Cheap Claudio Arrau: The Early Years - Complete Pre-War Recordings (Music) (Claudio Arrau, Mily Balakirev, Ferruccio Busoni, Fryderyk Chopin, Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Igor Stravinsky) Price

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Customer Reviews of Claudio Arrau: The Early Years - Complete Pre-War Recordings

A revelation
To the "bitter disappointment" critic, you need to listen to the playing, through the less than less than perfect sound. I remember the first time i heard an old old recording, i had a similar reaction. But in the end this helped me, i began to listen to the playing instead of what the engineer's wanted me to hear. In this age of robot super virtuosoism, these aged discs, despite their sound, are a breath of fresh air, you are essentially listening to a performance with little to no editing(beside the reduction of background noise.) If what you want is simply the music, go buy a discount disc of some no name pianist playing what you want, but you seem to care who is playing and that makes me wonder if you can really hear what makes a great pianist. Maybe you should stop listening to those people who told you so and think for yourself. The funny thing is, the sound on this isnt even that bad by historical standards. If you cant get over this, you are going to be depriving yourself of a lot of great playing i.e Cortot, Moiseiwitsch, Furtwangler, early Richter, etc. Open your ears, pal.

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A complete, definitive, superb collection
At last, here is what any serious Arrau collector could have always wished for. Never before we had the chance of listening in the same compilation to Arrau's only recording of Liszt's Valse melancolique, or Arrrau's forgotten Vocalion recordings, or Arrau's 2 recordings of Chopin's Etude Op.10 No.4 made in 1928 and 1929. Completion has a merit and value of its own. Sound engineering is superb. Deeply felt congratulations are due to Marston. I only wish Marston would release Arrau's 1940s recordings with the same professional zeal as applied to these pre-1940s recordings.

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bitter disappointment
Unless you are a musicologist who is a specialist in piano technique with an ability to completely ignore the noisy background of ancient recordings, this set of Cds is not for you. I am a lover of Mr.Arrau's lyrical style and when I saw this set I jumped at the opportunity and purchased it. To my bitter dismay these recordings have not been cleaned up at all and paying $33 for Cds I cannot listen to on my modern equipment is not something I am happy about. Some might say I should have known better, but I have purchased Cds of older recordings that have been upgraded for todays' critically sensitive equipment. I was very pleased with them. A little noise I can respect but Cds that are this poorly produced and expensive I cannot. These belong in the realm of professional pianists or musicologist who dote on any historically informative source regardless of production quality and not for the general buying public who simply want to enjoy a master. BEWARE you lovers of great music with great equipment and little interest in the academics of piano technique. Bitter Mislead Buyer in NY