Alfred Brendel (Box Set) [Box set]

Alfred Brendel (Box Set) [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This set collects six single releases (all transfers of recordings, originally released on LP, made from 1965 to 1968) at a reduced price. They show Brendel at his best and worst. The Chopin polonaises have integrity and some imagination--more like treatises on Chopin than convincing performances. Nobody will confuse Brendel's Liszt with the flash and excitement of Cziffra or Horowitz, but he has a good time with these showpieces and even inserts a cadenza of his own into the Second Hungarian Rhapsody. He also plays free with the text of the Mozart concerto's slow movements; all pianists should embellish these scores, which Mozart just regarded as outlines. These concertos are excellent, although the small orchestra still sounds a bit bloated, perhaps due to hall acoustics. The disc of Mozart solo music shows why the pianist sometimes earns the derisive nickname Brendull; he drains the drama from Mozart's most dramatic sonata and leaves the other pieces sounding uneventful. Brendel's Schubert is superb; heart and mind meet in ideal balance, probing intellect bringing out meaningful details in the context of deeply emotional music making. The thrilling march at the heart of Schumann's fantasy is much too subdued, but the rapturous playing of the finale makes up for a lot, and the Symphonic Études are quite powerful and committed, although lacking the posthumously published variations. All in all, a mixed bag, but a fascinating portrait of a major artist. --Leslie Gerber

Alfred Brendel (Box Set), Music, Fryderyk Chopin, Franz Liszt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Antonio Janigro, I Solisti di Zagreb, Alfred Brendel, Box Sets (Audio Only), Chamber, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Music, Classical Period Variations for Keyboard, Classical Sonata/Sonatina for Keyboard, Collection of Dance-Based Music for Keyboard, Concerto, Fantasy/Fantasia for Keyboard, Folk Dance for Keyboard, Keyboard, Piano Concerto, Polonaise for Keyboard, Rhapsody for Keyboard, Romantic Sonata/Sonatina for Keyboard, Romantic Variations for Keyboard, Rondo for Keyboard, Violin with Keyboard

Alfred Brendel (Box Set) [Box set]

Google

Music Info: