[S Clark]

RCA LM-1892 Complete Chopin Waltzes

Many of us that are of a certain age spent many an hour seated at the piano bench practicing our scales and finger excersizes, enabling us to find a degree of competancy with our Bach and Chopin.  Years later we have so many recordings of various preludes, etudes, etc. that we quickly flip by the myriad copies at the local record store. But let me tell you that you need to look for this one.

I'm not a big Artur Rubenstein fan, prefering the clarity of Horowitz, or later, Richter and Van Cliburn, but not for this recording.  Rubenstein nailed this one.  Every note sings, but each one in its place, and with such emotion that you almost forget to listen to the notes themselves.  These are the waltzes that we have heard dozens hundreds of times, and like the painting over the couch, lost their ability to inspire by repetition.  But not this recording. You start by listening, admiring the virtuosity, then the emotion, the you find yourself swaying to the waltz. Just feeling the music.  And the recording itself puts the very realistic piano into your living room, just it was meant for the salons of Paris and Vienna.  I really am stunned by this old war horse.  Look for a copy at the nearest thrift store- they sold tens of thousands of these starting in  1955.  One heads up however, this was never released in stereo (which doesn't bother me for solo instruments), and it will sound better on a mono cartridge.

I didn't get past side one; I've got to get back...

[Tyson]

The funny thing about Rubinstein - he was very unimpressive when I listened to him when I was 20.  Even when I was 30 I only warmed to some of his stuff.  But now at 40 I hear a depth in his simplicity that I just didn't hear before.  His recording of the Mazurkas is quickly becoming a desert island disc for me.  And the waltzes ain't bad either

[S Clark]

Tyson, you kinda remind me of the old Mark Twain quote "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."  Forty?? seriously?? damn, you're getting to be an old fart like JimGoulding (and me).

Scott

[Soundminded]

For some of us Rubenstein remains the ultimate interpretor and performer of Chopin. It was interesting in a program BBC once aired called "The Greenfield Collection" that an analysis of 55 recordings of Brahm's second piano concerto, they picked Rubenstein's as their number one choice. Personally I'm no great fan of Horowitz. I consider him a prime example of what I call the Soviet school of piano bangery. I get the feeling that at some point in their training they must have been told to hit the keys as hard as they could, right or wrong. Later on they seem to play everything that way. It was unfortunate about Van Cliburn. He started out in the early 60s as a world famous artist especially after he won the Tchaikowsky competition in Moscow. I think his recording of the Rachmaninoff second concerto is the best I've ever heard and I've got at least a dozen of them including Richter's (Reiner's performance with the Chicago Symphony added much to it.) But by around the mid to late 70s he seemed to have lost it, gone stale. A performance of the Grieg aired on TV was awful with many wrong notes. Sad ending, unexpected. You don't hear much about him anymore although I think there is a Van Cliburn competition.

[Rob Babcock]

Thanks, I'll be looking for this one.  I've always been a fan of Rubenstein.

[JBrahms]

RCA LM-1892 Complete Chopin Waltzes

Many of us that are of a certain age spent many an hour seated at the piano bench practicing our scales and finger excersizes, enabling us to find a degree of competancy with our Bach and Chopin.  Years later we have so many recordings of various preludes, etudes, etc. that we quickly flip by the myriad copies at the local record store. But let me tell you that you need to look for this one.

I'm not a big Artur Rubenstein fan, prefering the clarity of Horowitz, or later, Richter and Van Cliburn, but not for this recording.  Rubenstein nailed this one.  Every note sings, but each one in its place, and with such emotion that you almost forget to listen to the notes themselves.  These are the waltzes that we have heard dozens hundreds of times, and like the painting over the couch, lost their ability to inspire by repetition.  But not this recording. You start by listening, admiring the virtuosity, then the emotion, the you find yourself swaying to the waltz. Just feeling the music.  And the recording itself puts the very realistic piano into your living room, just it was meant for the salons of Paris and Vienna.  I really am stunned by this old war horse.  Look for a copy at the nearest thrift store- they sold tens of thousands of these starting in  1955.  One heads up however, this was never released in stereo (which doesn't bother me for solo instruments), and it will sound better on a mono cartridge.

I didn't get past side one; I've got to get back...

Yeah, I kind of like that Richter guy too

[dflee]

My wife after I read this to her said that while she really likes Rubenstein, ya gotta try Horowitz.

Don