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Brilliant Classics' Virtuoso Etudes Box · 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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  Back in 2019, the brilliant Classics label assembled this 22 CD collection, a big box
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  devoted to virtuoso piano etudes, and it still seems to be in print.
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  I looked on Amazon and I only saw it used, but I went to the brilliant Classics website
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  and apparently it still seems to be available.
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  Anyway, it's not difficult to source.
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  If you are a ClassicsToday.com insider subscriber, you can access the link to my review that
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  I posted in the episode notes.
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  I also posted a link to the video that my friend and colleague David Hurwitz made about
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  this collection for his YouTube channel, which I highly highly recommend if you haven't seen
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  his YouTube videos.
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  They are pretty amazing.
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  He has more than 3,000 of them.
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  It's incredible.
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  Will I get to 3,000 podcast episodes of the Piano Maven?
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  Who knows?
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  Anyway, back to this 22 CD etude collection, the majority of these recordings come from
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  brilliant Classics back catalog, along with items licensed from other labels.
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  Essentially, this collection encompasses the history of the piano etude.
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  The back of the box lists the contents for each disc, but it doesn't list the performers
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  on the back of the box.
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  So the only way you can find out who is playing what is after you open the box and you look
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  at the back of each of the 22 individual CD jackets.
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  I guess you can also find out the performers if you look online or if you look in my review
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  or in Dave Hurwitz's video.
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  So we have 22 CDs, and let's go through them.
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  The first disc gives you excerpts from Carl Czerny's The Art of Finger Dexterity, Op.
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  740.
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  He was prolific, wasn't he?
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  Fred Oldenburg is the pianist, and he plays 30 of these etudes very, very well.
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  I have to tell you, though, if you want to hear this entire cycle, all of Op.
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  740, complete, you definitely have to check out a recording made by Francesco Libetta.
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  It's on the VAI label, and his virtuosity is absolutely scintillating.
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  But the Fred Oldenburg selections are really quite good, and that will give you a sufficient
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  taste of the Czerny etudes.
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  CD number two gives us the fourth volume of the complete Gratis ad Parnassum by Muzio
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  Clementi with pianist Alessandro Marangoni.
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  And this originally appeared on Noxus.
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  These are terrific performances, full of spirit and vitality.
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  His complete series of the Gratis ad Parnassum is not available on physical CDs from Noxus
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  anymore, but you can stream or download the recordings.
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  By the way, Alessandro Marangoni recorded for Noxus also the complete piano music of
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  Rossini.
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  And that's a box set that I also reviewed, and I should talk about that on this podcast
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  sometime soon.
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  Let's look at CD number three.
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  It's all music by Stephen Heller, the Hungarian pianist and teacher who lived from, let me
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  check, 1813 until 1888.
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  And you get the 25 melodic studies, Opus 45, and the progressive studies, Opus 46, numbers
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  one through 15.
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  This disc was originally part of a two disc set that Brilliant Classics released many,
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  many years ago that contained Heller's complete Opus 45, 46, and 47 etudes.
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  And I actually reviewed that original release for ClassicsToday.com.
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  And I like these pieces a lot.
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  They are attractive and well-crafted etudes.
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  And the pianist Jan Vermeulen is a solid and sensitive artist.
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  He's not the most scintillating, exciting virtuoso in the shed, maybe, but it's a very
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  fine piano playing just the same.
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  CD number four opens with the 24 etudes, Opus 125 by Johann Nepomuk-Hommel.
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  This is a composer that the writer Harald C. Schoenberg said was overrated in his time,
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  not underrated in our time.
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  And I think that's a pretty fair and astute assessment.
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  The etudes are played by Mary Louise Berm, who was a strong advocate for neglected piano
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  repertoire.
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  She also was one of New York's first pianists to really champion period instruments seriously.
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  She also happened to be my downstairs neighbor, by the way, in my apartment building.
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  She had an impressive collection of period instruments in her apartment.
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  And I got to know her pretty well in her last years, and she told me some great stories
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  about her teacher, Walter Gieseking, that I will share with you sometime on another
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  episode.
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  Anyway, her 1968 recording of the Hommel 24 etudes, I think was a pioneering effort.
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  They weren't recorded before, so far as I know.
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  And these performances have held up marvelously well for more than half a century.
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  Also on this CD number four, we have various etudes by Ignaz Moscheles, who was the mentor
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  of Mendelssohn and a very important teacher and composer in his own right.
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  They are performed very well by Michael Ponte.
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  CD five continues with Michael Ponte, and we have a lot of repertoire here.
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  We have two concert etudes by Carl Tausig, and curiously, just one etude by Moritz Moskowski,
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  the etude in F major that Vladimir Horowitz used to make famous as an encore.
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  There's one Anton Rubinstein etude, but then we have all 12 of the characteristic etudes
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  by Adolf Henselt, the most familiar of these 12.
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  In fact, the only familiar one of these etudes is number six, which is called Si Wo So Je
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  Te, If I Was a Bird.
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  Those of us who collected those cheap Vox boxes in the 1960s and 70s remember those
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  box sets with three discs, and they sold for next to nothing.
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  Now, if we wanted a lot of rare piano repertoire, romantic fare, stuff like that, we generally
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  had to contend with Michael Ponte, and he recorded boatloads of obscure romantic solo
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  and concerto repertoire for Vox back in the day.
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  He also did the complete Scriabin piano music, the complete Tchaikovsky solo piano music.
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  He did the complete Rachmaninoff.
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  He did all of this for Vox.
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  I remember when I was a student, we all basically wrote off Michael Ponte as a hack who just
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  banged his way through all of this music after having sight read it one or two or three times.
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  Of course, I was totally wrong.
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  Michael Ponte worked very hard, and he really was a terrific pianist.
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  And he was capable of great nuance and style when he put his mind to it, and there's a
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  lot of evidence to that, including many of these recordings.
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  Also filling out CD number five are the five etudes by Anatoly Lyadov, played by Marco
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  Rapetti.
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  And these are lovely pieces and they're lovely performances.
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  So now we arrive at CD number six.
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  We start getting into the meat and potatoes of the etude repertoire.
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  This disc gives us all of the Chopin etudes, the Opus 10 group, Opus 25, and the three
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  Nouvelle etudes, all in terrific performances by Zlatko Chocieva.
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  And this is one of the best of the recent Chopin etude cycles.
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  She's an imaginative virtuoso, and she just brings these etudes to life.
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  They're marvelous performances.
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  CD number seven gives us wonderful performances by Wolfram Schmidt-Leonardi of Schumann's
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  Symphonic Etudes.
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  And these include the five Posthumous etudes, and Schmidt-Leonardi places them at different
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  points within the main text.
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  And from Peter Frankel's 1974 Schumann cycle for the Vox label, we get very fine versions
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  of Schumann's etudes based on the Paganini Caprices, Opus 3 and Opus 10.
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  We go now to CD eight, and here we have the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt in
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  recordings from 2010 by Mariangela Vacatello.
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  I heard her give an excellent recital back in 2010 in New York at the International Keyboard
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  Institute and Festival, and although her interpretations of the Liszt Transcendentals may not be the
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  most hair-raising or individual on record, they are technically excellent and they're
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  always very musical.
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  There are no quirky mannerisms at all.
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  I like these recordings more and more as I listen to them, and I'm very happy to have
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  them in my collection, and it's good to have them in this box set.
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  CD number nine is interesting because it allows you to compare Liszt's six etudes after Paganini
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  with the same pieces but in Busoni's edition, and Busoni makes a lot of textural changes.
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  So we have wonderful renditions of the original Liszt Paganini with Goran Filipek, and we
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  have the Busoni editions played by Sandro Ivo Bartoli.
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  He's a very fine pianist and an interesting musician.
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  I have to tell you that during the pandemic, Sandro Ivo Bartoli did this amazing project
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  where he made YouTube videos for each and every Scarlatti sonata, playing them on the
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  piano.
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  This was quite an extraordinary project, and it really impressed me a lot when it was going
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  on.
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  Also on CD nine, we have Clara Wirtz playing Waldessrauschen, the forest murmurs or forest
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  scenes.
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  I don't know how you translate that.
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  It's a very beautiful etude.
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  And then the etude La Legerezza is played by Vanessa Benelli Moselli, and these are
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  really, really good performances.
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  CDs 10, 11, and 12 all feature that strange maverick composer, Charles Valentin Alkan.
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  And on CDs 10 and 11, we have the complete cycle of the 12 etudes and all the minor keys,
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  opus 39, which include the Alkan Symphony, etudes four through seven, the Alkan Concerto
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  for solo piano, which are etudes eight, nine, and 10.
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  And the 12th etude is that amazing set of variations, Le Festin des Soppe, the Festival
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  of Aesop.
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  That's one of the wackiest pieces of music ever.
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  And all of these 12 etudes are fabulously performed by Vincenzo Maltempo.
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  And filling out CD number 10 are two of the three etudes, opus 76, with a real maverick
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  of a pianist, a very interesting pianist, Alessandro Delgavone.
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  CD number 12 contains the 12 etudes and all of the major keys, opus 35, and the pianist
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  is Mark Weiner.
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  This is a reference recording bar none.
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  Wonderful, wonderful piano playing.
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  CD 13 gives us the etudes by Camille Sasson, opus 52 and opus 111, plus the six etudes
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  for left hand alone, opus 135.
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  All of these come from the Vox cycle of Sasson's complete piano music, recorded in the early
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  70s by Marilynne Doss, D-O-S-S-E.
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  I hope that's how you pronounce her name.
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  These are brilliant and idiomatic performances in every way.
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  Maybe they're a little on the dry side, but they are really excellent.
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  CD 14 gives us one of the best recordings of Brahms Paganini variations, and again the
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  pianist is Wolfram Schmidt-Leonardi.
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  Then we have three etudes by Sergei Bortkiewicz with Pavel Gintoff at the piano, beautifully
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  played.
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  Then Michel D'Ambrosio playing the six studies, opus 70 by Alfredo Casella.
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  And then we have Mark Weiner again on top, top form in the six etudes, opus 35 by Cecil
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  Chaminade.
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  CD number 15 gives us the 12 Transcendental etudes by Sergei Lyopunov, and these are performed
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  by Vincenzo Maltempo.
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  Again, he's a fantastic pianist, and these are totally enjoyable and definitely reference-worthy
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  performances.
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  CD 16 is another reference recording, and I really love this.
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  It's the complete Rachmaninoff etude tableau.
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  And again we have Zlatka Chocieva.
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  We heard her in the Chopin etudes before, and this is stunning, stunning piano playing.
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  Then on CD 17 from Dmitry Alexeyev's brilliant Classics box set devoted to Scriabin's complete
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  piano works, we have what else?
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  The complete Scriabin etudes, and what's not to love?
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  This is a great cycle.
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  CD 18 is the first of the two discs that Emanuele De Luque recorded, encompassing the complete
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  Leopold Godofsky etudes based on Chopin's etudes.
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  And the works on this disc cover the Godofsky etudes based on Chopin's original Op.
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  X etudes.
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  I wish that the second disc in this cycle, with the Op.
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  25 and the Nouvelle etude transcriptions, had been included also.
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  Oh well, can't have everything.
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  And you can read my reviews for the original brilliant Classics release of the De Luque-Chopin-Godofsky
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  cycle on ClassicsToday.com.
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  CD 19 brings back pianist Mariangela Vacatello, and she's playing the 12th Debussy etudes.
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  I don't think her Debussy etudes are as good as her Liszt etudes.
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  There are very nice moments.
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  For instance, she impetuously tosses off the final etudes, treacherous leaps from chords
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  to octaves.
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  And she also shapes the rapid scales in the etude called Pour les huit doigts with lovely
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  shifts between legato and detached articulation.
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  But the sonics are kind of dry, and to be honest, there's much superior competition on
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  disc in these works.
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  Then we have Earl Wilde's seven virtuoso etudes based on George Gershwin songs.
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  And these are played by Giovanni Dora Milietta.
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  And I think these are just underplayed and overly gentle performances.
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  They're kind of spineless, in fact.
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  And you just have to compare them to Earl Wilde's own performances, and it's a whole
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  other world.
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  CD20 presents important 20th century sets of etudes, the Stravinsky Opus 7, the three
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  Bartok studies, Opus 18, the four etudes de rythm of Messiaen, and the first two books
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  of Ligeti's etudes.
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  These are all recordings by Erika Haas.
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  They were originally on the Tasset label.
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  She's a good pianist, and she's very serious minded.
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  But to be honest, she doesn't have a lot of pizzazz.
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  It's very good, workman-like playing.
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  And look, if I could play these pieces on her level, I'd be really happy.
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  But again, there is a lot of superior recorded competition.
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  On CD21, we have six of the eight concert etudes by Nikolai Kapustin, who writes written-out
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  jazz.
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  He's an absolutely fabulous composer.
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  These are really fine performances by Suk-Yong Kim, and they were originally issued on piano
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  classics.
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  Then we have a series of pieces called Play Piano Play by Friedrich Gulda, and they're
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  played by Sasha Droinyuk.
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  And these are 10 cute but relatively inconsequential pieces.
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  And then we have the Etude Borealis by John Cage, played by Giancarlo Simonacci.
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  And the final CD, number 22, contains the first book of etudes by Philip Glass.
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  And these are the recordings by Jérôme Van Veen.
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  And he's recorded all of the Philip Glass piano music.
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  He's recorded tons and tons of minimalist pieces for piano.
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  And he's quite an enterprising and prolific and really marvelous, very special pianist,
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  and also a very fine composer in his own right.
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  So that's the rundown for this 22 CD virtuoso piano etude collection from Brilliant Classics.
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  There's a lot of good stuff here, obviously, although if you look at the contents on the
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  whole, they represent a slightly skewed historical perspective of the piano etude.
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  And there are, as you've gathered, some noticeable repertoire gaps.
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  For instance, we have Heller and Charony and Clementi, but there's not a single piece by
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  Johann Baptist Kramer, whose 80 or so etudes are very important pedagogical pieces.
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  And I'm sure that Brilliant Classics could have licensed a recording of those pieces.
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  There aren't any Prokofiev etudes.
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  There are no etudes of Busoni.
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  And as I said before, only one Moskovsky etude.
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  Wouldn't have been great if they had gotten the master tape for Ilona Vared's recording
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  of the 15 Moskovsky etudes, Opus 72, which have never been out on CD complete.
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  But look, we have a generous amount of music gathered together in one place, so I really
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  shouldn't complain.
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  Now some collectors might find it frustrating that while you get all of the Alkan etudes
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  and minor keys, in fact, while you get three CDs worth of Alkan, you only get half of the
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  Chopin-Gudovsky studies or half of the Philip Glass etudes.
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  That's why I think that perhaps this box set was curated in somewhat of a hurry and perhaps
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  curated with more expediency rather than with the most careful and thoughtful planning in
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  the world.
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  But as I hope I've made clear to you, there is so much music to savor and so many fine
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  performances to enjoy.
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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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  Well, you have a lot of etudes to check out now, so I wish you happy listening.