{"id":12501,"date":"2013-07-18T13:48:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T17:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=12501"},"modified":"2013-08-04T19:51:54","modified_gmt":"2013-08-04T23:51:54","slug":"historical-pianists-from-sony-kronos-at-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/?p=12501","title":{"rendered":"Historical Pianists from Sony; Kronos at 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sedgwick Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

With copyrights soon to expire, several major labels are releasing huge box sets of their holdings for their Last Hurrah at ridiculously low prices. One of the first was Sony Classical\u2019s complete Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky series on 22 CDs for $45. Others from Sony are complete editions of Toscanini, Rubinstein, and Heifetz, with Horowitz on the way. Universal has released sets of Curzon, Ferrier, the complete operas of Wagner and Verdi, Solti\u2019s Wagner Ring <\/em>remastered, and two delicious 50-CD boxes of Mercury Living Presence with a third set reportedly in the works. Decca will celebrate the Britten centennial soon with all of the composer\u2019s recordings in one mammoth set. And the prices are IN-SANE<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Graffman and Fleisher—Two OYAPs Complete<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sony Classical has just announced upcoming box sets of its complete recordings of Gary Graffman (on RCA and Columbia) and Leon Fleisher (Epic and Columbia), two of the pianists known in the early 1950s as OYAPs\u2014Outstanding Young American Pianists. Others in the group included William Kapell, Julius Katchen, Eugene Istomin, Jacob Lateiner, and Claude Frank.<\/p>\n

The 23-CD Fleisher set will be released on the pianist\u2019s 85th birthday, July 23, and includes several famous concerto recordings with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra: Beethoven\u2019s 5, the two Brahms, the oft-coupled Grieg and Schumann, and Rachmaninoff\u2019s Paganini <\/em>Rhapsody. After trying out innumerable Beethoven sets over the past 40 years, I\u2019ve given up trying\u2014there are simply none I\u2019ve ever heard to match the Fleisher\/Szells\u2014and the Brahms pair offers a blazing, young man\u2019s view, especially of the turbulent First.<\/p>\n

Graffman turns 85 on October 14 and will be f\u00eated with a 24-CD set on September 24th. Among the treasures within will be Rachmaninoff\u2019s Second Concerto and Paganini <\/em>Rhapsody with Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky\u2019s Second and Third Concertos with Ormandy and the Philadelphians, and the famous First with Szell and Cleveland. But my favorite Graffman recording is of the First and Third Prokofiev concertos with Szell and Cleveland. I\u2019ll never forget hearing this Third for the first time; few recordings in my collection trigger goose pimples as vividly.<\/p>\n

Both artists, by the way, produced delightful memoirs. Fleisher collaborated with the Washington Post<\/em>\u2019s chief classical music critic, Anne Midgette, in My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music <\/em>(Doubleday, 2010). Graffman\u2019s alliterative I Really Should Be Practicing: Reflections on the Pleasures and Perils of Playing the Piano in Public <\/em>(Doubleday, 1982) is particularly puckish.<\/p>\n

And now, Sony, you could give pianophiles triple pleasure by releasing the Epic and Columbia recordings made by a third American pianist from this generation, Charles Rosen, who died last December at age 85. While hailed for his lucid performances of 20th-century classics\u2014solo works by Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bart\u00f3k, Carter, and Boulez\u2014his recordings of works by Bach and Beethoven received equally high acclaim. Rosen was Musical America<\/em>\u2019s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2008.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Center Hails Kronos at 40<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another cringe-inducing fact of life for old-timers: the Kronos Quartet is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. (It was disturbing enough when Kronos was on Musical America<\/em>\u2019s cover ten years ago!) So we\u2019ll just note the fact and point out that Lincoln Center Out of Doors is putting on 28 Kronos concerts and events between July 24-28. No one who knows Kronos will be surprised that the most up-to-date accessories will be utilized in its performances, to wit a composition by Dan Deacon that \u201cfeatures one of his most recent crowd-participation creations: a light-show generated by audience smartphones via his downloadable app.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, courtesy of DotDotDotMusic,\u00a0are complete programs.\u00a0Each evening of KRONOS at 40 touches on a distinct programming theme:\u00a0<\/p>\n