We are truly living in the most amazing time to be enjoying historical piano recordings: the offerings that are now available were an absolute dream even just a decade or two ago, let alone in the LP era or before. I recall how remarkable it was when CDs were first sold in the 1980s that historical recordings began to be released at an unparalleled rate, and fortunately this trend has continued. And the discoveries that have been made in recent years have been remarkable too. So here, in no particular order, are the mostly ‘historical’ piano recordings made available in 2018 that most struck me.

One of the most incredible releases of the year – and in fact of all time – is Marston’s incredible set devoted to the private recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff playing through his Symphonic Dances at the piano in Eugene Ormandy’s living room in late 1940, a few weeks before the orchestral work’s premiere. I knew that a Rachmaninoff discovery had been made though I was told that I would need to wait for the details, and when Marston approached me to ask if I would produce the promotional video for the set, I was thrilled to learn what had been found – and of course once I heard the playing, I couldn’t have been more amazed. I literally lost sleep for the first two nights that I had the recordings, waking up in the middle of the night to listen again to the stunning playing, unlike anything else we have of the great Rachmaninoff. It has been reported that many who heard him in concert stated that his playing in commercial recordings was different than what they had heard, and this discovery reveals what they are pointing to: soaring phrasing, dynamic and tonal shadings of remarkable refinement, and rhythmic tautness are simply some of the amazing qualities on display… and hearing the composer sing along while he plays is incredibly insightful as well.

Also included in the set is another recording very close to my heart: Benno Moiseiwitsch’s 1946 BBC broadcast of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. I had first obtained this on cassette in the late 1980s and shared it enthusiastically with my contacts, including Gregor Benko and Bryan Crimp; the latter then sent it to Moiseiwitsch’s daughter, who had never heard it before and said she thought it was her father’s greatest reading of the work, while Benko stated that it could be his favourite recording of anyone playing anything. A few years ago, the performance was released on the Testament label and it turns out that the source for that was a copy of a cassette that could be traced back to me! – but at long last the source material was located, and the performance now sounds as good as one could hope for… and the playing goes well beyond that.

Here is that promotional video that I produced for the set:

Another Marston release included some private recordings that were also somewhat ‘Top Secret’ for quite a while, something I was involved with for a decade leading up to their eventual release: the first of the new iteration of Landmarks of Recorded Pianism included unofficial recordings made by Dinu Lipatti in repertoire he didn’t otherwise record. In 2008 I first learned of a collector in Brooklyn who had these Lipatti discs but we were unable to actually obtain the records until he died a few years later,  and unfortunately most of them were unplayable by that time. But what playing the ones we salvaged reveal! As in the Rachmaninoff release, we hear another side of Lipatti’s playing, much bolder and more impetuous than his more reserved and ‘careful’ studio accounts for the British Columbia label. I tell the tale of these discs in this interview with Jed Distler (starting just around the 29-minute mark), and the two Brahms performances that are released can be heard in the program too:

Here is the promotional video I produced for the set, which includes photographs of the discs that show the unfortunate damage they had suffered:

It is not just the Lipatti on this set that makes it worthwhile: one of the other incredible recordings that I find thoroughly remarkable is a performance by one Josef Labor of part of a Beethoven Sonata movement. Labor was born a mere 15 years after Beethoven died, and the blind pianist-composer (who taught Schoenberg and Mahler’s wife Alma) plays in a style that is truly a throwback to another era of pianism and music-making, very different to our current sensibilities but absolutely spellbinding if we truly wish to consider ‘authenticity’ to a composer’s intentions. When playing this to a group of students who were taken aback by the rubato and dislocation of hands, I asked if there was any guarantee that we would like a recording of Beethoven playing should one be found – and if not, if we somehow think that ‘our way’ is better… what does that mean to the art of interpretation? A must-hear set for lovers of fine piano playing!

Marston ends the year with a 7-disc set devoted to the playing of Sidney Foster, a remarkable pianist and teacher whose playing is vividly remembered by those lucky enough to have heard him. Unfortunately he recorded very little and many of his faculty recitals were marred by poor microphone placement or other sonic interference. His pupil Alberto Reyes, a longtime subscriber to and supporter of The Piano Files, has written and spoken eloquently about his great mentor, and played a significant role in this release in addition to writing the marvellous notes accompanying the CDs here, which feature some stupendous playing by the great pianist. You can listen to Reyes and Jed Distler in conversation with some Foster recordings here:

This glorious concert performance of Chopin’s Fourth Ballade, while not note-perfect, is musically and pianistically of stupendous musicality and insight. Sublime pianism and music-making!

I have been involved with the release of Jascha Spivakovsky recordings on the Pristine Classical label (writing the release notes and brainstorming compilation sequencing) and 2018 saw the release of three more CDs in the series. All of these are to my ears extraordinary, so it is hard for me to choose a single one of these releases as being ‘better’ than the other. One reading that does stand out is the Italian Concerto by Bach in Volume 6 of the Bach To Bloch series demonstrates a capacity to terrace lines and present cohesiveness of structure in a manner remarkably similar to that of Dinu Lipatti – and be sure to check out the embedded player in the link to Volume 6 to hear the first movement of a stupendous performance of Schumann’s Piano Sonata No.3.

The APR label has long played an important in releasing historical piano recordings and this year saw a stellar set of issues, from the virtually forgotten Walter Rehberg to overlooked early recordings by the never-forgotten Wilhelm Backhaus. Rehberg is a pianist I only came across via YouTube while operating my Facebook page and it’s incredible that a three-disc set of this artist should now be available – I don’t know that a single LP devoted to his artistry was ever produced. This 1937 recording of Liszt’s Les jeux d’eaux a la Villa d’Este gives an example of the superb musicianship to be heard in this pianist’s readings:

The Russian-born pianist Mark Hambourg recorded a great deal but has not been well represented on LP, and although some CDs of his playing have been produced, they have covered a mere fraction of what he recorded. APR’s two-disc set devoted to Encores and Rarities recorded between 1910 and 1935 features a wide range of repertoire. While some of the playing will be more spontaneous and devil-may-care than modern ears are used to, there is equally astoundingly beautiful and subtle pianism that can leave the listener quite breathless at the sumptuous playing:

Wilhelm Backhaus had a career that covered six decades with the gramophone, from acoustic discs in 1908 to his final live concert in 1969, but many of the German pianist’s earlier performances have been bypassed in favour of later ones, though more ardent pianophiles are aware that it is was he who recorded the first complete account of Chopin Etudes in 1928 (one that was unfortunately almost impossible to find in the LP era). That cycle is presented together with other recordings made between 1925 and 1937 of a wide range of repertoire in APR’s must-have two-disc release that shows the pianist’s true versatility: one fine example is this fiery traversal of Moszkowski’s Caprice Espagnol Op.37, the kind of showpiece that would not be associated with the pianist in the final decades of his career.

Another pianist whose recordings have languished is the Italian pupil of Busoni, Carlo Zecchi, who would later turn to conducting. The pianist’s early recordings feature some truly devil-may-care readings that have long been cherished by collectors in their previous rare LP or CD incarnations. APR’s set includes all of these amazing performances, including a superb Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.5 and some of the most dazzling Liszt you could ever hope to hear (the video below comes from an earlier remastering of the Paganini-Liszt Etude No.4).

A wonderful end-of-year release from Rhine Classics includes two fantastic sets devoted to the Italian pianist Pietro Scarpini. A wonderful pianist not well represented on records, Scarpini was an elusive figure who played with marvellous tonal colours and disarming directness. One six-disc set focuses on works by Busoni and Liszt (including a stupendous Busoni Piano Concerto in glorious sound) while another two-disc set features his Mozart: glowing, sumptuous, forthright playing of two piano concertos and some solo works (the clip below is from an unofficial source with sound that is inferior to the new release):

One release hot off the presses distinguishes itself as the only video in this selection of the year: a filmed concert performance of Beethoven’s sublime Piano Concerto No.4 in G Major by Australian pianist Bruce Hungerford. This is the only known film footage of Hungerford in performance and when the master pianist’s devoted disciple Donald Isler learned of its existence via the Facebook clip shared by Meloclassic below, he negotiated the release of the entire concert on his own label KASP Records. Hungerford’s playing is indeed stupendous and in enjoying the performance I realized that I had only ever heard the artist in solo repertoire. An important addition to the pianist’s discography (as are the live recitals released on the same label) and of great interest to piano fans. This excerpt of the cadenza and end of the first movement is a fine example of the playing on this wonderful DVD:

I was delighted to be commissioned to write the liner notes for a two-disc release of the Mozart Piano Concerto recordings that Hungarian pianist Andor Foldes had made for Deutsche Grammophon, along with his reading of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Foldes was a pianist wasn’t really on my radar, and I was delighted to learn more about this charming artist and his musical philosophy, which I wholeheartedly agree with (he states that one can never fully remove an artist’s personality from an interpretation, nor should one want to). My notes are featured at this link on my website, which also includes film footage of the pianist in rehearsal. The performance below of the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.15 in B-Flat Major K.450. As in all of the performances in this set, Foldes plays with an incredibly polished sonority, transparent textures, rhythmic vitality, and fluid phrasing.

Another magnificent Eloquence release is the complete Decca recordings of Nikolai Orloff, who somehow never caught my eye or ear. The Russian pianist did not record until 1945, when he was 53 – past the peak of his career, but still eminently capable and very refined and noble in his approach. With beautiful tone, fluid phrasing, and elegant timing, Orloff eschews showmanship to emphasize the lyrical content of the works he plays: never a harsh sound, always sensible, ever refined. Orloff’s playing might not grab immediately like that of his more known colleagues, but his musicality and pianism are musical and worthy of examination and admiration. This Chopin Impromptu from his very first recording session is an example of his noble artistry:

I went through most of the year without having realized that Decca had put on CD the complete Debussy recordings of Dutch pianist-composer Hans Henkemans, whose playing I first encountered in the last decade while scouring YouTube pages searching for clips to share on my Facebook page.(Unfortunately, I also missed the fact that Decca have put out Alicia de Larroccha’s complete recordings for that label – I’ll have to report on those later but I’m sure they’re superb.) Henkemans was tasked with recording the first complete cycle of Debussy piano music for the newly founded Philips label in Holland when the label was founded in 1951, and while some of these performances made it to CD, this is the first time that the complete set is available, and there is indeed some stellar playing here. While there are a few readings that I found less convincing (L’Isle joyeuse, for example), there is a lot to love: the pianist’s luscious tone, with beautifully defined articulation fused with wonderful pedalling, help the relatively forgotten musician forge some fascinating interpretations, and the overall recorded sound is stupendous – well beyond what one might expect from the time.

Another Debussy performer who made it to CD in 2018 (which was the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death) is Marius-François Gaillard, who is heard in Arbiter’s fascinating compilation Debussy’s Traces alongside other neglected pianists (and the composer himself in his only disc recordings, accompanying soprano Mary Garden). Gaillard’s earthy but evocative readings make him a fascinating addition to the pantheon of Debussy interpreters. There is more than one way to play great music and it is fascinating to hear those who were contemporaries of the composer play in a style different to that which has come to be the norm.

While this is not a comprehensive listing of all of the ‘top’ releases of the year, these are among those that I have found very satisfying and which I hope will bring you great pleasure as well.

I’m looking forward to what 2019 will bring… and I can tell you that Lipatti lovers will soon be thrilled by a new presentation of a familiar recording whose release was delayed until early this year. Stay tuned – and happy listening!