The month in box-sets Keyboard kings and national anthems
This month’s round-up includes fascinating stories, Widor and JS Bach
Scott Ross had a short but remarkable career, changing the image of harpsichord music with a nonchalance that masked incredible focus and devotion to music. With Bach – Keyboard Works (Erato 9029545842), the American-born artist’s unfinished ambition to record all of Bach’s harpsichord works is (sort of) realised. The original five discs, themselves mostly released after Ross’s death from AIDS in 1989, are accompanied by six discs of broadcast recordings. The additions include organ works and many are on disc for the first time.
Another fascinating backstory accompanies pianist Vladimir Feltsman, with The Complete Columbia Album Collection (Sony 19075911432) showcasing recordings made after moving to the US in 1987. For years before that his voice was all but silenced by the authorities in the Soviet Union, where recordings were removed from shop shelves and concerts cancelled, following an exit visa application in 1979. At the centre of this seven-disc collection is Feltsman’s 1987 Carnegie Hall concert, plus studio takes on Rachmaninov, Prokofiev,
Tchaikovsky, Liszt and more.
Charles-marie Widor – Complete Organ
Works (Signum Classics SIGCD596) brings together all of Joseph Nolan’s splendid recordings for Signum. Discs one to six take in all of the organ symphonies, with the majority of the recordings made in Paris, at La Madeleine. The Op. 73 Romane was, however, recorded on Toulouse’s Saint Sernin organ – the instrument for which it was composed. Individually, this was an engaging series from Signum; the simplistic packaging here perhaps belies the treasures that are to be found within.
Peter Breiner’s ambitious project to arrange and record all of the world’s national anthems continues, and with The Complete National Anthems of the World – 2019 Edition (Marco
Polo 8.201002) we are presented with ten discs of symphonic patriotism. Additions to the impressive set include anthems from Montserrat, Mauritania, Seborga and Somalia, performed by the Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra. If you’ve not come across prior editions, it’s thoroughly researched; current, former and alternate anthems are all present and correct.
Feltsman’s 1987 Carnegie Hall concert is at the centre of the set