Classical Music

Classical Music

German pianist Elly Ney (1882-1968) came to be regarded as one of the great Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century and her prewar recording of the Op 111 sonata must still be considered one of the very finest. That recording, and all the other solo and concerto recordings she made for Electrola before the war are included here. Particularly noteworthy are the three landmark concerto recordings, the Mozart and Beethoven vivacious and stylish, the Strauss revealing just what a virtuoso Ney could be. Though she specialized in Austro-German repertoire, another side to her art is shown in her early, almost unknown, American Brunswick acoustic recordings, reissued in this set for the first time. Here the repertoire choice is broader and lighter and there is even a stunningly articulated Debussy 'Feux d'artifice' - the work's first recording.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

COR DE GROOT: EARLY RECORDINGS

Moriz Rosenthal was also one of the more important Liszt pupils, therefore his legacy is of the utmost importance as representative of 19th-century style. He was renowned as one of the supreme technicians and, although he began to record only in old age, this can still be heard in his own two Strauss paraphrases recorded here. However, it is for his Chopin above all that Rosenthal should be remembered.

German pianist, Wilhelm Backhaus (1884–1969) left a 60-year recorded legacy which began in 1908, but a major turning point came in 1950 when he switched allegiance from HMV to Decca. His last HMV recordings, included in this set, are amongst his least known and it appears that those from his final HMV sessions in Zürich in 1948 are reissued here for the first time. Backhaus had settled in Switzerland in the 1930s and although he continued to perform in Germany during the war, he only made one commercial recording, for HMV’s German affiliate Electrola. This recording, of Mozart’s ‘Coronation’ concerto, came about because of celebrations to mark the composer’s 150th anniversary and the result is particularly ebullient. Backhaus plays his own cadenzas and ornaments profusely in the slow movement, something very unusual in Mozart performance of the time. This exceptionally well-filled disc also includes full documentation explaining for the first time why Backhaus became disenchanted with HMV and left them for Decca.

THE TWO PIANISTS featured here were contemporaries, both English. Both made a small number of recordings for Columbia between 1926 and 1930 and today are largely forgotten. Howard-Jones was of an academic nature whose interpretations were described as having ‘scholarly and fastidious profundity’. He excelled in Bach and Brahms and his ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ recordings in particular offer playing of rare spirituality and beauty. As a friend of the composer and dedicatee of five of the piano pieces, his Delius recordings, which comprise the complete meagre published output for solo piano by the composer, have a unique authority. Edward Isaacs, who revelled in the repertoire of Chopin and Liszt, was described as ‘a kindly genial companion and a witty charming raconteur’. His recordings radiate brilliance and joie de vivre. This is the first time most of these discs have been reissued since the days of the original 78s. An added bonus is the discovery of a wonderful previously unpublished Howard-Jones recording of Beethoven’s Rondo in G major.

Harold Samuel (1879–1937) was the first pianist to specialize in the performance of Bach’s original keyboard works in the concert hall and achieved worldwide acclaim in doing so. His pioneering HMV and Columbia recordings of the composer (all the Bach works included here, except for the first Prelude & Fugue from the Well-Tempered Clavier, were premiers on disc) sound as fresh and inspiring today as they did when new and reveal that great Bach playing is timeless. A unique live 5th Brandenburg Concerto from New York and a studio E major Violin Sonata with Isolde Menges round out his Bach and this landmark release also includes his remaining solo discs, notably some rare repertoire by Clementi and two of Bach’s sons which was recorded for the ambitious Columbia History of Music educational project. These new 2021 transfers by Seth Winner were made using the latest technology and present these historic documents in the best possible sound, revealing more detail of Samuel’s playing than has ever previously been captured.

Though born in the USA, Aline van Barentzen (1897-1981) became the youngest student to be accepted by the Paris Conservatoire, aged nine, and went on to win a premier prix aged just twelve. She was to base herself in Paris for the rest of her life, later teaching at her alma mater where her pupils included Jean-Philippe Collard and Cyprien Katsaris. A supreme virtuoso, as can be heard in her Brahms Paganini variations, she worked with many contemporary composers, making this premiere recording of Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and also recording the complete Prole do bebê of Villa-Lobos, the second book, which she premiered, was dedicated to her.

Though born in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and having studied and launched his career in Budapest, Louis Kentner decided to relocate to London in the 1930’s and for the next 50 years remained a part of the British musical establishment. He was a mainstay of the Columbia catalogue throughout the 1930’s and 40s where he recorded a wide range of repertoire including the ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata and many premiere recordings of major Liszt works. APR has already devoted two CDs to the latter (APR5514 & APR5614). In the 1950s he went on to record for HMV, both as soloist and as duo partner to Menuhin, whose brother-in-law he had become through marriage.

Almost all the recordings on this set date from the end of the 78rpm era and have been unjustly neglected as a result. Two major works of the late romantic Russian repertoire, the Balakirev Sonata and the Lyapunov Transcendental Studies, here received their premier recordings, and to many listeners, they have yet to be surpassed. Kentner had an invincible Lisztian technique; there was no one better to tackle Lyapunov’s homage to Liszt’s own ‘Transcendentals’. He was also able to take complete command of that other virtuoso warhorse – Islamey.

Of particular interest is Kentner’s only recording of the Liszt sonata, and a magnificent one it turns out to be. Issued on 78s in 1951 when most other labels had switched to LP, this recording had a very short life and has never previously been reissued. It is a major addition to the available discography of Liszt sonatas and to Kentner’s legacy.

This release is a tribute to the great Scottish pianist and Liszt pupil, Frederic Lamond (1868-1948), whose 150th anniversary falls in 2018. He was renowned as a Beethoven interpreter, perhaps the greatest before Schnabel, and his Liszt performances bear the imprimatur of the composer. All the electrical studio recordings he made, plus the remaining Liszt acoustic ones, are included. Frederic Lamond, who came from an impoverished family, had his first lessons in music from his brother David; nevertheless at the age of fourteen he managed to make his way to Frankfurt where he enrolled at the Raff Conservatory, receiving piano lessons from Max Schwarz. He then became a pupil of Hans von Bülow, who suggested he continue his studies with Liszt. For the last two years of the composer’s life therefore, from 1885, Lamond became a pupil of Liszt. His Berlin debut took place on November 17, 1885, and after debuts in Vienna and Glasgow he made his London debut in a series of recitals. Lamond’s affinity with the works of Beethoven was something almost spiritual. “I longed for pureness, truth, simplicity. Beethoven was my god – the creed of my life – my one and all. Through continually absorbing his wonderworks I began to regard the practical side of life, that which gives pleasure to the majority of human beings, with repugnance.” A pamphlet by Lamond on some of Beethoven’s piano works, published in 1944, is headed with the quotation: “Haydn is the way to Heaven, Mozart is Heaven itself, and Beethoven is the God therein.”

Parisian, Emma Boynet (1891–1974) studied with Isidor Philipp at the Conservatoire and became an established part of the local music scene in the 1920s and 30s. She was one of the few French pianists to find success in the USA, travelling there for the first time in the company of her former teacher in 1934, and as a result, made several albums for Victor in New York, including a five-disc 78rpm album entitled ‘French Piano Music’. Her career seems to have faltered in the 1950s but not before she made two highly regarded (but now rare) Faure LPs which have become collectors’ items. We are delighted to reissue them here.

REVIEW:

I had never heard of the French pianist Emma Boynet (1891-1974) before this remarkable release came to my attention and hooked me for life. Boynet studied with the legendary Isidor Philipp, with whom she remained associated throughout his long life. During the 1930s and ’40s Boynet made frequent concert and radio appearances in the United States, yet kept a low profile in her final decade. More importantly, she made extraordinary recordings. APR has reissued on two generously filled CDs all of Boynet’s solo 78s, together with the contents of two all-Fauré LPs recorded for Vox in 1950 and 1952.

If Boynet had left us nothing else, the sheer insouciance and effortless mastery of her 1932 Pathé Weber Rondo brillante (sound clip) assures her legendary status, although her sultry Falla Andaluza is nothing to sneeze at. She takes Schubert’s G-flat Impromptu at an appropriately alla breve tempo. True, she dashes through the Rondo finale of Haydn’s two-movement C major sonata like a bat out of hell, yet what staggering control and timing!

Apparently all of the selections in Boynet’s 1938 RCA Victor French Music Anthology were first takes, including an audaciously winged and imaginatively phrased Chabrier Bourrée fantasque that makes everyone else’s sound thick and clumsy. Naturally she plays Philipp’s charming Nocturne and scintillating Feux-follets with total affection and style. Boynet subjects Debussy’s Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir from Preludes Book I to capricious tempo shifts, and arpeggiates chords at random; it’s a curious reading that doesn’t convince. However, Boynet and Fauré merge as one.

She understands and internalizes the composer’s textural transparency and intricately wrought counterpoint, while projecting the melodies so that they move over the bar lines. As a result, some listeners may feel that her animation in the Fifth and Sixth Barcarolles borders on impatience, a factor arguably mitigated by the Vox LPs’ dry sonics and less-than resplendent concert grand. On the other hand, her Vox Fourth Nocturne is smoother and more lyrically unfolding than in her earlier 78 rpm version. And Boynet’s spacious, poetic Vox accounts of the great Sixth and Seventh Nocturnes count among the Fauré piano discography’s treasures.

Frédéric Gaussin’s extensive annotations are as scholarly and informative as one could wish, not to mention Mark Obert-Thorn’s world-class transfers. In all, a significant addition to APR’s ongoing French Piano School reissues, and an absolute must for pianophiles.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Erik Then-Bergh (1916-1982) is almost forgotten today, content as he was to confine his career, the last twenty years of which were devoted to teaching, to Germany. But to hear this favorite of Furtwangler in his early recordings is to hear playing of the highest order- his combination of superlative technique at the service of deeply profound interpretation can only be compared with the very greatest of artists. We present here his almost complete 78rpm recordings, which were mostly made in Germany during the war and hence had littler international circulation. Then-Bergh was renowned as a Reger player and in this centenary year of Reger’s death, which is also the centenary of Then-Bergh’s birth, we include his stereo LP recording of the Reger Piano Concerto from 1958 which completes his Reger recordings. Perhaps this quote from ‘The Record Book’ (USA 1948) reviewing Beethoven’s Op101 still sums up Then-Bergh’s 78 recordings today: “The performance by a pianist of whom we know nothing, Erik Then-Bergh, is spectacularly fine, and is backed by some of the best reproduction of piano tone we have ever heard.”

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REVIEW:

Erik Then-Bergh was much respected as both pedagogue and performer. His stereo recording of Max Reger's Piano Concerto, with Hans Rosbaud conducting, is thought through from the first bar to the last. It has a naturalness to it that eluded even Rudolf Serkin's otherwise fine versions for Columbia. The solo piano Telemann-Reger Variations in particular are joyous, elegant, and crisply articulated. A highly desirable memorial collection overall to a much-undervalued pianist. Excellent transfers.

– Gramophone

Malcolm Binns (born 29 January 1936) was for half a century one of the UK's most significant pianists. He retired aged 80, but let's not forget his hugely eclectic career which ranged from giving the UK premiere of Prokofiev's 4th Piano Concerto in 1961 (and UK broadcast premiere, included here) to being the first pianist to record the complete Beethoven piano sonatas on original instruments. For this celebration we focus on his early career with several uniquely preserved BBC concerto recordings from the pianist's own collection, including a Proms performance featuring two concertos with Sir Malcolm Sargent, a rare LP on the Concert Artist label featuring works by Rubinstein and Alkan which were premiere recordings at the time, and, from much later, two of his most acclaimed recordings from the no longer active Pearl label.

As one of the great pianists of the 20th century, WILHELM BACKHAUS (1884–1969) needs no introduction. He recorded almost continuously from 1908 until his death, but this set, focusing on his earliest recordings, completes APR’s coverage (see also APR 6026, APR 6027 and APR 5637) of all his solo and concerto output for The Gramophone Company/HMV, except the electrically recorded Brahms titles, which are available elsewhere. These early discs reveal Backhaus as an exciting young virtuoso, rather than the sober purveyor of German classics he was to become.

This set brings together twelve French-trained pianists performing thirteen French works for piano and orchestra of which ten are premiere recordings. Most of the performers knew the composers and worked with them and four works are performed by their composers. It's hard to imagine a more definitive view of this repertoire, recorded at a time when French pianism still had a very distinctive personal voice, and as such, these recordings, many little known, are a permanent legacy of their time.

In his later years, SHURA CHERKASSKY (1909–1995) was regarded as one of the last ‘Romantics’ – a throwback to the so-called ‘golden age’ of pianism in the first decades of the 20th century. As a pupil of Josef Hofmann, he had an impeccable pedigree, but we tend to forget his long career meant he was already playing and recording in that ‘golden age’. Here then are these early recordings, complete for the first time, starting in the acoustic era with the young prodigy’s 1923 Victor discs. Much of the repertoire is unique in his discography, including his only recording of chamber music – the Rachmaninov cello sonata. The Tchaikovsky 2nd Concerto, Cherkassky’s earliest concerto recording, has never previously been reissued and reveals the 36-year-old artist at his virtuoso peak.

REVIEWS:

It is a joy to have all these recordings available together. Cherkassky was a supremely gifted and communicative pianist and there is something to admire in every piece in this collection.

-- MusicWeb International

Of special note are the many Chopin pieces and a smashing performance of the Fantasy in F minor from 1950. The latter has reasonably decent sound and gives us the opportunity of hearing what Cherkassky can do with one of Chopin’s masterworks.

Outstanding in-depth notes are supplied by Jonathan Summers, and special praise must be given to Seth B. Winner for his detail about restoration techniques. No lover of the art of the piano can afford to be without this set.

-- American Record Guide

APR's landmark issue on three CDs of Nicolas Medtner's complete solo recordings, which included fifteen 78-rpm sides of previously thought lost Columbia recordings from 1931 and an unpublished HMV recording of his Violin Sonata No 1, are here reissued as a set. Medtner was a magnificent pianist, and these are definitive performances of many of his most important compositions. We can also hear him in Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, the only music other than his own, he was to record. For this issue we have added a track - his recording of the Russian Round Dance for two pianos where he is joined by Benno Moiseiwitsch - and made some further refinements to the sound quality of the transfers.

This release features some of Fischer's best-known recordings and also his rarest. His pre-war Schubert recordings are classics of the gramophone and have been almost continuously available. APR's original 1997 transfers of the Impromptus had the benefit of being taken from vinyl pressings of the 78rpm masters and this reissue has allowed us to improve them even further, presenting these gems in the best possible sound. Fischer's recordings of Brahms and Schumann, on the other hand are much less known and indeed his masterly performance of the 1st Brahms Piano Quartet, recorded in Germany just after the start of the war with principals from the Edwin Fischer Chamber Orchestra, and only issued there, is extremely rare. Not much better known are the very fine Brahms group from 1947, and from 1949 we have the Brahms F minor Sonata and the Schumann Fantasy, his only Schumann recording, but a work he described as "a symbol of the soul of the piano."