and variations,
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  features some really inspired and witty interplay
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  between the soloist and ensemble. Now maybe the
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  minor key concertos, the D minor, Kershaw 466
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  and C minor, 491. come off sounding relatively
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  lightweight next to darker and fuller -throated
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  versions. I'm thinking of the Alfred Brendal
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  and Charles McHarris remakes with the Scottish
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  Chamber Orchestra. But on the other hand, the
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  big, symphonically -scaled E -flat concerto,
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  Kerschel 482, benefits from lean textures and
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  animated tempi in the outer movements. So...
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  Altogether, I think this is a sleeper of a Mozart
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  cycle, and it's definitely ripe for a reissue.
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  The third Bach set I'd like to talk about features
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  the French pianist France Clida. She lived from
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  1932 until 2012. She recorded an extensive survey
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  of Franz Liszt's original solo piano compositions
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  for the French Vega label, whose catalogue is
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  controlled by Universal Classics. She did not
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  set down the many transcriptions of Liszt in
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  this series, nor did she include works based
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  on other people's themes, like, for example,
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  the Bach -Weinenklagen -Sorgen -Sagen, or the
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  Prelude and Fugue on B -A -C -H, that's also
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  an organ work. The recordings in this box mainly
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  concern original. works, totally original works.
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  Anyway, Decca brought out all of these recordings
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  in a 14 -disc box set back in 2010. Their recordings
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  date from the late 60s through the early 1970s.
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  Essentially, France Clidin was a big technician
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  and a big list stylist, but she also had a classical
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  streak and a sense of reserve to her playing.
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  I generally think that her interpretations hold
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  their own with all great list players, and they
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  deserve to be more widely available. So on these
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  14 CDs, you get a lot of music, the complete
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  Année de Pelerinage, the two legends, the six
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  consolations, the two ballads, the 19 Hungarian
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  Rhapsodies, the Spanish Rhapsody, the Harmonie
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  Poétique et Religieuse, the Transcendental Etudes,
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  the B Minor Sonata, of course, all of the late
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  pieces, and a lot of small pieces too. So there's
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  a lot to savor here. This is definitely a box
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  that's ripe for reissue. And my fourth box that's
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  ripe for reissue features another French pianist.
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  whom I like to talk about, Raymond Truard. And
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  he lived from 1916 until 2008, when he passed
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  away at the age of 92. His career took off in
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  the late 1930s, and he became quite highly regarded,
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  not just as a performer, but also as a teacher.
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  He made a good number of recordings for various
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  labels, primarily for Odeon in France, and also
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  for the French branches of CBS and EMI. I had
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  first heard about Raymond Trouard through a record
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  collector friend of mine, the late Philip Stern,
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  who had a penchant for discovering rare records.
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  And although he wasn't a trained musician, Phil
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  had big ears. And I remember that he played excerpts
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  for me from Raymond Trouard's recording of the
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  Lysenata, which he said is the greatest one ever
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  made. I don't know if I would agree with that,
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  but it was a really, really impressive recording.
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  And when the French branch of Sony Classical
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  brought out a commemorative 11 -CD set in tribute
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  to Raymond Truard, it included that recording
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  of the Lissanada, and it was every bit as wonderful
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  as I had remembered. And also... pretty wonderful
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  are his recordings of the two list concertos
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  that are in this box. Basically, Sony Classical
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  drew from a number of sources to put the set
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  together. And sometimes the sonics are dry and
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  not very attractive. And sometimes you can say
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  the same about Truar's pianism. But there's a
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  lot of good stuff in this collection. In addition
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  to the list, such as Schubert waltzes, there's
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  an excellent Haydn F major sonata. There are
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  are first -rate recordings of the Grieg and Tchaikovsky
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  concertos. There are 24 Chopin mazurkas. There's
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  a lot more list. All of the Chopin waltzes are
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  here. The three so -called named Beethoven sonatas,
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  the Moonlight, Pathetique, and the Passionata,
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  and also the Pastoral Sonata. And there's a lot
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  more Raymond Truard out there in discography
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  land beyond these 11 CDs. So maybe one day some
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  record company will corral the entirety of the
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  Raymond Truard discography together and shove
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  it all in a big box. Is that going to happen
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  in my lifetime? I doubt it. But at least this
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  11 CD set from French Sony classical called Raymond
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  Truar, Une vie pour le piano, a life for the
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  piano, is definitely a worthwhile candidate for
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  reissue. So here we have four piano box sets
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  that are ripe for reissue and hopefully in our
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  lifetime because you can't buy them or listen
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  to them when you're dead. Well, maybe I shouldn't
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  assume that, you know, if I die and go to heaven,
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  does the St. Peter piano library have all of
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  these box sets? Probably so. But if I am sent
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  the opposite route, which could well happen,
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  I am sure I will be forced to listen to the Pachelbel
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  canon 24 hours a day for eternity. This is Jed
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  Disler, and you've been listening to the Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Thank you for tuning in. And are there any box
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  sets that are ripe for reissue that you would
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  like to draw attention to? Please let me know.
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  I'd like to know what you think. Take good care.