Decca Sound: 55 CD boxed set PIANO edition

[Lance]

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I have had my eye on this for some time. The only problem is a great many performances in this set have been reissued on CD. On the other hand, the set is valuable to collectors who might want to have a half dozen or so of certain items within the box. Does any CMGer happen to have this set, and if so, what can you say about it? Many great pianists are included not only from the Decca label but DGG and other labels under the Universal blanket. The following appears in Amazon's listing:


The latest installment of Decca’s megabrand is here! Right now, PIANO is right at the center of attention everywhere and this 55-CD box set puts the spotlight on a wealth of recordings from the Decca catalogue spanning eight decades and five continents. The curation of this set is passionate, scholarly, and features a number of unpublished and new to CD material. Includes fantastic booklet notes by Cyrus Meher-Homji and Mike Gray. Original Jackets of course.• Eight decades of Pianism on Decca from the 1940s – 2010s, sequenced alphabetically by artist• From Bach and Scarlatti to the 20th century, including a brush with Jazz, solo repertoire, piano concertos and concertante works• Six important ‘schools’ of piano playing represented – German, French and Russian, Spanish, English, American• From the great sovereigns of the piano to the younger generation of artists of today• A truly international release with artists from five continents• Includes previously unpublished recordings and many of the featured recordings making their first appearance on CD• Extensive booklet with notes by Cyrus Meher-Homji on the artists and recordings, and Mike Gray on the evolution of the recording technology

HIGHLIGHTS• Decca’s first FFRR concerto recording available for the first time: Eileen Joyce / Tchaikovsky 2nd Piano Concerto – never released on 78rpm and long thought lost, the test pressings were recently found at the International Piano Archives in Maryland• Includes the only Decca recordings by piano luminaries Argerich, Rubinstein, Lipatti, Michelangeli, Bernstein and Haskil• Select recordings played on composers’ own pianos – Thibaudet playing Chopin’s piano, Schiff and Malcolm on Mozart’s fortepiano• Award-winning recordings include: Larrocha Ravel Concertos [Grammy Award], Mustonen Shostakovich 24 Preludes [Edison and Gramophone Awards]• Previously unpublished recordings included – Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 with Joyce; Argerich/Schumann with Chailly [first time on CD – her first Decca recording]• First International CD releases include: Rogé: Bartok Concertos 1-3 · Kathleen Long: Mozart Concerto No. 24 (Van Beinum) · Friedrich Gulda’s first Decca recordings · Eden & Tamir: Two-Piano Encores · Kempff’s early Decca recordings of sonatas by Schubert and shorter pieces by Bach, Handel, Rameau, Couperin, Beethoven, et.al. · Wilhelm Backhaus’ 1954 Carnegie Hall Recital

REPERTOIRE• All five Beethoven Concertos: Gulda (Nos.1&2), Lupu (Nos.3&5), Haskil (No.4), Mustonen (Violin Concerto, transcription for piano)• Both Brahms Concertos: Rubinstein (No.1), Ashkenazy (No.2); the Ravel Concertos with Larrocha (Grammy-Award winning recordings)• Chopin’s complete works for piano and orchestra (Kun-Woo Paik)• Mozart Concertos on fortepiano (Levin) and pianoforte (Curzon, Long Bernstein)• Encores/Transcriptions from Kempff (his own transcriptions of Bach, Beethoven and Handel); Cherkassky’s first Decca recording “Kaleidoscope” (complete on CD internationally for the first time); Grainger’s arrangements of Fauré and Gerswin on “The American Virtuoso” – one of the most captivating Argo recordings from the 90s with the ‘rebirth’ of the label; and Godowsky’s notoriously difficult arrangements of Chopin’s Études and Waltzes• Music-making with friends: Piano Four-Hands and Two Pianos – Schiff & Malcolm, Ashkenazy & Previn, Katchen & Marty, Curzon & Britten; Rogé & Ortiz; Eden & Tamir.

[maestrob]

Wow! That sounds like a winner! I'll have to locate my shelf-stretcher before I order it, though.......

[Mookalafalas]

I've got it, and am loving it, but I don't have any of this material, so its all new to me. Lots of the disks have bonus material. Love the original covers and the overall design, but the cardboard is the thin flimsy variety.

[barney]

I've got it and haven't opened it yet.
Clearly some material in it I don't already have. Might check out the Cherkassky tonight.

[Lance]

Barney, the Cherkassky disc is incredible. If I am not mistaken, I believe that one came out on Australian Eloquence. Can you verify that for me?

[Lance]

Barney, indeed, that IS the "Kaleidoscope" disc with Shura Cherkassky in the 55-CD Decca "The Piano Edition." I did get the box after all - for a pittance, actually, too hard to pass up. Lots of duplication but some others discs that make the set most worthwhile - all with original jackets to bring back memories from the LPs or original CDs!

Barney, the Cherkassky disc is incredible. If I am not mistaken, I believe that one came out on Australian Eloquence. Can you verify that for me?

[John F]

English Decca came late to classical music and their soloists were the leavings of older companies such as Victor, Columbia, HMV, English Columbia, and so on. Of their few exclusive pianists, I suppose the most important were Backhaus, Katchen, and Ashkenazy, two of whom were previously HMV artists but changed labels.

It was in orchestral music and especially opera that Decca came to the forefront, partly because of the ffrr sound quality, partly because Victor, Columbia, and HMV recorded operas sporadically (EMI's Callas and Karajan recordings were made by Walter Legge for English Columbia).

[barney]

I'm sorry Lance, I completely overlooked your exchange with me in this thread, until it became live again via JohnF.
I get sent most Eloquence CDs by Universal, and I don't have this one. In fact I don't have much of this very fine pianist except a recital released in 1991 that won a Gramophone Award, the Great Pianists volume, and some interesting entries in other sets (such as the Zouave's Drill by someone called Mana-Zucca in a DG mono era set). He's in the complete Scriabin edition, the complete Sibelius edition and sundry other spots. But I have nothing on Eloquence.

[Lance]

And Clifford Curzon was a primary pianist for Decca from the beginning of the LP era. And then came along some other big names in piano: de Larrocha, Bolet, Rogé, Lupu, Schiff, Gulda, Cherkassky, and quite a few others that added substantially to Decca's stable of pianists. Some of these, of course, recorded for other major labels. Haskil, Brendel and others were picked up from the Philips label under Universal's blanket.

English Decca came late to classical music and their soloists were the leavings of older companies such as Victor, Columbia, HMV, English Columbia, and so on. Of their few exclusive pianists, I suppose the most important were Backhaus, Katchen, and Ashkenazy, two of whom were previously HMV artists but changed labels.

It was in orchestral music and especially opera that Decca came to the forefront, partly because of the ffrr sound quality, partly because Victor, Columbia, and HMV recorded operas sporadically (EMI's Callas and Karajan recordings were made by Walter Legge for English Columbia).