David Mellor<\/a> <\/p>\n Published:<\/span> 13:23 EDT, 3 September 2012 <\/time> <\/span> | Updated:<\/span> 13:23 EDT, 3 September 2012 <\/time> <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> Rating: Such is the recording companies\u2019 desperation for turnover, there\u2019s a glut of new bargain CD boxes. Lovers of British music can\u00a0 now get the complete recorded legacy, on 23 CDs, of Sir Clifford Curzon, the greatest English pianist of\u00a0 the 20th Century, for less than \u00a350 on Decca. Or, on 11 CDs from EMI, some splendid German music from Bach to\u00a0 Wagner by one of the greatest English conductors of the 20th Century, Sir Adrian Boult, for barely \u00a320. <\/span><\/p>\nThen there are all the major works of Sir William Walton on 12 CDs, also from EMI, in generally excellent recordings for less than \u00a325.<\/span><\/p>\nIn later life, Clifford Curzon specialised in what his teacher, Artur Schnabel, called \u2018music better than it can ever be played\u2019. His Schubert was good enough to make him a legend in Vienna, and his Mozart piano concerto performances were esteemed for their clarity and refinement. Several versions of key ones, like the last, K595, are to be found on the Decca set.<\/span><\/p>\n Seeking perfection: Sir Clifford Curzon practising in 1949<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Curzon refused to record anything he didn\u2019t think he had completely mastered, and then often wouldn\u2019t agree to release the few recordings he did make. So two beautiful performances of K595, with Sir Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic and Benjamin Britten and the English Chamber Orchestra, could not be issued until after Curzon\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\nA highly-strung perfectionist, Curzon was described by one friend as spending days working on 19 different ways of playing a single phrase, before settling\u00a0 on a 20th as a temporary expedient.\u00a0 Happily, Decca revered him, and put in the huge effort required to coax recordings out of him. So this treasurable set is as much a tribute to them as to him.<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s also some fine Schumann, Beethoven and Liszt. And plenty of\u00a0 big, showy concertos, including three magnificent performances of Brahms\u2019s massive First Concerto. The last of these, from 1962, with another perfectionist, George Szell, is arguably the finest recording this work has ever received.<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s also a Grieg concerto from 1958 possessed of a freshness and poetry that banishes thoughts of all others. And\u00a0 a gossamer-like Litolff Scherzo that sounds as if it has just escaped from Mendelssohn\u2019s Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.<\/span><\/p>\nDecca have also gathered together\u00a0 some radio recordings, including a memorable account from the 1952 Edinburgh Festival, of Brahms\u2019s Liebeslieder Waltzes with a vocal quartet including Kathleen Ferrier, sounding wonderful only a few months before she died. There\u2019s also a disc of radio interviews, and a DVD of two BBC TV recitals.<\/span><\/p>\nCurzon was a connoisseur\u2019s pianist, and this box is a true connoisseur\u2019s choice.<\/span><\/p>\nSir Adrian Boult was such a dedicated servant of British music that he became typecast in the role. But in fact he trained in Germany and, had the First World War not intervened, would have stayed on working in German opera houses.<\/span><\/p>\nHe continued recording into great old age, and it\u2019s extraordinary to hear a conductor born in 1889 in 1970s recordings that still sound really well.<\/span><\/p>\nThey came about by accident. He was left with a three-hour session, having finished, with typical efficiency, a recording of British music in less than the allotted time. EMI asked him what he wanted to do in it, and he replied, Brahms\u2019s Third.<\/span><\/p>\nThis 1970 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra was such a success that a full cycle was commissioned, and\u00a0 he was also let loose on lots of Wagner, a\u00a0 very special Schubert 9 and a delightful Beethoven Pastoral, as well as some Bach Brandenburgs that perhaps now sound old-fashioned.<\/span><\/p>\nEMI\u2019s companion set is devoted to\u00a0 William Walton. All the main stuff is here, with Bernard Haitink most persuasive\u00a0 in the epic First Symphony, one of the 20th Century\u2019s greatest symphonies, and Andre Previn making the most of the much more problematic Second.<\/span>Sir Simon Rattle contributes a powerful Belshazzar\u2019s Feast, Ida Haendel is first class in the Violin Concerto, and the young Nigel Kennedy wields a nifty viola for\u00a0 a change in the Viola Concerto.<\/span>With Facade in its original and full orchestral version, the complete Troilus And Cressida, lashings of film music, all the concert overtures, and both Coronation marches, this is a formidable collection.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legend ticks all the boxes By David Mellor Published: 13:23 EDT, 3 September 2012 | Updated: 13:23 EDT, 3 September 2012 Rating: Such is the recording companies\u2019 desperation for turnover, there\u2019s a glut of new bargain CD boxes. Lovers of British music can\u00a0 now get the complete recorded legacy, on 23 CDs, of Sir Clifford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1623],"tags":[1624,3180,23,694,47,3179],"acf":{"source_article":"","image_credit":""},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latestnews.top\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}