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Bach Guild's Big Piano Concertos Box · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  Hello everyone, this is Jed Dissler and I welcome you to the Piano Maven, your friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  We were talking about holiday stocking stuffers a few weeks ago, and you know, when I was
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  too lazy or couldn't be bothered to buy Christmas presents for my nieces and nephews, I would
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  just give them a gift certificate that would allow them to download music.
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  And I would point out to them all of those cheap, cheap, cheapy cheap cheap downloadable
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  bundles of mp3 files from the Bach Guild.
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  The Bach Guild was originally launched in the early 1950s as a subsidiary label of
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  the Vanguard Record Company, and they issued mostly Bach and Baroque music and things like
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  that.
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  Anyway, Bach Guild is now a download label that offers these mp3 download bundles with
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  names like Big Beethoven Box or Bigger Oratorio Box or Big Mahler Box.
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  They have a big harpsichord box, there's a big Chopin box, a big ragtime box.
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  It goes on and on and on.
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  And you used to be able to find these download bundles for something like 99 cents a pop,
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  and you still can find them on different websites, although prices may vary.
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  I mean, you'll find them for $1.29 or maybe even a little more.
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  They're basically inexpensive, and these Bach Guild bundles are basically a handy way to
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  get hold of tons of music for not a lot of money.
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  So I'm looking now at the Bach Guild Big Piano Concertos Box.
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  This collection contains more than 10 hours of music, and much of the material originates
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  from the Vanguard label's Bach catalog.
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  We're going to go through the contents to see if it's really worth your hard-earned
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  99 cents or $1.29 or whatever.
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  So I'm looking through all the contents here on my computer folder in no particular order.
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  So let's see what we have first.
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  Oh, OK.
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  We have here Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9, Cursal 271, the so-called Junoam Concerto.
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  And this is the recording with Alfred Brendel that was on the Vanguard label with Antonio
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  Janigro conducting I Solisti di Zagreb.
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  This is a very fine performance, and I don't think it yields anything necessarily to Alfred
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  Brendel's remake on Phillips with Neville Mariner, especially in the sharp rhythmic
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  profile characterizing the outer movements.
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  This was a good choice for this collection.
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  Next on the list is the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist John Ockton, the
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  London Symphony Orchestra, and Pierre Monteux conducting.
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  This is a live recording.
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  It's good, but it's not great, and it's not all that well recorded.
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  You know, excellent Tchaikovsky first concerto recordings are a dime a dozen.
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  And I guess with this performance, you probably just had to be there.
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  I mean, it's not terrible.
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  I mean, it's certainly a fine performance, but you can really do so much better.
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  The next concerto on this list, oh, this is Mozart's final piano concerto, the Concerto
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  No. 27 in B-flat, Kershaw 595.
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  And this is a recording that was licensed from the sadly defunct pro-art label.
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  It has pianist Peter Serkin on wonderful form, and he gets fine support from Joseph Silverstein
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  conducting the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
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  Any Mozart with Peter Serkin really is worth hearing.
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  However, the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in this collection with Peter Serkin, I think
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  is kind of underplayed, not only from Serkin, but also in the rather diffident conducting
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  by Robert Shaw at the helm of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
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  This also was on the pro-art label.
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  Now there's a marvelous Beethoven fourth concerto with one of my very favorite pianists, Bruce
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  Hungerford, and this first appeared in a Vanguard box set on CD.
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  The only thing is that the orchestra and the conductor have never been identified.
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  Very strange.
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  And the sound quality could be better.
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  It's a live recording, but Bruce Hungerford plays wonderfully, so it's worth it for him.
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  Now we have the Grieg Concerto with Joseph Silverstein again conducting, and he's whipping
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  up great support from the Utah Symphony this time.
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  But his piano soloist is Russell Sherman, and Russell Sherman could be very finicky
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  and persnickety and interventionist and twitchy, and he just can't play anything simply.
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  I mean, he's not uninteresting, but this is a Grieg Concerto that is just too interventionist
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  for my taste.
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  And let's see, the next concerto in my list here.
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  Oh, this is a really distinctive Mozart G major concerto, Kershaw 453.
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  Friedrich Golda is playing.
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  He's wonderful, and he's in a very playful and spontaneous mood in those wonderful third
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  movement variations, and Paul Ungerer is conducting.
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  It's a really fine performance.
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  And we have Mozart's D minor concerto, Kershaw 466, and the pianist is a very stylish yet
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  overly gentle Dennis Matthews, and he's accompanied by Hans Swarovski conducting the Vienna State
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  Opera Orchestra, and it's not the most interesting accompaniment.
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  I mean, this conductor is basically beating time, and you can do much better in this concerto
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  at a bargain price.
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  And also part of this collection is the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, and this is a recording
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  that came out on Vanguard, and it features Rosina Levine.
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  She was in her late 70s or early 80s, and her playing is that of a seasoned artist who's
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  obviously been around the block with this concerto.
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  It's not the most scintillating Chopin first concerto you'll ever hear, but it's very
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  elegant and it's rippling and full of insights of phrasing and timing, and I think a lot
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  of young hotshot virtuosos can learn something from Rosina Levine's authority.
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  Now we have the Schumann Concerto.
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  Oh, this again is Russell Sherman.
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  This was originally coupled with the Grieg Concerto that I spoke about a few minutes
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  ago with the Utah Symphony conducted by Joseph Silverstein, and this was also on Pro Art.
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  But actually here, I have to say that Russell Sherman's fussy and finicky phrasing often
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  clarifies much of Schumann's thick contrapuntal textures, and this approach gives a kind of
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  extra kick to the cross-rhythmic phrases in the finale.
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  But for lyricism and singing eloquence, you really have to look elsewhere for Schumann
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  Concerto, and that's why I keep those wonderful Ivan Morovitz and Rudolf Sirken-Chopin Concerto
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  recordings close by.
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  Next in the set, another very fine Alfred Brendel and Antonio Janigro Mozart Concerto
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  collaboration, and this is the Concerto No. 14 in E flat, Kershaw, 449.
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  It's nice to have this in the collection.
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  Oh, then we have the Brahms First Concerto.
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  It's also underplayed.
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  This is the Peter Sirken, Robert Shaw, Atlantic recording.
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  Again, very underplayed.
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  You know, I just wish Peter Sirken had recorded these concertos with another conductor.
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  It would have been so much better because I heard him play the Brahms Second live, and
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  it was a very energetic and stimulating performances, but these two are definitely ma.
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  But these next recordings I'm going to talk about are real sleepers, and I had not heard
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  these Beethoven concerto performances until I got hold of this Bach Guild bundle.
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  Michael Rohl is the pianist.
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  That's R-O-L-L, and he's a really solid and stylish soloist in Beethoven's third and fifth
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  concertos with the Royal Philharmonic conducted by Howard Shelley, who is a great and very
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  underestimated pianist, I think.
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  These are really good interpretations not to be sniffed at, and there's also a very
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  strong Beethoven triple concerto from these forces, along with violinist Jean-Jacques
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  Cantoraux and cellist Raphael Valfiche.
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  Then we have Mozart's C major concerto, Kershaw 467, with Jonathan Carney conducting the Royal
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  Philharmonic.
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  The piano soloist is Ronan O'Hara, and he's a good soloist.
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  He's a little reticent and sometimes even prim.
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  And Ronan O'Hara's recordings frequently turn up in these Bach Guild bundles, by the
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  way.
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  Also from the Pro Art catalog, here's another sleeper, and this is a very overlooked and,
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  I think, highly distinctive Rachmaninoff piano concerto number three.
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  The pianist is Vladimir Viardo, and it has the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under the late
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  great Eduardo Mata.
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  This is a very strong Rachmaninoff third recording that no one ever seems to talk about, probably
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  because it's been long out of print on physical CD.
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  But maybe this performance is worth the price of the whole collection.
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  Hey, 99 cents for an excellent Rachmaninoff third concerto?
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  Well, why not?
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  Lastly, in this collection, we have two Soviet-era recordings issued in the 1950s.
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  I think they did come out on Vanguard.
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  I'm pretty sure they did.
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  And they're from the 1950s with Kirill Kondrashin conducting the Liszt concerto number one and
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  the Sasson concerto number two with piano soloist Emil Gilels.
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  And the sound isn't great, and the orchestra playing is really not that great.
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  Certainly it's not worthy of Kondrashin's talent.
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  I think you can find much better examples of Kondrashin conducting concertos.
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  But Gilels really does play the piano parts wonderfully well.
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  But if you want to hear the Liszt concerto really shine and take shape under Kondrashin's
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  baton, you have to go to his classic studio recordings of both Liszt concertos with Pianist
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  Fyodorov-Richter.
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  And that's a release that deserves a whole podcast episode in and of itself.
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  So here's the $64,000 question, or more accurately, the 99 cents question.
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  Is it worth plopping down your hard-earned 99 cents or your hard-earned $1.29 or $1.79
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  or whatever these things cost within the bargain basement range to download the Bach Guild
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  Big Piano Concerto Box?
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  I would say yes, if only for the Vladimir Viorda-Rachmaninoff III, the Rossina Levine-Chopin I, the Peter
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  Serkin and Alfred Brendel and Friedrich Golda Mozart items, the Michael Rohl Beethoven
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  performances, and I suppose it's good to have the Russell Sherman Schumann and Gris
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  coupling as a curiosity that you will listen to every once in a while.
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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.
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  I look forward to being with you for the next episode.
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  Take good care.