Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Ripe for Reissue - Four Out-of-Print Piano Box Sets (rebroadcast of Season Two Episode 60)

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Ripe for Reissue - Four Out-of-Print Piano Box Sets (rebroadcast of Season Two Episode 60) · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler, 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 Substack 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 Magan, 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 Decca
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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, Op. 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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  Magan had recorded much more Chopin for Decca.
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  And like pianists who are primarily composers,
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  Milos Magan 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 Milos Smagen 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 barcarolle,
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  the fantasy, and the bolero, and some little
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  sniglets like the largo and the equisais 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. in
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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 Magin 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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  Marie Pariah and Alfred Brendel editions, which,
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  of course, Western collectors knew much more
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  about. 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 Mazur's conducting are
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  clearly audible, such as his unerring... tempo
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  choices, and the sweetly singing yet never cloying
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  Dresden strings, and the woodwinds have real
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  characterful bite. It kind of reminds me of the
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  Czech philharmonic of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
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  And for her part, Anna Rosa Schmidt proves that
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  she's just as stylish and enlivening a Mozart
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  pianist as any of her other better -known colleagues.
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  She has a pearly legato that's very attractive,
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  and it allows for subtle variations in articulation,
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  while shapely and vibrant interaction between
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  both of her hands consistently points up the
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  music's harmonic felicities and dramatic inferences.
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  Some really good examples of what I mean are
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  to be found in the E -flat concerto, Kershaw
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  449, in the finale. The contrapuntal clarity
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  at the outset is very impressive. And we have
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  a really joyful and ebullient recording of that
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  underrated D major concerto, Kershaw 451. I don't
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  know why this concerto doesn't get the attention
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  that others get. I mean, this is a wonderful
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  work. And the G major concerto, the Kershaw 453
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  third movement theme and variations, feature
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  some really inspired and witty interplay between
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  the soloist and ensemble. Now, maybe the minor
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  key concertos, the D minor, Kershaw 466, and
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  C minor, 491. come off sounding relatively lightweight
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  next to darker and fuller -throated versions.
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  I'm thinking of the Alfred Brendel and Charles
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  Macaris remakes with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
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  But on the other hand, the big, symphonically
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  -scaled E -flat concerto, Kershaw 482, benefits
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  from lean textures and animated tempi in the
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  outer movements. So... Altogether, I think this
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  is a sleeper of a Mozart cycle, and it's definitely
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  ripe for reissue. The third Bach set I'd like
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  to talk about features the French pianist France
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  Clida. She lived from 1932 until 2012. She recorded
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  an extensive survey of Franz Liszt's original
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  solo piano compositions for the French Vega label,
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  whose catalog is controlled by Universal Classics.
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  She did not set down the many transcriptions.
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  list in this series, nor did she include works
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  based on other people's themes, like, for example,
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  the Bach Weinenklagen Sorgensagen, or the Prelude
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  and Fugue on BACH, that's also an organ work.
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  The recordings in this box mainly concern original
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  works, totally original works. Anyway, Decca
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  brought out all of these recordings in a 14 -disc
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  box set back in 2010. Their recordings date from
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  the late 60s through the early 1970s. Essentially,
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  France Clidart was a big technician and a big
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  list stylist, but she also had a classical streak
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  and a sense of reserve to her playing. I generally
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  think that her interpretations hold their own
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  with all great list players, and they deserve
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  to be more widely available. So, on these 14
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  CDs, you get a lot of music. The complete Année
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  de Pelerinage, the two legends, the six consolations,
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  the two ballades, the 19 Hungarian rhapsodies,
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  the Spanish rhapsody. the Harmonie Poétique et
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  Religieuse, the Transcendental Etudes, the B
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  minor Sonata, of course, all of the late pieces,
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  and a lot of small pieces too. So there's a lot
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  to savor here. This is definitely a box that's
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  ripe for reissue. And my fourth box that's ripe
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  for reissue features another French pianist.
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  whom I'd like to talk about, Raymond Trouard.
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  And 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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  Liszt Sonata, which he said is the greatest one
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  ever made. I don't know if I would agree with
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  that, but it was a really, really impressive
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  recording. And when the French branch of Sony
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  Classical brought out a commemorative 11 -CD
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  set in tribute to Raymond Trouard, it included
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  that recording of the Liszt Sonata, and it was
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  every bit as wonderful as I had remembered. And
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  also... pretty wonderful are his recordings of
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  the two Liszt concertos that are in this box.
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  Basically, Sony Classical drew from a number
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  of sources to put the set together. And sometimes
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  the sonics are dry and not very attractive. And
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  sometimes you can say the same about Truar's
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  pianism. But there's a lot of good stuff in this
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  collection. In addition to the list, such as
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  Schubert waltzes, there's an excellent Haydn
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  F major sonata. or first -rate recordings of
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  the Grieg and Tchaikovsky concertos. There are
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  24 Chopin mazurkas. There's a lot more list.
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  All of the Chopin waltzes are here. The three
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  so -called name Beethoven sonatas, the Moonlight
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  Pathetique and the Passionata, and also the Pastoral
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  Sonata. And there's a lot more Raymond Trouard
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  out there in discography land beyond these 11
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  CDs. So maybe one day some record company will
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  corral the entirety of the Raymond Trouard discography
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  together and shove it all in a big box. Is that
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  going to happen in my lifetime? I doubt it. But
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  at least this 11 -CD set from French Sony Classical
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  called Raymond Trouard, Une Vie Pour Le Piano,
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  A Life For The Piano, is definitely a worthwhile
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  candidate for reissue. So here we have four piano
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  box sets that are ripe for reissue, and hopefully
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  in our lifetime, because you can't buy them or
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  listen to them when you're dead. Well, maybe
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  I shouldn't assume that. You know, if I die and
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  go to heaven, does the St. Peter Piano Library
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  have all of these box sets? Probably so. But
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  if I am sent the opposite route... which could
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  well happen, I am sure I will be forced to listen
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  to the Pachelbel Canon 24 hours a day for eternity.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. Thank you for tuning in.
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  And are there any box sets that are ripe for
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  reissue that you would like to draw attention
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  to? Please let me know. I'd like to know what
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  you think. Take good care.