Byron Janis - The Mercury Masters

Byron Janis, Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Antal Dorati, Herbert Menges, Kirill Kondrashin, Gennadi Roshdestvensky, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

egendary American pianist Byron Janis, who will turn 95 in March 2023, was the first student of another legendary pianist - Vladimir Horowitz. Horowitz told Janis, "I don't want you to be a 'second Horowitz,' I want you to be a 'first Janis.'" When Janis gave his debut concert at Carnegie Hall in October 1948, he was highly praised by Olin Downes of the New York Times, who called him an artist in his own right with a great career ahead of him. Between 1960 and 1964, Janis made a series of remarkable recordings for Mercury's Living Presence label. The partnership between Janis and Mercury proved to be a good match for Mercury's uniquely detailed and exciting sound quality, using three microphones for an entire symphony orchestra and piano. Janis welcomed the opportunity to expand his repertoire with Mercury. These recordings have been lovingly restored from the original master tapes and remastered at 24bit 192kHz by mastering engineer Tom Fine and presented in original sleeves. As a bonus CD, this edition includes a concert from Leningrad (St. Petersburg) from a historic visit to the Soviet Union in 1960, secretly recorded by his Soviet hosts. Janis was the first American pianist sent to the Soviet Union to inaugurate the first formal cultural exchange - later hailed as an "ambassador for breaking down the barriers of the Cold War."

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