de Larrocha's mega-Decca set announced

[Lance]

If you are a pianophile like me, you are probably going broke trying to keep up with all the mega-sets that have come forth since mega-sets were introduced a few years ago. It seems to have caught on with the major companies. We are the winners many times, even though there may be some great amounts of duplication if you have been keeping up with releases through the years. So much has already been issued and reissued on CD, but there are some recordings in the new set that have never seen the light of day. Included are the EMI/Hispavox recordings. Obviously, none of the RCA recordings are included, nor (I believe) the at least one recording on German CBS. RCA/Sony is sure to be coming out with a release of their own, but in that case, I already have the individual CDs. There are several previously unissued recordings and some live material. The de Larrocha box, through Amazon/USA, is around $155/USD. It is a set that will whet your pianistic appetite!

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... SY355_.jpg
COMING AUGUST 10, 2018 IN THE USA

Here is a copy of what is being announced:

Decca presents this 41 CD set which heralds a significant program of digital releases alongside a strong social campaign by Decca for the revered Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha. Thanks to a new collaboration with the Estate, Decca have secured editorial control of her streaming and official social platforms. More on this shortly, but her daughter and biographer are both confirmed as spokespersons.A Decca artist for nearly 20 years, her interpretations of Spanish music remain the gold standard, but she was equally at home with Bach, Mozart, 19th-century virtuoso fare and the Russian Romantics. Included are previously unreleased recordings of Grieg and Albéniz; 2 CDs of her early Hispavox/EMI Madrid recordings of piano encores; and an excerpt from a new biography of Ms Larrocha by Mònica Pagès.If you wanted to encounter a ‘Who’s Who’ of New York City-based keyboard titans gathered in one place in the 1970s, you only had to purchase a ticket for an Alicia de Larrocha recital. At her concerts you might encounter the likes of Arthur Rubinstein, Gina Bachauer, Van Cliburn, Claudio Arrau and Vladimir Horowitz. Such was the level of reverence by fellow pianists for her musicianship and sheer technical brilliance.• The music of Spain is central to this collection, and de Larrocha’s interpretations and characterizations brought new meaning and importance to these works and remain the gold standard – highlights include: Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain, Albéniz’ Ibéria, and Granados’ Goyescas.• When it came to 19th-century virtuoso fare, key corners of the French repertoire, and the Russian Romantics, de Larrocha positively flourished: The Khachaturian Concerto; Rachmaninov’s Second and Third Concertos; Franck’s Symphonic Variations; Ravel’s Concerto, Grieg’s Piano Sonata [previously unreleased], Mendelssohn’s Variations• Larrocha’s Schumann playing is fluent and poetic; notice, for example, the Concerto, Kreisleriana, Faschingsschwank aus Wien, the C Major Fantasy, the F-sharp Novelette, plus both analogue and digital versions of the rarely heard B Minor Allegro and the perpetually popular Carnaval.

ALICIA DE LARROCHA
Greatly respected by her peers, not least Arthur Rubinstein, Gina Bachauer, Van Cliburn, Claudio Arrau and Vladimir Horowitz, if you wanted to witness a Who’s Who of New York City-based keyboard luminaries gathered in one place, you simply had to purchase a ticket for an Alicia de Larrocha recital.. Slight of frame, de Larrocha’s physical stature belied her considerable accomplishments, not least in key corners of the French repertoire and the Russian Romantics where she positively flourished and we marvel at the pianist’s tiny hands effortlessly traversing huge leaps on the keyboard and summoning colossal sonorities that never splinter.Born in Barcelona on May 23, 1923. Alicia de Larrocha came from a musical family. Both her mother and her aunt were disciples of the composer and pianist Enrique Granados. Alicia began lessons at the age of three with Granados’ student and teaching assistant, Frank Marshall who insisted that his gifted student gain a solid foundation in Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, which, in turn, helped to inform what would become her standard-setting interpretations of Spanish music. She explained in a 1973 Gramophone interview “if you can't play Bach correctly, you can't play Spanish music.”Her first American recitals in 1954 and 1955 coincided with her first major label recordings, made in New York for American Decca, all reissued as part of the present collection. Though she broached the recording process reluctantly, she nonetheless recorded a large discography and it was her association with British Decca between 1970 and 1988 that was to be her longest and most fruitful major label relationship.Review“Miss Larrocha strikes me as one of the very best pianists to have come out of Spain in recent years. She has an impeccably clean technique, considerable strength, verve and temperament, but a level enough head to keep her from exaggerating effects … Her tonal sense and phrasing are exemplary.” Gramophone,1955“Effortless … this doyenne of Spanish pianists knows how to tap the lyrical source to so much of Mozart’s invention and how to sing like a nightingale. She invites us to listen; but her tone of voice is never over-insistent. … All credit to Decca for the warm and lifelike sound.” Gramophone,1979“To prove how her tiny hands could make colossal sounds without banging, listen to her pull out the Bach/Busoni Chaconne’s virtuoso stops and still manage to draw attention to the music rather than to the pianist.” Classics Today“[In the Liszt Sonata] she is illuminating often on matters of weight and touch (for example the rapid arpeggios in the first Agitato bit, also later); the fugue begins with splendid lightness and attack (the piano sound just about ideal here) … The recording is … indispensable listening for devotees of superior pianism.” Gramophone,1978“Alicia de Larrocha’s limpid, elegant pianism is equally at home in the brilliant, refined impressionism of Ravel and the late-Romantic intensity of Fauré and Franck.” Limelight

[John F]

Here in NYC, De Larrocha appeared every summer playing a Mozart concerto at Mostly Mozart. Very seldom did I hear her give a really illuminating and moving performance; often she seemed rather bored, and once lost her place. So I have none of her Mozart records and few of the others. The exception was Spanish piano music, which she seems never to have tired of; in a late Carnegie Hall recital, that was the most vital part of the program.

The blurb says, "At her concerts you might encounter the likes of Arthur Rubinstein, Gina Bachauer, Van Cliburn, Claudio Arrau and Vladimir Horowitz. Such was the level of reverence by fellow pianists for her musicianship and sheer technical brilliance." I never saw any of those luminaries at the De Larrocha performances I attended, and I can't imagine that Rubinstein or Horowitz "revered" her. Looks to me like the creation of Decca's publicity department, and they liked it so much they said it twice.

[Rach3]

So I have none of her Mozart records and few of the others.

Here is a ca.1974 Mozart and Bach/Busoni recording you may wish to consider, if it made it to cd, mine the London lp here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NpZ2olYa9E

[John F]

Thanks, but no thanks.

[maestrob]

I have her Spanish issues, and her Mozart w/Colin Davis from RCA. Both IMHO are excellent. I've also got a box of her concerto recordings, and am amazed that she can bring off the Khachaturian, although the conductor takes the opening measures so slowly that I want to throw out the disc. All-in-all, I'm more interested in her complete solo recordings, and for that reason I may get this.

[Lance]

No question in my mind either that de Larrocha has little competition insofar as Spanish music on records is concerned. Her early American Deccas (also in the new box, and previously issued on CD by DGG), and the EMI/Hispavox recordings offer some of the best. Apparently she didn't enjoy making recordings but she sure made a lot of them during her long career. I only wish her biography was translated into English. For me, with 137 CDs on various labels, predominantly Decca/RCA/EMI/CBS with much duplication among titles, I have to think twice about this set though I am very tempted. Per disc price, the Szell is cheaper! Can we possibly have them all? And if so, where do we put them? I guess I am very greedy when it comes to recordings. My only fault!

[barney]

Decca's Austraian budget label, Eloquence, did a large number of her recordings, especially the Spanish stuff. I probably won't be in the market for this one.
But none of the recordings I have listened to of her have her just going through the motions. I like her enormously, including in some Mozart (eg the K397 fantasia).

[Lance]

Yes, Eloquence did, and I have them. One of the reasons I have to think twice about wanting this set. Like all marketing, these companies will throw in some things that did not appear on CD or were unissued at all ... in order to entice the buyer. Eloquence has done a marvelous job in bringing back material from the Philips, Decca and DGG recordings at mid-price. Now Barney, if you should get a review copy of this and don't want it ... I know someone who will take it! (I'll even pay the the postage from Australia, which isn't cheap!)

Decca's Austraian budget label, Eloquence, did a large number of her recordings, especially the Spanish stuff. I probably won't be in the market for this one.
But none of the recordings I have listened to of her have her just going through the motions. I like her enormously, including in some Mozart (eg the K397 fantasia).

[jserraglio]

I can't imagine that Rubinstein or Horowitz "revered" her.

David Dubal in "Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait" recalls that in his conversations about piano players with the pianist and his wife, Horowitz (and Wanda too, who mentions having heard her in concert "just the other evening at Fisher Hall") "always praised" Larrocha's playing — unsurprisingly he especially admired her in Spanish music in which he agreed she had no equal, not even Rubinstein.

[John F]

Praise is not the same thing as reverence.

[jserraglio]

Praise is not the same thing as reverence.

Antony:
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
............................................
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

Ecclesiasticus 44:1 (KJV)
Let us now praise famous men,
and our fathers that begat us.”

Henry V:
Come, go we in procession to the village.
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take the praise from God
Which is his only.

Psalm 95:1-2 (GNT)
Come, let us praise the Lord!
Let us sing for joy to God, who protects us!
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and sing joyful songs of praise.

Psalm 34:1-2 (KJV)
I will bless the Lord at all times:
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:3 (TLB)
Let us praise the Lord together and exalt his name.