If my memory serves me correctly, I think Ingrid Haebler also recorded a complete set of the J.C. Bach piano concertos on a fortepiano back in the 1970s for Philips. They were too expensive for me to buy as a box set then - I wonder if they ever resurfaced on CD?
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The did appear on CD:Originally posted by MickyD View Post
and while I have not as yet been able to track down a physical copy, there are various download options available. How legitimate they are is another question altogether.Comment
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One of my biggest disappointments in CD buying was when I bought the Uchida - Tate Complete Concertos. I already had Uchida's complete Mozart sonatas, and think those performances are priceless.
How surprising to find then that those performers' approach to the concertos just didn't tick the boxes for me, at all. I found something subtly but totally unengaging about them - can't remember in detail why, because the box went back to HMV as I knew I could never live with them. My recollection is that there was a lack of flow, infelicitous phrasing... Earthbound readings, I thought."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Good detective work, Bryn - though I'm sorry you can't find a copy. I was mistaken thinking that the set was complete - the full works are to be found on around 6 discs from CPO with Anthony Halstead and the Hanover Band, and I don't have those yet, either!Comment
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Looks like there is going to be another HIP cycle in progress - Ronald Brautigam has done concertos 9 & 12 for BIS, released last month. That might well be a cycle to watch, given Brautigam's excellent Beethoven sonatas for the same label.Comment
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Thank you all for your responses to my original post. I am swayed by your suggestions that one single pianist cannot do this concerto cycle justice so will sample/buy as many of your individual recommendations as feasible.Comment
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There's an interesting video about Brautigam's Mozart piano concerto cycle on the BIS site.
It sounds wonderfully alive to my ears
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If you want a true bargain basement set with entirely acceptable performances (including Alfredo Perl in K242 (in the version for just 2 pianos and orchestra) and K365), try downloading Carmen Piazzini with the Leningrad soloists. I have these in a 40 CD set (£10 in The Works) "The Ultimate Mozart". They would not be my first choice, but they are not at all bad.Comment
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Very tempting indeed, but I think I will hold fire and await the eventual boxed set (unlike my approach to his Beethoven SACDs, the individual solo fortepiano discs of which will keep coming for a few years yet).Originally posted by amateur51 View PostComment
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there seem to be few comments on Geza Anda's traversal of these concertos, the first complete recorded cycle. I think in their latest complete box set incarnation they come up as fresh as paint. Lovely poised performances and the recordings totally defy their age. Anyone share this view?Comment
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Yes, I certainly do. But is his the first completely recorded cycle or Haebler's? Haebler did 242 and 365 as well. Anda?Originally posted by PaulT View PostComment
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I didn´t really care for the Haebler set. Anda, yes. And of course Perahia, Brendel and Barenboim. I have Uchida as well but can´t find the key to those performances. Not yet anyway. Any views on Uchida?Comment
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Good point - I dont recall Anda recording the concertos for multiple piano but would love to track them down if they exist.Originally posted by Roehre View PostComment
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Gibbs - now wasn't that a great shop for LPs. I used to go there often, though my preferred outlet was Avgarde Gallery in Brazenose Street (before they moved premises and became dominated by pop music). And to return to topic, I collected many Anda recordings of the concertos, but gave them to a friend on the acquisition of the Haebler set.Originally posted by Lion-of-Vienna View PostComment
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Why complete sets?
I'm curious to know what makes people want to buy complete sets with the same performers. Take the Mozart concertos or the Beethoven sonatas. A pianist might play them all, but some works will be more suited to his/her temperament than others. And during the months of recording, the performer will have good days and less good days. We've all heard performers say of their recordings "I'm proud of that concerto but that one didn't quite come off".
Is the buying of complete sets somewhat akin to the erstwhile buying of Dickens complete novels in a leather bound edition to be put on the shelves and never read? Or is it to have a reference available eg "Mozart's C major concerto no 8 - now which one is that?"
I can't imagine that anyone would get pleasure in listening to one pianist - be it Haebler or Brendel or whoever - bringing their manerisms to each and every concerto. Perhaps I'm wrong.
I am genuinely curious.Comment
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