Clifford Curzon: Decca Recordings 1937-1971 Vol.3

More Classic Curzon:
After enjoying (and reviewing) the previous two installments of pianist Clifford Curzon's Decca Recordings in the "Original Masters" series, I was delighted to pick up Volume 3 over the holidays. The performances on this six disc set span nearly thirty-five years, from a 1937 orchestrated account of Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy with Sir Henry Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra, to a final disc of all Schubert, the majority of which was made in 1971. In between are many brilliant concerto recordings, and though some have been previously available on CD, all have been out-of-print for some time. The true gems are paired on disc four -- the 1959 stereo Grieg with Fjeldstad and the London SO (my personal favorite -- I had the old "Classic Sound" series CD), and the 1957 mono Brahms No. 2 with Knappertsbusch and Vienna. Coming in a close second is disc three's coupling of the Tchaikovsky 1st, with Solti leading Vienna in stereo from 1958, and the Rachmaninov 2nd, with Boult and the LPO in mono from 1955. The remaining two Concerto performances -- Mozart's 23rd and Brahms' 1st -- are regrettably from the 1940s and suffer from both mediocre sound and comparatively uninspired conducting (Neel and Jorda respectively). Rounding out this set are 1952 performances of the two Mozart Piano Quartets with members of the Amadeus Quartet, and an entire disc (no. 5) of stereo Liszt solo piano works. In all, this is a great collection, and here's to hoping there is enough material in the vaults to produce a Volume 4!

Curzon and Solti: Tchaikovsky's nightmare:
Heavyhanded Solti and the VPO and Curzon who's tempi unsettled Solti, unorganic, affected, ridiculous are the words that come to mind! This is almost as bad as Toradze and Gergiev! Do not waste your money: Solti and Tchaikovsky do not go hand in hand and Curzon has nothing to say with this piece. On LP the recorded sound is not bad although the piano has some very strange tone in low midrange register. I'll take the perhaps too lively Katchen/Gamba anytime over this stale, pompous effort!