{"product_id":"emil-guilels_la-discotheque-ideale-de-diapason-volume-18-oeuvres-pour-piano_2020","title":"La Discothèque Idéale de Diapason Volume 18 Œuvres pour piano","description":"Alfred Brendel, in conclusion of a few suggestions for the box set compiling all of Schumann's piano works (Volume XVII of the Discothèque idéale de Diapason), hinted: \"Have you thought about a box set on Brahms' piano works?\" And indeed! An old project postponed several times, a dream that is finally taking shape. For once, I made the selection of these eleven CDs alone, mostly drawn from the Public Domain. It offered a vast choice, except for three works – the Sonata No. 1, saved by an LP of György Sebök that is not available on CD, the Variations Op. 9, where nostalgia stubbornly keeps brilliant enthusiasts at bay, and finally the two unloved cycles of variations from Opus 21. Most \"complete\" Brahms piano collections overlook the few études (or stick to the Chaconne) and the dances that reflect his knowledge of Baroque music (one of the gavottes will be reworked in the Sextet in G major). You will find them here, as well as the original works for two pianos or four hands. Many hesitations were resolved by placing two complementary interpretations side by side. This provides an always enlightening perspective for the record collector, and a way not to give up on some treasures of more or less precarious sound quality – better-captured versions follow. Prodigious both in the orchestra and at the keyboard, the Concerto No. 2 recorded by Wilhelm Backhaus and Karl Böhm in 1939 thus responds to a concert by Claudio Arrau with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1963). And as a bonus, one of the rare pianists respecting the metronomic indication of \"allante\" for the Andante: Arthur Rubinstein in 1929, alongside the sublime adagios that habit has distorted. And for the Concerto No. 1, Arrau\/Giulini or Arrau\/Haitink? Dilemma resolved by stepping away from the studios: Arrau\/Kubelik, both transcendent in Munich in 1964. Opposite them, Rudolf Serkin and George Szell in mono – a treasure that remained in the shadows during the CD age, while Sony repeatedly reissued the stereo remake. The rarity of certain publications may have tipped the balance. For the Ballades Op. 10, Emil Guilels' live recording was a given, as was the concert in Lugano where Serkin, in 1957, meticulously devoured the Handel Variations. It was too good an opportunity to bring back here the transfer that Philippe Morin had once made of the Sonata Op. 5 by Edwin Fischer, unmatched. On CD, the Paganini Variations by Geza Anda (1953) had only known a poor muffled transfer, from Testament: here they are again, understood in their entirety, and the artist's playing unfolds in three dimensions. In contrast, the more fanciful excess and palette of the giant Egon Petri, a disciple of Busoni. Abundant, fascinating, essential, the five volumes of Klavierstücke or Fantasien (Opus 76, 116-119) are most often presented in full today. A modern usage that turns them into cycles, while in Brahms' time, and even in the 1950s, pianists (with Rubinstein leading the way) primarily saw them as collections from which to draw one or two pieces, both in concert and on record. The two \"methods\" intersect in the last CDs of our box set, which closes, without premeditation, on a back-and-forth of Backhaus and Rubinstein in the four sections of Opus 119. What a symbol! (Gaëtan Naulleau)","brand":"Emil Guilels","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58276272144728,"sku":null,"price":20200501.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0898\/4943\/0360\/files\/3701025824240.jpg?v=1787697712","url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en\/products\/emil-guilels_la-discotheque-ideale-de-diapason-volume-18-oeuvres-pour-piano_2020","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}