Claudio Arrau's RCA & Columbia boxed set coming!

[Lance]

All these wonderful boxed sets keep coming! Sony Classical has announced, due in October, a 12-CD set of all of Claudio Arrau's** recordings (original covers) will be forthcoming. It was, for me, his earliest recordings for these labels, and EMI, that I admired his art most.

**Thank you, John Francis! That was a real faux pas.

[John F]

As a kid, I got Iturbi's coupling of the Liszt Concerto #1 and Mendelssohn Concerto #1 because it was the cheapest way to get both works. Then I discovered I didn't like either of them. Before that, my parents had the Iturbis' 78 rpm recording of Mozart's double concerto, which is how I learned the piece.

Iturbi's style of playing and his sound don't appeal to me at all, but I did find one of his recordings to play in my program last year: Morton Gould's "Boogie-Woogie Etude." Gould wrote it for Iturbi and it suits him perfectly. Mozart and Chopin? Not.

By the way, wasn't this thread supposed to be about Claudio Arrau? **

** It was, and corrected accordingly,
with thanks for calling attention to it.

[slofstra]

Thanks for the notice, Lance. I pre-ordered this immediately, especially when I saw the very reasonable price.

Arrau continues to be one of my favourite pianists.

Just last night I was listening to his rendition of Brahm's Variations on a Theme by Haydn. The rhythm and colour displayed in his pianism always make my ears perk up. This is a marvellous recording. And now I have to admit I'm slightly puzzled, as this piece was composed for orchestra, and like many of Brahm's compositions, in a version for two pianos. I'm fairly sure I only heard one.

[Lance]

I thought this one as little more pricey than usual, but still worth it. As I may have said, I recognized Arrau's pianism and appreciated it early on in his American Decca and EMI days. (He produced some fabulous sounds from his Baldwin concert grand back then, and switched to Steinway later.) When he switched to Philips, he was, of course, much older, but I was not as much taken with his playing except (especially Beethoven). It was kind of like that with Alfred Brendel when he recorded for Vox, just after his studies with Edwin Fischer, then switched to Philips. Musically, I was more taken with the early Brendel, but then there are a number of great things of his on Philips (now Decca/Universal) that I admire very much. Brilliant issued a fine boxed set with all of Brendel's recordings on Vox and Vanguard. Now they have issued a complete Brendel on Philips (I think it's complete), but I already have so much on Philips that I really wanted, I decided to pull away from the Brendel set.

Thanks for the notice, Lance. I pre-ordered this immediately, especially when I saw the very reasonable price.

Arrau continues to be one of my favourite pianists.

Just last night I was listening to his rendition of Brahm's Variations on a Theme by Haydn. The rhythm and colour displayed in his pianism always make my ears perk up. This is a marvellous recording. And now I have to admit I'm slightly puzzled, as this piece was composed for orchestra, and like many of Brahm's compositions, in a version for two pianos. I'm fairly sure I only heard one.

[slofstra]

I thought this one as little more pricey than usual, but still worth it. As I may have said, I recognized Arrau's pianism and appreciated it early on in his American Decca and EMI days. (He produced some fabulous sounds from his Baldwin concert grand back then, and switched to Steinway later.) When he switched to Philips, he was, of course, much older, but I was not as much taken with his playing except (especially Beethoven). It was kind of like that with Alfred Brendel when he recorded for Vox, just after his studies with Edwin Fischer, then switched to Philips. Musically, I was more taken with the early Brendel, but then there are a number of great things of his on Philips (now Decca/Universal) that I admire very much. Brilliant issued a fine boxed set with all of Brendel's recordings on Vox and Vanguard. Now they have issued a complete Brendel on Philips (I think it's complete), but I already have so much on Philips that I really wanted, I decided to pull away from the Brendel set.

Thanks for the notice, Lance. I pre-ordered this immediately, especially when I saw the very reasonable price.

Arrau continues to be one of my favourite pianists.

Just last night I was listening to his rendition of Brahm's Variations on a Theme by Haydn. The rhythm and colour displayed in his pianism always make my ears perk up. This is a marvellous recording. And now I have to admit I'm slightly puzzled, as this piece was composed for orchestra, and like many of Brahm's compositions, in a version for two pianos. I'm fairly sure I only heard one.

The price for the set in Canada is $37.79 CDN or about $28 US. Not bad for 12 CDs. Do you know when Arrau recorded for Victor/ Columbia. Was that a redistribution of his Philips work?

I suppose the advances in recording technology caught some of these performers past their prime. It gave them a chance to record much more repertoire. I'm wondering who else was better in the 40s and 50s say, than they were later on. I'm going through the first Philips box, and last night heard Arthur Grumiaux play the Brahms VC with Eduard van Beinum conducting. Terrific, and the 2 CD Philips set of later recordings doesn't have the same edge. Although I've pulled it for a re-listen.