The Best Piano Music

A unique 8-CD collection comprising nine hours of the best loved classical music!

Teacher of Rachmaninov and Scriabin, Anton Arensky (1861-1906) divided his life between metropolitan St Petersburg and provincial Moscow – during the second half of the 19th century, as Stephen Coombs points out in his excellent notes, ‘a city of sharp contrasts, fiercely religious, noisy and mournful… [of] sober days… followed by riotous nights’. A contemporary recalled him as ‘mobile, nervous, with a wry smile on his clever, half-Tartar face, always joking or snarling. All feared his laughter and adored his talent.’ Rosina Lhevinne remembered him being ‘shy and rather weak’. Tchaikovsky, like Prokofiev and Stravinsky, had time for his art, but Rimsky (whose pupil he’d been) thought he would be ‘soon forgotten’. Maybe Arensky, drunkard and gambler, was no genius, and he was demonstrably lost among the elevated peaks of Brahmsian sonata tradition. But that he could turn a perfumed miniature more lyrically beautiful than most, more occasionally profound too, is repeatedly borne out in the 27 vignettes of this delicate anthology (Opp. 25, 41, 43 and 53 in full and excerpts from Opp. 36 and 52 ).

Johannes Brahms - Piano concerto No. 1
Artur Rubinstein, piano / Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Fritz Reiner
SACD ISO (2.0): 765 MB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 840 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: RCA Red Seal "Living Stereo" # 82876-66378-2 RE1 | Country/Year: US 2005, 1955
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

…In essence, this is glorified stereo with remarkable presence – one feels quite close to Rubinstein, & the CSO seems only feet away – but there is no additional surround sound depth. For the sake of authenticity, this is just as well, & Rubinstein & Reiner at least are not misrepresented through creative engineering. One may regret, however, that this SACD has no bonus tracks & find that it offers less value than other titles in the line.