1人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2012/03/18

Little needs be said about this release. Except for the 15 or 16 preludes and fugues recorded by the composer himself and about the same number on several different labels performed by Sviatoslav Richter, these are the best performances of ALL of these pieces ever recorded. What makes them better than Nikolyeva’s two other complete recordings -- her first stereo version for Melodiya (1980s) and the second one for Hyperion about ten years later -- are the same qualities that make the pre-World War II recordings of Moiseiwitsch, Schnabel or Cortot superior to their later ones. In her early 40s when she recorded this set, Nikolayeva’s musical maturity had reached its peak and pianistically she was still in the fullness of her prime -- her remarkable technical equipment, energy and strength not yet withered by the predations of time, age and illness that affected her when she re-made these recordings in her 60s and 70s. The recorded sound is not great, but good enough to fully convey the greatness of these performances,

2人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2011/05/19

Yakov Zak (1913-1976) was one of the Soviet Union’s greatest pianists.
He recorded frequently, but only a few of his records have ever been
available outside the former Soviet Union and one hopes this reissue, which joins APR’s
release a few years ago of Zak’s brilliant recordings of Rachmaninov’s
Fourth Concerto and Paganini Rhapsody, is followed by others.
In matching a Russian virtuoso
pianist with an exacting, objectivist conductor, the Zak-Sanderling
Brahms Second can be compared to the Horowitz-Toscanini,
Gilels-Reiner and Richter-Leinsdorf versions. Zak’s pianistic muscle
matches that of Horowitz and Gilels and he reveals a deeper
understanding of Brahms’s classical rhetoric. Moreover, in the first
three movements, his rich palette of nuances and his granitic sense of
form rivals that of his childhood frend, Richter. In the concerto’s finale, with its tricky
syncopations, triplets, dotted rhythms and uneven note groupings, he
may not equal Richter’s gypsy daring -- but he comes close enough to
that standard, while surpassing it in accuracy.
As far as I know, Zak’s Prokofiev Second may have been the first
recording of this titanic piece. While it has been followed by other distinguished versions -- notably those of Frager, Ashkenazy, Krainev, Toradze, Gutierrez and Kissin -- in its coruscating passage-work and its creation of a sinistersense of terror and impending doom, it has never been surpassed.

0人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2010/06/13

Boshnyakovich was a great Chopin player. His F Minor Ballade, Polonaise Fantasy and Barcarolle are among the the most beautiful ever recorded -- sensitive, searching and delicately colored.

2人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2010/06/13

Boshnyakovich may be the last survivor of the great generation of pianists who studied with Goldenweiser, Neuhaus and Igumnov. (He studied for several years first with Igumnov and then with Neuhaus). He was a great pianist -- not a theatrical one, but a sensitive and lyrical keyboard poet. I own about 10 recordings of the Seasons, played by Russian pianists that range historically from Lev Oborin and Victor Merzhanov to Vladimir Ashkenazy and Denis Matsuev. Many, indeed most of them, are very fine. But if I could own only one, it would be Boshnyakovich’s.

0人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2010/06/13

Richter adored Karel Ancerl and he thought that Vaclav Talich might have been the greatest conductor he ever worked with. If you love Richter and even if you have multiple performances by him playing these works with other conductors, you owe it to yourself to own this disc.

0人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2010/05/30

These are noble performances of Liszt’s Second and Beethoven Third concertos by a pianist whom Russian aficionados regarded as the equal of Gilels and Richter.

1人の方が、このレビューに｢共感｣しています。
　2010/05/15

This release of broadcasts from 1959 and 1967 promises to add six new works to the Argerich discography. The truth is that nearly all the pieces here ＆#8211; with only one significant exception ＆#8211; have long been available (in other performances) on Argerich “pirates.” The performances on this disc will tell Argerich’s fans little, if anything, they don’t already know about her： That few pianists have ever played such treacherous works as the C-sharp minor Etude, op. 10 no. 4, with such virtuosity, musicality and panache; that Argerich ＆#8211; despite favoring extremely fast tempos ＆#8211; plays the Mazurkas, Chopin’s most personal and subtle works, with a vibrancy that makes her one of the great masters of this genre; that she can play an extended Chopin work, like the B minor Sonata, in an exceptional manner in which her high-pitched tension is always controlled by her artistry and taste; and that, sometimes, her passionate temperament, restless energy and nervous intensity show up as defects in her Chopin playing ＆#8211; as they do in a performance of the Nocturne in E-flat, op. 55 no. 2, so super-heated that its sultriness obscures the glory of the composer’s contrapuntal writing.

But the one significant addition this disc makes to Argerich’s discography suggests some things we did not know about this enigmatic artist： why her performances of Chopin are less consistently satisfying than those of Schumann; why she has devoted herself to such a narrow repertory; and why a pianist who has recorded in the studio celebrated performances of almost every important Chopin genre ＆#8211; the Mazurkas, Polonaises, Etudes, Waltzes, Preludes, Scherzos, Concertos and Sonatas -- has completely neglected one major genre： the Ballades.

Argerich performed the Ballade no. 1 in G minor in Berlin’s RIAS studios early in 1959. Not quite eighteen at the time, this was, nevertheless, nearly two years after her first-prize victories in the Busoni and Geneva competitions, and at about the same time she recorded her DG debut album, a collection of brilliant performances of Brahms, Liszt, Prokofiev and Chopin (the Scherzo no. 3 in C-sharp minor). While her G minor Ballade shares some of the stellar quality of her C-sharp minor Scherzo ＆#8211; particularly the rapier-like reflexes combined with almost incomparable ease and flexibility ＆#8211; the Ballade is a failure. The way she plays the declamatory, seven-bar introduction is relatively flat and lacks the necessary narrative sweep. Her “get-on-with-it” restlessness and nervous energy make the appearance of the the second theme equally unsatisfactory. Since it is from that appearance that the narrative structure grows, the development fails to culminate in the magnificient affirmation of that subject. And, after Argerich’s rather affect-less return to the plaintive G minor first subject, the performance fails to explode in the passionate desperation of the Presto con fuoco coda.

There is room in the Chopin oeuvre for a pianist who is a dramatist (the Scherzos and Polonaises), a colorist (the Nocturnes), a miniaturist (the Waltzes and Mazurkas) and a virtuoso (the Etudes). But unless a pianist also has a knack for telling a story, he or she better stay away from the Ballades. And Argerich, as this performance demonstrates, is no story-teller ＆#8211; at least not in Chopin. Her performances of Schumann ＆#8211; a composer whose works, whether in Kinderszenen or Kreisleriana, reward unremitting restlessness and neurotic intensity ＆#8211; are another story.

That Argerich never returned to the First Ballade or attempted to perform any of the other three suggests that she knew that her strength was for music that drove inexorably, rather than episodically, to a conclusion. And, henceforth, she would only choose repertory that played to that strength. This has meant that during her rather peculiar career ＆#8211; since 1979, so far as I know, she has not performed a single complete solo program in public ＆#8211; that she has been able to perform a relatively small number of nevertheless important pieces as well as or better than any other living pianist. It will be left to history to judge the wisdom of that choice.