Cheap The Historic Recordings (Music) (Camille Saint-Saens, Sergey Rachmaninov, Francis Poulenc, Cecile Chaminade, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Aram Khachaturian, Nikolay Medtner, Sergey Prokofiev, Anatol Konstantinovich Lyadov) Price
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Few, if any, historic releases are as charming as Ivory Classics' Shura Cherkassky--The Historic 1940s Recordings. For Cherkassky--as for his teacher, Josef Hofmann--music was a vehicle for self-expression. Stories about Cherkassky's personal eccentricities are the stuff of legend, but he was not so much an eccentric pianist as an individualistic one. Unlike individualists of our own day, who seem to play "differently" simply to provoke and who merely sound quirky, the miracle about Cherkassky is that he usually sounded natural. You'll surely never hear a Brahms F Minor Sonata more original than the one reissued here. In the finale, the pianist discovers inner voices whose existence would have astonished Brahms himself. But despite the pianist's interest in luscious tone, polyphonic texture, and details within individual phrases, he never loses grasp of the overall shape of the work. Much of the rest of what's contained in these two discs is simply magical. In short, familiar pieces by Chopin and Liszt and, particularly, in lesser-known works by Medtner, Rebikov, Chaminade, and Scriabin, Cherkassky's pianism evokes the elegance and melancholy of a vanished era. --Stephen Wigler
| ARTIST: | Camille Saint-Saens, Sergey Rachmaninov, Francis Poulenc, Cecile Chaminade, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Aram Khachaturian, Nikolay Medtner, Sergey Prokofiev, Anatol Konstantinovich Lyadov |
| CATEGORY: | Music |
| MANUFACTURER: | Ivory Classics |
| MEDIA: | Audio CD |
| UPC: | 644057200329 |
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Customer Reviews of The Historic Recordings
SHURA CHERKASSKY - more 1940s delights resurrected! This excellent duo of CDs contains the same collection of early Vox and Swedish Cupol label recordings as on Pearl's 'Piano Masters' series that Cherkassky made in 1946 and 1949. {see my review}. In addition to these rare and wonderful bonbons by Khachaturian, Shostakovitch, Liadov, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Rebikov, Glinka,Scriabin and Medtner etc., Ivory Classics also gives us the HMV historic 1940s recordings. Disc 1 begins with Saints-Saëns 'Prelude and Fugue in F minor' in which the repeated chords of the Prelude shimmer delightfully at all dynamic levels from pianissimo through to fortissimo and the following Fugue sweeps along energetically with some brilliant octave playing. Cherkassky's Brahm's Sonata in F minor {a Vox recording} is also full of youthful passion, exuberance and grandeur. The Liszt 'Liebesträume'{Electrola } is played with Cherkassky's full-throated cantabile and the HMV Chopin selection consists of: two Mazurkas, performed with a delightful feeling for their rhythmical dance origins - the second Impromptu in F sharp major played with Cherkassky's ravishing singing tone; the right hand scale passages fairly sparkle, as do those in the famous 'Fantasie - Impromptu; Chopin's great Fantasie in F minor and two Etudes Op.10 {No: 12 & 4} which end disc 2 are brilliantly executed. Some critics have found Cherkassky's playing to be either 'wilful' or 'mannered'. On the contrary, these 1940s recordings are full of character and imagination - a quality that is in short supply these days! So do you purchase this Ivory Classics two CD set or the Pearl single CD? If you can afford it - buy both. The Pearl has a 'live' recording of the second and third movts of Tchaikovsky's second piano concerto with Stokowski and the Hollywood Bowl SO . The Ivory Classics transfers are very good and their booklet is exemplary. Not only does it give detailed biographical notes of Cherkassky and all the composers featured but it also includes a fascinating selection of very rare photos of the great pianist as a boy and also at the time these recordings were made. I particularly like the photos taken of Cherkassky seated at the keyboard in his Hollywood home and one taken of him as a 13 year old wearing knee length boots and a large flat cap! An absolutely delightful tribute to a unique artist.