Customer Reviews

Great Pianists of the 20th Century - Selections from the definitive collection [Sampler]

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Even if you have many of the releases involved in this mammoth series, this TWO cd sampler set is a great deal for the price! All but two of the pianists are represented in this anthology. Most of these selections are under 3 minutes in length, which means about 75 performances from Paderewski to Kissin. A large booklet is included detailing the development of the piano and its music. Each pianist is then given a biography and their CDs in this series and what repertoire they play on them. Beware, though, I am now going to buy at least one of the series' issues because of this sampler, which is the mission of this entertaining anthology.

If you only purchase one classical piano cd in your entire life, this one should be it. All the masters, at their very best on it.

If you have piano cd's, this should be part of that collection. I purchased one, almost not believing what I read on the jacket. I'm telling my friends about this one, as I'm aware of no other CD having all those piano masters - - at any price?)...

This is an introductory 2-CD set to introduce a very grand series of CD's featuring the 20th Century's greatest pianists.
As a sampler, there are some incredible jewels here, for example Nikita Magaloff's sparkling Chopin Tarantelle and Paganini Etude No.3: 'La Campanella' played excitingly by John Ogdon. There is even an early recording of Paderewski playing (predictably) Paderewski.

This sampler seems a bit of a Euro-centric, but the editors wisely chose to include Earl Wild doing Gershwin and Roslyn Tureck doing Bach. I ended up purchasing the Andre Watts volume from this series, and wondered what it would be like to own the whole shootin' match. I saw the entire CD series on display in a top notch music store in Germany--it was overwhelming to see the line of brown covers stretching impressively across an entire wall. The sampler is a good way to have a taste of this ambitious series of the giants of piano in the 20th Century. I listen to it often with great enjoyment.

RE: Those of you who complained/rejoiced about Gould's abscence: he is not on the sampler, true, I believe for... purposes or something along those lines. Rudolf Serkin is also not included, but both are among the "greatest pianists of the 20th Century" set.

Ich habe diesen Sampler zufällig gefunden. Es ist die allerbeste CD, die ich je gehört habe. Alles daran ist grossartig! -Der Preis, die Stückauswahl, das Booklet, das Cover und allem voran die Interpreten. Man gewinnt einen lebendigen Eindruck der unglaublichen Originalität und der musikalischen Eigenheiten, die besonders bei den schon verstorbenen Pianisten hervortritt. UNBEDINGT ANHÖREN!!

Although I understand that it must have been very diffiult to decide which pianists got put in the collection, let alone a two-disc sampler, I still feel that any anthology of the piano (other than one highlighting the romantic era)should contain at least one piece by Gould, yet this one doesn't. Gould has been almost unanimously hailed as one of the most influential artist of the twentieth century, yet he is not included on this disc. Other than that, a great buy.

I was pleased after reading the list of performers to see that Gould's machine-gun jiffy-pop piano "playing" is not included. I would like to hear more of Skanavi tho.