PHILIPS RARE GREAT PIANISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY 200CD Start Price USD 1,800.00 Current Price USD 2,026.00 Time Left - Bid Count 3 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, May 05, 2008 End Time Thursday, May 15, 2008 Location Tao-Yuan, default See more about 'PHILIPS RARE GREAT PIANISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY 200CD' Description PHILIPS RARE GREAT PIANISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY 200CD WITH ORIGINAL 2 BOX ALL NEW AND SEALED It comes in 100 mid-priced 2-CD units, each devoted to a single artist. BOX 1: 1~50 BOX 2: 51~100 PHILIPS 1999 MADE IN GERMANY If you have any question or need more detail picture, Please contact me.   You know those ancient legends where people fervently wish for something, and then up pops a genie and they wind up with far more than they can handle? I once lamented -->that while we had fine historical CD surveys of the violin, cello, viola and even the harpsichord, sorely missing was the most popular instrument of all, the piano. Well, a genie at Philips must have heard my call. I was soon reveling in their massive "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" edition. Would you believe two hundred discs? And you thought Bear Family boxes were huge? Fortunately, the Edition isn't as unwieldy as it might sound. It comes in 100 mid-priced 2-CD units, each devoted to a single artist. Sheer size apart, this is a hugely impressive project. Here's the stats: 72 pianists, of whom seven giants (Arrau, Brendel, Gilels, Horowitz, Kempff, Richter and Rubinstein) are honored with three volumes each; sixteen more artists get two. (OK, wise guys - the math is correct, since two of the volumes feature pairs of pianists.) The total running time is over 250 hours, with most discs very full (some approach 81 minutes!). Much of the music is new to CD. Although Philips' own material (and that of their Decca and Deutsche Grammophon affiliates) figures prominently, recordings were licensed from the other majors (EMI, RCA and Sony) and some smaller labels as well. Any project of this scope reflects the taste of its producer, in this case life-long piano enthusiast Tom Deacon, whose credentials and culture I wouldn't dare challenge. Even so, a few overall quibbles still seem fair, as my frustrations with this edition go beyond questions of personal taste and in fact seem fueled by the Edition's own liner notes. While the focus is on solo work, there are also lots of concertos and other works with orchestra but nothing in between, even though the notes for many sets extol their subjects' chamber music fame. For a 20th century piano survey, there's hardly any 20th century piano music, although the notes vaunt several of the artists as committed modernists. Nor are many early masters of the century (de Greef, Lamond) or the great composer-pianists (Bartok, Prokofiev) included, presumably because they were not sufficiently prolific to fill 2 CDs by themselves, even though they are praised in their students' volumes. Even within individual sets, the notes cruelly tease with unfulfilled expectations, touting several artists' preferred repertoire which is omitted from their volumes; thus, while Leon Fleisher's unique claim to the obscure but fascinating left-hand literature is duly noted, all we get of that is his overly-familiar Ravel Concerto. Indeed, the selections all too often seem stuck in a standard repertoire rut, with huge amounts of overlap. Among major works alone over fifty receive three or more performances. Admittedly, they're mostly masterworks and make for fascinating stylistic comparisons, but some more variety would have been nice, too. Thus, we get six versions of Prokofiev's Third Concerto, but none of Beethoven's; eight of Chopin's Second Sonata but none of Brahms's; and five of Ravel's slight Sonatina but none of his more substantial Miroirs. If you're looking to assemble a comprehensive survey of great piano music, this clearly won't do. Rather, the organizing principle was to create musical portraits of some of the most distinctive personalities of the recorded era. To that end, the project is wildly successful – absorbing one of these volumes reveals as much of its subject as a detailed biography or analysis. Once you're willing to submit to the producers' quirks, this edition affords a wealth of fabulous pianism that combines stunning technique, profound musical understanding and brilliant interpretive insight. But where do you start? Philips has made that an easy choice. For the price of a single mid-line CD, they've packaged a hardcover book of artist bios and a piano history with a 2-CD sampler of selections from all but two of the artists (licensing problems?), graced with cogent performance notes. But don't mistake Philips's gesture for generosity. Hearing this stuff is addictive and you'll be sorely tempted to plunge into the full Edition. The sampler will help guide you to your own favorites. Here are mine among the first fifty volumes. They're in no particular order; my current favorite invariably is the one I've heard most recently. Schnabel's Beethoven, Kempff's Brahms, Rubinstein's Chopin, Cortot's Schumann, Richter's Prokofiev and Laroccha's Albinez all are utterly transparent - they sublimate ego to achieve full identification with a composer's expression - and thus represent the ultimate triumph of truly great artistry. Along with Schnabel and Cortot, Lhevinne and Rachmaninoff were "Golden Age" pianists, whose authenticity arose from immersion in the very tradition that produced our core repertoire; while younger artists try to emulate that vision, these guys lived it. Rosalyn Tureck recreates Bach with rarefied feeling. Maria Yudina jolts often staid Bach and Beethoven variations with electrifying authority. Alfred Brendel presents Haydn and Schubert with sparkling clarity. Clifford Curzon presents Mozart and the same Schubert with exquisite sensitivity. Shura Cherkassky imbues Chopin with sweeping personal poetry. Mikhail Pletnev enlivens his Tchaikovsky with balletic elan. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli colors the impressionists with radiant hues. John Ogden revitalizes unusual repertoire with compelling intensity. Lyubov Bruk and Mark Taimanov, duo-pianists, may double your pleasure. Byron Janis, Julius Katchen and Leon Fleisher are quintessentially American - bold and brash. Evgeny Kissin dazzles as a phenomenal teenage prodigy. Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil and Ingrid Haebler communicate with disarming directness. Ivan Moravec plays so smoothly you'll forget that his piano's a percussion instrument. Maurizio Pollini, Zoltan Koksis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alexis Weissenberg and Martha Argerich play with clean, modern splendor that defies pigeon-holing. Nothing, though, matches the inspiration of a live concert. If I had to choose just one volume as a great place to start it would be the first devoted to Sviatoslav Richter, which combines his definitive Prokofiev with a staggeringly intense 1958 Sofia recital that amply validates why many consider Richter to have been the pianist of the century. Also wondrous is an awesome 1974 concert of Bach, Chopin and flashy showpieces by Jorge Bolet. I'm even thrilled with the packaging, a rare emotion since the demise of gatefold LPs. In lieu of a clunky double jewelbox, each volume comes as a DigiPak, a hardback book with stiff paper CD sleeves glued to the inside covers and the notes bound in between. The DigiPak takes up the same space as a single jewelbox, but it's far more attractive and sturdy. It's great to see a major label adopt a sensible alternative to the crummy jewelbox. Boy, do I hate those things! Oh, I know all the marketing rationales. Durable? Try dropping one on the floor. Attractive? Not unless you've got a plastic fetish. Compact? They're mostly wasted space, hogging three times the room needed for a CD, booklet and paper sleeve. And all the crocodile tears once shed over the longbox pale compared to the sheer environmental waste of these things, which promise to bloat landfills for generations to come. But the DigiPaks do present a slight problem - it's nearly impossible to extract the discs from their tight sleeves without fingerprinting and scratching them; not with major globs and gouges that cause mistracking, but the type that leads clerks in used CD stores to feign agony. If you're up for an art project, you can cut out an hourglass piece from the top of the sleeve to the center hole and then guide the CD in and out with your finger - an inconvenience, perhaps, but well worth escaping the tyranny of the jewelbox. Oh, one thing more. As if 200 CDs were not enough, the producer mentioned in a Gramophone interview that he was working on another hundred volumes! Amid the abundant glories of the present edition, I won't deny that I just may have wished for that! More than anything else, the Yudina set encouraged me to get many other volumes of the "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" edition in which at first I was only marginally interested. True, a few turned out to be duds, but more often than not there were delightful surprises. It's a tribute to the richness of music that no two listeners will ever agree as to a single list of the absolute "best" performances, and perhaps that's the ultimate significance of this Edition. No one will fully endorse the producer's selections, but there's some fabulous stuff from unexpected places that will deepen and enrich anyone's understanding and enjoyment of the huge body of piano recordings of the twentieth century. DE 72 PIANISTEN 1 Géza Anda 1921 1976 Hongarije cd 1 2 Martha Argerich 1941   Argentinië cd 2-3 3 Claudio Arrau 1903 1991 Chili cd 4, 5 en 6 4 Vladimir Ashkenazy 1937   Rusland cd 7 5 Wilhelm Backhaus 1884 1969 Duitsland cd 8 6 Daniel Barenboim 1942   Argentinië cd 9 7 Jorge Bolet 1914 1990 Cuba cd 10 en 11 8 Alfred Brendel 1931   Tsjechië cd 12, 13 en 14 9 Lyubov Bruk (duo met Mark Taimonov) 1926 1996 Oekraïne cd 15 10 Robert Casadesus 1899 1972 Frankrijk cd 16 11 Shura Cherkassky 1911 1995 Rusland cd 17 en 18 12 Van Cliburn 1934   Verenigde Staten cd 19 13 Alfred Cortot 1877 1962 Zwitserland cd 20 en 21 14 Clifford Curzon 1907 1982 Groot-Brittannië cd 22 15 György Cziffra 1921 1994 Hongarije cd 23 16 Christoph Eschenbach 1940   Polen cd 24 17 Edwin Fischer 1886 1960 Zwitserland cd 25 en 26 18 Leon Fleisher 1928   Verenigde Staten cd 27 19 Samson François 1924 1970 Duitsland cd 28 20 Nelson Freire 1944   Brazilië cd 29 21 Ignaz Friedman 1882 1948 Polen cd 30 22 Andrei Gavrilov 1955   Rusland cd 31 23 Walter Gieseking 1895 1956 Duitsland cd 32 en 33 24 Emil Gilels 1916 1985 Rusland cd 34, 35 en 36 25 Grigory Ginsburg 1904 1961 Rusland cd 37 26 Leopold Godowsky 1870 1938 Litouwen cd 38 27 Glenn Gould 1932 1982 Canada cd 39 28 Friedrich Gulda 1930   Oostenrijk cd 40 en 41 29 Ingrid Haebler 1929   Oostenrijk cd 42 30 Clara Haskil 1895 1960 Roemenië cd 43 en 44 31 Myra Hess 1890 1965 Groot-Brittannië cd 45 32 Josef Hofmann 1876 1957 Polen cd 46 33 Vladimir Horowitz 1904 1989 Rusland cd 47, 48 en 49 34 Byron Janis 1928   Verenigde Staten cd 50 en 51 35 William Kapell 1922 1953 Verenigde Staten cd 52 36 Julius Katchen 1926 1969 Verenigde Staten cd 53 en 54 37 Wilhelm Kempff 1895 1991 Duitsland cd 55, 56 en 57 38 Evgeny Kissin 1971   Rusland cd 58 39 Zoltán Kocsis 1952   Hongarije cd 59 40 Stephen Kovacevich 1940   Verenigde Staten cd 60 en 61 41 Alicia de Larrocha 1923   Spanje cd 62 en 63 42 Jozef Lhévinne (duo met Rosina Lhévinne) 1874 1944 Rusland cd 64 43 Rosina Lhévinne (duo met Jozef Lhévinne) 1880 1976 Oekraïne cd 64 44 Dinu Lipatti 1917 1950 Roemenië cd 65 45 Radu Lupu 1945   Roemenië cd 66 46 Nikita Magaloff 1912 1992 Rusland cd 67 47 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 1920 1995 Italië cd 68 en 69 48 Benno Moiseiwitsch 1890 1963 Rusland cd 70 49 Ivan Moravec 1930   Tsjechië cd 71 50 John Ogdon 1937 1989 Groot-Brittannië cd 72 en 73 51 Ignacy Jan Paderewski 1860 1941 Polen cd 74 52 Murray Perahia 1947   Verenigde Staten cd 75 53 Maria Joao Pires 1944   Portugal cd 76 54 Mikhail Pletnev 1957   Rusland cd 77 55 Maurizio Pollini 1942   Italië cd 78 en 79 56 André Previn 1929   Duitsland cd 80 57 Sergei Rachmaninoff 1873 1943 Rusland cd 81 58 Sviatoslav Richter 1915 1997 Oekraïne cd 82, 83 en 84 59 Artur Rubinstein 1887 1982 Polen cd 85, 86 en 87 60 András Schiff 1953   Hongarije cd 88 61 Artur Schnabel 1882 1951 Polen cd 89 62 Rudolf Perkins 1903 1991 Hongarije cd 90 63 Vladimir Sofronitsky 1901 1961 Rusland cd 91 64 Solomon 1902 1998 Groot-Brittannië cd 92 65 Mark Taimonov (duo met Lyubov Bruk) 1926   Oekraïne cd 15 66 Rosalyn Tureck 1914   Verenigde Staten cd 93 en 94 67 Mitsuko Uchida 1948   Japan cd 95 68 André Watts 1946   Duitsland cd 96 69 Alexis Weissenberg 1929   Bulgarije cd 97 70 Earl Wild 1915   Verenigde Staten cd 98 71 Maria Yudina 1899 1970 Rusland cd 99 72 Krystian Zimerman 1956   Polen cd 100 Place a Bid!