William Kapell Edition [Box set, Original recording remastered]

William Kapell (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 29, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 9
• Format: Box set, Original recording remastered
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00000B9MR
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,913 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #3 in Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Polonaises
  • #3 in Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Ecossaises
  • #4 in Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Mazurkas

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable, April 28, 2000

By 

Hank Drake (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: William Kapell Edition (Audio CD)

Leon Fleisher: "Willy was beyond a doubt the greatest pianistic talent this country [United States] has ever produced".

No small compliment coming from another great pianist. It is a tribute to William Kapell that, although he died at the age of 31, he was already a mature artist. One does not have a sense of unfulfilled potential, ala James Dean, for there is fulfillment in plenty on each of the nine discs in this boxed set. I know of no other pianist who gave so many definitive performances in such a short time. But the sense of tragedy, of what might have been if Kapell had not perished in a plane crash in 1953, hovers over this set.

The Chopin Sonata in B Minor, Op. 58 is easily the best this listener has ever heard, either on record or in concert - Kapell outclasses even Rubinstein. The same can be said for the Mazurkas, which carefully balance the dance elements of these small jewels with their tone poem qualities.

Both the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto and the Paganini Rhapsody eclipse nearly all other recordings, even those of the composer - who certainly knew how to play the piano.

Two other Russian concertos, by Aram Khachaturian and Serge Prokofiev, were early staples of Kapell's repertoire, and the performances are again a perfect balance of poetry and fury, which is exactly what this music requires.

A recording of Kapell in recital from March of 1953 (including another indispensable performance: the Copland Sonata) reveals that Kapell's extraordinary technique and musicianship are not the result of recording engineers and tape splicing - this is the real thing.

Perhaps most welcome of all is a twenty minute interview with Kapell, which reveals a profundity and maturity, both as man and musician, far beyond his years.

This was the first recording project from RCA after they reorganized and inventoried their vaults in the 1990s. The access to original sources is evident in the superbly restored sound (remastered by Jon Samuels) and the documentation is first rate. This boxed set is a template for how all classical music reissues should be handled, and is indispensable for all lovers of piano music.

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Memorium, October 28, 2005

By 

John H. Pendley "retired teacher" (the beautiful mountains of north Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: William Kapell Edition (Audio CD)

I heard William Kapell play the Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the fledgling Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the late 1940's or very early 1950's. My only memory of the occasion is that I was enthralled. Kapell has held me in thrall ever since.

A few years later, in the middle 50's, I bought Kapell's recording of the same work, with Fritz Reiner and the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra (alias of The Philadelphia Orchestra). I still have that LP, though I wore it out long ago. It was the beginning of my musical education. But since 1998, we have had this wonderful box of reissues from the vaults of RCA. The sound is mostly excellent, considering the age of the monophonic originals. To this day, Kapell's Rachmaninov Rhapsody remains-in my opinion-the most impassioned, yet the most musical, reading of the piece ever recorded. No one had, or has, Kapell's combination of white-hot temperament, technical brilliance, and musical insight. We have had musical geniuses; technical wizards abound. It is the combination of these gifts, as Kapell possessed them in particular, married to his incendiary passion, that made him unique.

He was still learning, and he was learning at such an astounding rate! He had moved from Khachaturian to the most unforgettable Chopin B minor Sonata ever recorded in little more than a decade. His deep throated, noble, and articulate Bach has caused some to speculate that Glenn Gould might have found his inspiration in Kapell. One Gould biographer, and a New York critic, wrote that the reverse was true. The critic acknowledged the error, in print, noting that Kapell could not have been influenced by Gould's style since he had been dead for two years by the time of Gould's debut recital in New York City in 1955.

The lyrical side of romantic music is not what Kapell was or is known for, not his "style" as people remember him now. But listening to the lyrical music in this set shows a side of him that was, nevertheless, as real as any, and perhaps more revealing. It also gives us a notion of what we might have expected of William Kapell had he lived a normal span of years and played a normal variety of music. In a live performance, he plays Chopin's Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 1, with melting legato and exquisite timing: his innate sense about when to tug on the beat and when to surge forward makes the music breathe. His use of dynamic variety demands the greatest respect: at one point, the repetition of a melodic phrase is but a pale echo of its first statement. His tonal palette is no less wondrous. When a deep bass note suddenly appears, early in the A section of the ABA structure, it sounds-not loud nor quiet, not muffled nor distinct-but awesomely subterranean. Kapell begins the piece without much sustaining pedal, but in the B section, he subtly adds more and more. Then, when the A section returns near the end, the pedal disappears. This dramatic change in color-along with Chopin's change of key-seems like the parting of clouds. We are in the hands of two masters here, Chopin and Kapell. Kapell gave this performance in Carnegie Hall in February of 1945, when he was twenty-two years old.

In the Bach and Chopin works I've discussed, the steely, percussive tone that some speak of is nowhere to be heard. Rather, we hear a full, rich, and complex piano tone. In the Chopin Sonatas, the Debussy pieces, and the Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Debussy, and Albeniz, the sound Kapell produces is beautiful and varied.

He was a chamber musician of the first order, as his collaborations with Heifetz prove. (He was one of the very few musicians who had the force of personality to make Heifetz accompany HIM. And you can hear it.) And if you've never heard Rachmaninov's great Cello Sonata, played here with the grand Russian/German cellist Edmund Kurtz, you're in for a treat. There are several fine, modern stereo recordings, but this one is special. The piano part is very important-Rachmaninov did write it, after all-and Kapell is magnificent. This was Rachmaninov's next published work after the 2nd Piano Concerto, to give you an idea of its melodic grandeur. If there is a flaw here, it is that the piano is recorded too far back, relative to the cello.

Kapell died on October 30, 1953. He had just turned thirty-three. He played his last recital in Geelong, Australia, on the 22nd. It included the Chopin 2nd Piano Sonata which contains the well-known "Marche funèbre." That performance is included here, transferred from the original acetates. It is a great performance but very hard to listen to now, in light of what was to follow just over a week later. I am writing this one day short of the 52nd anniversary of Kapell's death. Had he lived until today, he would be younger than either Earl Wild or Ivan Moravec, both of whom are still making magnificent music. For those of us who love William Kapell's music, it is heartbreaking to consider, and fruitless. Thank Heaven we have recordings like the ones in this set. They are essential for any lover of good music.

John Pendley

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have collection, July 26, 1999

By 

Dan H. Miller (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: William Kapell Edition (Audio CD)

This is one of the most remarkable classical CD collections ever released, and is an absolute must-have for piano afficionados. Many CD boxed sets claim to be historically important; this one most assuredly is. Kapell was America's first great pianist, and remains at the pinnacle, almost 50 years after his tragic death at age 31. As a previous reviewer noted, there is too much material on these CDs to comment on in-depth, but I'll just say that most of the recordings here are definitive, which is quite remarkable, considering that many of these works have been recorded by scores of pianists, including greats such as Horowitz, Rubinstein, and others. Precious in this collection are Kapell's recordings of Bach and Schubert made in his last year. These show him as a pianist who, while capable of dazzling a stadium-sized crowd with stunning, instrument-damaging pyrotechnics, could also play with a crystalline and intimate purity, heart-to-heart, as if there were only one listener in the room. Highly, highly recommended.