Along with Schnabel, in the first half of the 20th century Edwin Fischer was generally regarded as the greatest interpreter of the Germanic classics - Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. This was the period when recording came of age, and many first recorded performances, regarded as definitive in their time and still thought amongst the greatest even today, were set down by Fischer. Supreme among them were the first complete recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and the Mozart concertos presented here.

These are the only Mozart concerto recordings Fischer was to make commercially except for a LP remake of the D minor in 1954. Their status is such that they should never be out of the catalogue, and we are delighted therefore to reissue these APR transfers (previously on APR5523, 5524 & 5525) as a budget priced 3CD set. Also included are most of Fisher’s solo recordings of Mozart and his only recording of a Haydn concerto.

- APR Recordings

Moura Lympany (1916-2005) was the last of the major Matthay pupils. In 1938 she shot to international fame when she finished second to Emil Gilels in the Queen Elisabeth competition. A brilliant technician, she made the first complete recording of the Rachmaninov preludes in the 1940s and gave the western premiere of Khachaturian's piano concerto and subsequently recorded it. The HMV recordings presented here emphasize her virtuoso credentials and feature many of the piano's most fearsome warhorses. This is repertoire she excelled in and her performances of, for example, the toccatas of Ravel and Prokofiev, have rarely been equaled.

Back in the 1970s the International Piano Library issued an LP with Ferruccio Busoni's complete disc recordings on one side, and the other side featuring Busoni pupils playing Busoni, including the Sonatina No. 6 (the Carmen Fantasy) played by the New York-born pianist Michael Zadora (1882-1946). Many years later Pearl brought out a superior transfer of this riveting performance, along with further Zadora sides. APR now has gathered all of Zadora's recordings in a two-CD set, evenly divided between acoustic and electric 78s. Most of this material appears for the first time in a long-playing format.

For whatever reason, Zadora's 78s were unusually well engineered for their time, especially the 1929 Polydor sides with their resonant bloom. Aside from certain items that reflect a tendency to rush--the electrical Chopin Op. 64 No. 1 that ought to be retitled the "half-minute" waltz!, and a rather slapdash Debussy Toccata--Zadora's musical intelligence and keen ear for nuance and tone color impress, even in the numerous light works such as Hummel's Rondo, Lemare's La Passione, and Zadora's own transcriptions of the Barcarolle from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, selections from Delibes ballets, and the schmaltzy Vienna Waltz he penned under the pseudonym Pietro Amadis.

The pianist's superb textural layering in Liszt's D-flat and E major Consolations substantiates his unusually fast yet never hectic-sounding tempos. By contrast, Raff's La Fileuse unfolds in delicate, deliberately paced arcs. The Busoni Second and Fifth sonatinas recorded in 1938 for the independent Friends of New Music label suffer from cramped, dynamically constricted sound that probably makes the music sound drier and more austere than it is, although Zadora's affinity for and commitment to this repertoire certainly cuts through the sonic grime. With so many reissues of reissues of reissues on the market, it's heartening that APR continues to lavish considerable time and effort on "virgin territory", so to speak. Jonathan Summers' excellent, informative notes and Mark Obert-Thorn's fine transfers add further value to this release.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Certainly the most glamorous of the Matthay students, Harriet Cohen was also the most extrovert and to the general public was known as a socialite as much as a pianist. Her friends included George Bernard Shaw and Ramsay MacDonald and she became notorious as the lover of the married Arnold Bax. Behind this apparently superficial exterior lay a surprising and superior intellect. Cohen's repertoire favored Bach and contemporary music (much of it dedicated to her) rather than the more popular, and frequently played, romantic repertoire. Few of her recordings have been reissued on CD so this is an eagerly awaited set. It includes the first ever (acoustic) recording of Bach's D minor concerto, and the later post-war remake, and also several of the works Bax wrote for her.

Leschetizky pupil Mark Hambourg, possibly recorded more than any other classical pianist in the years up to 1930, but today we find his flamboyant, often barnstorming, style very out of fashion and he has been ill served on historical reissues. This portrait focuses on more unexpected areas of his repertoire - early music, contemporary music (several of his Debussy and Ravel recordings were recorded premieres) and rare encore pieces, the latter in particular revealing the lyricism, charm and bravura of this true romantic pianist. The opening track of Scarlatti arranged by Tausig is one of Hambourg's first recordings and dates from 1910. His final recording, the Rubinstein etude, from 1935, closes the set. Of particular interest is an unpublished recording of Ravel's Menuet antique from 1925.

GRIGORY GINZBURG: His Early Recordings • Grigory Ginzburg (pn) • APR 5667 (Volume 1; 77:29); 5672 (Volume 2; 78:34); mono


Volume 1: BEETHOVEN/RUBINSTEIN Turkish March. LISZT Hungarian Rhapsodies : Nos. 10, 11. Les Cloches de Genève. Paganini Etudes: Nos. 3, 4, 5 . Venezia e Napoli. Rigoletto Paraphrase. LISZT/BUSONI Fantasia on The Marriage of Figaro. GINZBURG Transcription of Largo al factotum. BALAKIREV Islamey


Volume 2: BACH/BUSONI Toccata and Fugue in d. WEBER Rondo brillante in E?. SCHUMANN Paganini Etudes: Nos. 2, 3, 4. “Abegg” Variations. CHOPIN Impromptus: Nos. 1, 2, 3. Fantasy Impromptu . Polonaise in B?. Polonaise in A?. STRAUSS/GRUNFELD Voices of Spring. STRAUSS/SCHULZ-EVLER Concert Arabesque on The Blue Danube


These have to be among the greatest piano records ever made. Grigory Ginzburg (1904–61) was virtually an exact contemporary of another great Russian pianist, Vladimir Sofronitzky, and while neither was known in the West while alive, Sofronitzky has developed a somewhat wider reputation with the music-loving public than Ginzburg. After listening to these two CDs, and then following up with excellent volumes of live performance recordings on the Vox Aeterna label, it is clear to me that Ginzburg was one of the giants of the keyboard in the 20th century—different from, and at least the equal of, Sofronitzky.


Ginzburg was a student of Alexander Goldenweiser, one of the most significant of the Russian teachers of the first half of the 20th century. His early death prevented him from touring outside of Russia, because most of that happened after 1961. Some of his contemporaries, like Lev Oborin, lived into the 1970s and appeared in America and Europe. Gilels was born in 1916, but lived into the middle 1980s and had a big international career. Soviet artists before 1960 were buried, at least to the rest of us, inside Russia. And since they didn’t concertize in the West, neither did they record for any of the international labels—instead confining their recorded work to Melodiya. As more of this material comes out, we see what treasures were hidden behind the iron curtain. Among all those treasures, Ginzburg stands out.


What makes this piano playing so special? Just about everything. He makes the most difficult music sound easy—whether it is Liszt Paganini Etudes or his own transcription of Figaro’s “Largo al factotum” from The Barber of Seville , nothing seems to actually present any problem to his fingers. Every note is articulated with precisely the right weight and color; everything is in perfect proportion. His sense of balance between the poetic and the virtuosic is unique. He plays with flair and theatricality, but at the same time with a beauty of tone and purity of line that always touches as much as the virtuosity amazes. Even on these recordings, which date from the 1940s and 50s, the beauty of Ginzburg’s tone comes through (especially in Bryan Crimp’s superb transfers), and the remarkable variety of his dynamics is jaw-dropping. There seems to be an infinite number of variants of mezzo-piano , or piano , or forte . Listen to the repeated notes in Liszt’s La Campanella and you’ll be almost physically shocked at the clarity and evenness of the playing. Every single note is in place— completely in place. What is particularly unique about his playing is that he manages to have great fun with the showy elements of this music without a hint of vulgarity. The Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies can easily be cheapened by over-indulging. Or they lose their character by a pianist taking them too seriously. Ginzburg does neither—all of the fun and flair that you would want is here, but at the same time a deeper beauty that one does not always encounter in this music. And if there is a pianist with a more vocal sense of singing line, of what a true cantabile is, I haven’t encountered him.


After you have heard Ginzburg’s playing on these two discs, which consist entirely of shorter pieces, you might well want to go on to explore the five volumes of live performances released on Vox Aeterna. You can do an artist search at ArkivMusic to find them. Larger works such as Schumann’s Carnaval , Chopin sonatas, and Liszt concerti are available in that series.


I don’t think you can compare Ginzburg to any of the other Soviet-era pianists. He’s not Gilels, he’s not Richter, he’s not Lazar Berman. He is, in fact, Grigory Ginzburg, a pianist who, like any great artist, defines his own territory. We are indebted to APR for making these two discs available, and for the superb quality of the production. In addition to excellent transfers, Bryan Crimp provides illuminating, intelligent notes.


FANFARE: Henry Fogel

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.”

-----

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

Pianophiles should note immediately that this is a reissue of APR7029, first released around two decades ago, and that no new material has been added. If any unpublished takes exist, or if any unpublished recordings have survived, then that would deepen still further one’s appreciation of Kitain’s art. At the moment this seems unlikely – though far stranger things have cropped up in less promising circumstances, so we can but hope.

Kitain (1903-80) was an exact contemporary of Horowitz and was slightly younger than the incendiary Simon Barere. Bryan Crimp’s acknowledgement-preface in the booklet notes that standard reference books omit all mention of Kitain. I don’t know how much this has changed in the intervening 20 years but checking such staples as Harold C Schonberg, Kaiser, Lyle and even the Naxos A-Z of pianists boxed set fails to elicit a thing. So we are again reliant on Crimp’s own biographical outline in the handsome booklet for details of the rise and fall of this great pianist’s reputation.

Born in St Petersburg, he apparently so astonished Glazunov with his precocity that he won immediate entrance to the Conservatory. Soon he moved to Kiev, becoming a classmate of Horowitz, and studying with Felix Blumenfeld. The Kitain family fled Russia in 1923, Anatole winning a prize at the Liszt Piano Competition three years later – Annie Fischer won first place. He settled in France only for his life to be overtaken by upheaval yet again, moving to America when war broke out. Here there seem to have been a series of false starts, including performances under an alias, though he later gave admiringly reviewed recitals throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He made a series of LPs in the 1950s – one with his fiddle-playing brother, Robert. For MGM they recorded the sonatas by Brahms (Op.108) and Franck, and I’d certainly like to come across that disc.

What began with reluctance in 1936 – the Paris Columbia branch wasn’t keen to record him, but made two tests that were actually published – ended in some triumph as Kitain soon moved to record in the Abbey Road studios in London. Kitain was a bit of a first-take man from a quick look at the released matrix numbers. The Schumann Toccata, not surprisingly, necessitated retakes and the third take was used. Something odd seems to have gone on when he set down the Hungarian Dances of Brahms, where one side necessitated a retake a month later and a fifth take was used. Almost everything else, recorded between 1936 and 1939, was a first take.

Aside from a sense that he was naturally unfettered by studio constraints what impresses throughout is the naturalness of his phrasing and the sublimated virtuosity of a technique that allows him such freedoms as he takes. He is, in fact, not ‘free’ in the sense that he takes metrical liberties and even when he can seem idiosyncratic – perhaps in Chopin’s Scherzo in B minor – one senses the musical justification. The central section here shows his beautiful legato and sense of phrasing as the Etudes reveal his rhythmic and colouristic virtues. Whilst he is commanding in the C major, Op.10 No.7 he’s invariably controlled and though virtuosic in Liszt never for a moment crude. There are few exaggerations. He was keen to record the Brahms Dances and they are vitalising performances. His Russian repertoire is very valuable, given his background. There is great warmth and sensitivity in his Scriabin and one wishes he could have recorded more Rachmaninoff. A pity he was never asked to record his old teacher Blumenfeld’s Etude for the left hand, which Kitain played in recitals. However, the élan of the Strauss-Godowsky Fledermaus is something to be heard.

A few of the rarer examples here have a higher-than-average amount of surface noise and a few thumps, but they pass quickly. This skilfully compiled set is priced ‘as for one’. If you missed it before, you should get it now.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Although he was universally regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the last century, Cortot's later recordings have had a bit of bad press. Though he had a virtuoso technique it was fallible and the careless slips he was renowned for became more pronounced as he became older. It's true that some embarrasing recordings exist and a Beethoven sonata cycle went so badly it has never seen the light of day but in the right repertoire these aspects of his playing are not an issue and in recordings such as those presented here we can enjoy Cortot's wonderful musicality without the need to make any allowance for a faltering technique. The major work here is the complete first book of Debussy 'Préludes'. This set, recorded in the last days of 78's, had only a limited life as an LP in 1953, from a technical point of view already out of date, but of course nowadays this is of no consequence when we have the glory of Cortot's playing to consider.

The Franck 'Prélude, Aria et Final' from 1947 has not been previously issued though passed by Cortot himself. Only one set of test pressings is known to exist, and it is missing the second of six sides, so to make a complete performance we have dubbed in the second side of this Cortot's earlier 1932 recording of the work. Perhaps the gems of this collection are the series of 'Encores' which Cortot recorded in 1948. These works presetn the essence of Cortot's style, his instantly recognizable singing line, his wonderful voicing of chords and the nobility of it all. It appears that when some of these titles were reissued on LP different takes, recorded on tape, were used so these versions are included as an appendix.

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.

We tend to remember the British pianist CYRIL SMITH (1909–1974) these days as the pianist who overcame the misfortune of a paralyzing stroke to form a hugely successful duo for three hands with his wife, pianist Phyllis Sellick. Before then though, he had conquered the virtuoso repertoire in a most un-British fashion – making Rachmaninov the center of his art and recording a series of warhorses in spectacular style. The Dohnányi Capriccio of 1929, his earliest recording, and part of a prize for a competition win, lays down the gauntlet in a coruscating performance to rival the Horwitz version released the same year. His recordings of the 2nd and 3rd Rachmaninov concertos and Rhapsody were for a time best-sellers. But there is poetry and charm too, particularly in the various encore-like transcriptions he set down. This set brings together for the first time all the recordings he made as a solo player before his stroke.

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.”