Aldo Ciccolini: Complete Emi Recordings 1950-91

Featuring complete works by Debussy, Massenet, Satie & Séverac
Also, works by Albéniz - Arensky - Bach - Beethoven - Borodin - Brahms - Castillon - Chabrier - Chopin - Couperin - Falla - Fauré - Franck - Granados - Grieg - Hahn - D’Indy Kabalevsky - Liszt - Mendelssohn - Mozart - Mompou - Mussorgsky - Poulenc - Prokofiev - Rachmaninov - Rameau - Ravel - Rossini - Saint-Saëns - Scarlatti Schubert - Schumann - Stravinsky – Tchaikovsky

This deluxe box brings together every recording by a pianist who, despite his restrained personality, is perhaps the greatest playing today – Aldo Ciccolini. Beyond his complete Satie in two sets -- both bestsellers -- and other examples of his natural affinity with the French repertoire, or his workmanlike Liszt, the public knows little of the recordings that Ciccolini made for EMI between 1950 and 1991. In 1950, as victor of the 1949 Marguerite Long Competition, the 25-year-old Ciccolini recorded his first 78; it was devoted to Scarlatti, a composer to whom he later returned. Then came Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No1, conducted by André Cluytens – the pianist asked for the tapes of the second concerto to be destroyed, since he did not like the piece – and then produced an anthology of Mozart sonatas which has a finesse, balance and sonic splendour still typical of Ciccolini’s concert performances today. The collection contains numerous items which have become available on CD for the first time, like the Mozart sonatas and Bach Inventions,previously only released in Japan, or his first Debussy disc, dating from 1969). The magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition recorded in 1976, appears here for the first time on CD. Great care was taken with the audio transfers, with all the late recordings re-mastered.

Price: $151.98