Great Pianists 85

Artur Rubinstein (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 10, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000DI3G
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,127 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Andante spianato, Op. 22

2. Grande Polonaise brillante, Op. 22

3. Nocturne In C Minor, Op. 48 No. 1

4. Nocturne In F Sharp Minor, Op. 48 No. 2

5. Polonaise In A, Op. 40 No. 1 'Military'

6. Waltz In C Sharp Minor, Op. 64 No. 2

7. Nocturne In C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 1

8. Nocturne In D Flat, Op. 27 No. 2

9. Waltz In D Flat, Op. 64 No. 1 'Minute'

10. Berceuse In D Flat, Op. 57

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Ballade No. 3 In A Flat, Op. 47

2. Trois nouvelles etudes, Op. Posth.: 1. In F Minor

3. Trois nouvelles etudes, Op. Posth.: 2. In A Flat

4. Trois nouvelles etudes, Op. Posth.: 3. In D Flat

5. Fantaisie-Impromptu In C Sharp Minor, Op. 66

6. Waltz In A Flat, Op. 34 No. 1

7. Waltz In A Flat, Op. 42 'Two-Four-Waltz'

8. Mazurkas, Op. 68: 1. In C

9. Mazurkas, Op. 68: 2. In A Minor

10. Mazurkas, Op. 68: 3. In F

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An approach which actually has been neglected and forgotten!, February 3, 2006

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Pianists 85 (Audio CD)

According to the great romantic musical tradition and the marvelous coincidence of having born in Poland (without forget Paderewski) - an additional evidence which supports the romantic paradigm- , a true archetype has been made around the prestigious figure of this emblematic pianist.

Rubinstein indeed, belonged to that missed Romantic approach that emphasized the lyrical flight permeated with intention (and not a task by itself); the patriot, the man who would never return to his native country, oppressed yesterday and today, but inflaming the heroic conscious specially evidenced in the Polonaises and Scherzos.

Rubinstein was the embodiment of the romantic hero per excellence; and that fact was, apart his undeniable musical virtues, an invisible support which worked out in his favor around the world.

After him, Haraziewickz and Malcuzinski followed similar traces as so well the legendary Cziffra (from Hungary) and Vladimir Feltsman in the seventies fed the exile tradition, and in that sense we would have to write a book to describe similar behavior patterns in pianists, violinists, conductors, cellists, who emigrated from other latitudes.

Rubinstein `s Chopin most I love comes from the thirties. You can realize how his fortes sounded with such febrile intensity and sense of the span, and his ethereal pianissimos shaped a Chopin provided with luminosity, where the romantic vein coexisted with the epic, the virile musculature and the aristocratic flame. This last aspect seems to have been absolutely ignored in the last decades. Maybe Christian Zimmermann was the last exponent of that vision; and the reason is evident the aristocracy mood can not be assimilated or understood in those times by obvious reasons. That explains the reason why many critics deplore this vision, describing it as de mode, forgetting this element is one of the most important factors at the time to listen that chamber music.

If you listen this Chopin, you will realize how the approach changed after the WW2, where the emotion prevailed above the score; and the meditative atmosphere was substituted by the sentimentalism ( Malcom Frager `s Chopin is an excellent example that illustrates this argument).

Fortunately for all of us, Alfred Cortot, Dinu Lipatti, Samson Francois, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli demonstrated convincingly the other side of the moon in what Chopin concerns: the man and his circumstance.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars incredible CD, May 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Great Pianists 85 (Audio CD)

Rubinstein is undoubtedly the most incredible performer of Chopin I have ever heard. His Grande Polonaise brillante is simply breathtaking.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous performance; Amazing recording, August 15, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Great Pianists 85 (Audio CD)

One of the best performances of Chopin's Military Polonaise (Opus 40, #1, in A Major) you will hear. Rubinstein and Chopin are 'countrymen', and so his interpretation of this work is, in my view, exceptional.

In addition, the technical merit of the recording itself makes this performance a jewel to listen to. Often, recordings of piano solos are entirely too "large", where the recording engineer placed the microphones too far away from the instrument, thus picking up unwanted reverberation in the hall or studio where the recording was made and giving the final result a muddy, distant sound.

If you like intimate, yet powerful, piano solo recordings, this set will please you - especially the Military Polonaise it contains.