Period instruments and piano greats
A quick round-up of this month’s reissued legendary recordings
Beethoven fans won’t want to miss the 15-disc collection of John Eliot Gardiner’s Complete Beethoven Recordings (Archiv Produktion 483 7269). It gathers, for the very first time, all of the conductor’s periodinstrument recordings made with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique between 1989 and 2002. All nine symphonies and five concertos are here, the latter set featuring pianist Robert Levin; Viktoria Mullova performs the Violin Concerto and Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir features in the Mass in C major, among others.
Beethoven symphonies and concertos figure in Wilhelm Furtwängler – Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca (DG 483 7288), but they are just a small part of this epic 34-disc set. With recordings ranging from the 1920s to the 1950s, it really is an all-encompassing celebration of this visionary conductor’s work. Many of the post-war recordings are from radio broadcasts, while the ‘Wartime’ discs feature works captured in Berlin and Vienna at what would have been a tumultuous time.
More period-instrument musicmaking comes in Early Piano (Alpha Classics ALPHA 569), a ten-disc set of recordings on fortepianos and antique Pleyel and Steinway pianos. Chamber and solo works by Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, Haydn, CPE Bach, Graun, Hesse and Béranger are performed by an illustrious group of performers, including Laurent Stewart, Alexei Lubimov, Olga Pashchenko and Eric Le Sage.
With Lili Kraus – Milestones of a Piano Legend (Intense Media 600540) we’re invited to make a rediscovery. The Hungarianborn pianist was feted for her subtle interpretations, particularly of Haydn and Mozart chamber works. This ten-disc set is comprised of recordings made either side of World War II, an interruption which saw Kraus arrested and interred while on tour in Japan. Performing partners include violinists Szymon Goldberg and Willi Boskovsky and one of the discs sees Kraus performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductor Pierre Monteux.
An all-encompassing celebration of the visionary Furtwängler