Vladimir Sofronitsky

[Mandryka]

Don't forget, George, that Don Rice did some transfers a couple of years ago. One of them makes the 1951 Schuman fantasie a little more listenable.

One thing that I thought was interesting, I'm not sure if you have it, is the Chopin op 45 prelude. Another one you may like is the Prokofiev and Shostakovich recital from the Scriabin Museum. The Prokofiev sonata (7) has impressed me more each time I listen to it.

[George]

Thanks again!!

[George]

12) the quite recent Melodiya release, a 2-CDs set with cat. No. MEL CD 10 02237, is again excellent, really among the best Sofronitsky reissues I've heard on CD. The second CD on this set is all-Scriabin; it contains some recordings that have never been available on CD elsewhere, but its last part contains (excellent) excerpts from the January 8/February 2, 1960 all-Scriabin recitals that have already been addressed above. The first CD in Melodiya MEL CD 10 02237 is devoted to a part of the above-mentioned January and February, 1960 Chopin studio sessions. But it also contains the complete studio session made on December 11, 1960---the last time Sofronitsky recorded in a studio: Scriabin's Sonata No.2, op.19 (first movement only), Schubert/Liszt's Litanei, and Liszt's Sposalizio; these are miraculous recordings. (The Schubert/Liszt and the Liszt are published here for the first time on CD, AFAIK.) Melodiya has made an extraordinarily good work here.

The above Melodiya set just arrived. At first, I thought that this CD was now redundant:



But, after looking at the track listing, the above CD has the Op. 27 Nocturnes, the 4th Impromptu and the Barcarolle - none of which appear on the Melodiya set. And as you stated, the Liszt on the Melodiya is published for the first time, making both sets necessary for completeists. Not that we have any of those here, of course....

[George]

Like I said, we don't have any completists here....

[George]

Philips 456 970-2 contains the following pieces by Scriabin (among `competing' reissues, I only mention those CDs that have already been listed above: in most cases, there do exist quite a few other editions of those same performances, but usually they are not, IMO, as satisfying as the Philips reissue from the engineering point of view):

1&2) Dances, op.73 No.1 and No.2, from a studio recording on January 6, 1959. Both performances are also available on Melodiya MEL CD 02237 (the most recent Sofronitsky set from Melodiya).

3&4) Poems, op.32 No.1 and No.2, from a studio recording on October 31, 1958. None of those performances is on any of the CDs listed above.

5) Poem, op.72 (Vers la flamme), from the studio recording on January 6, 1959. This performance is also available on Diapason DIAP058 and on Melodiya MEL CD 02237.

6) Prelude, op.11 No.16, from a studio recording on October 31, 1958. This performance isn't on any of the CDs listed above.

7) Prelude, op.35 No.2, from a studio recording on October 31, 1958. Again, this performance isn't available on any of the CDs listed above.

8] Prelude, op.37 No.1, from a studio recording on October 31, 1958. Ditto.

9) First movement only of the Second Sonata, op.19 (`Sonata-Fantasy'), from a studio recording on December 11, 1960 (the last studio session). This performance is also available on Brilliant Classics BRIL 8975 (first CD) and on Melodiya MEL CD 02237.

10) Third Sonata, op.23, from a studio recording on September 12, 1958. This performance is also available on Diapason DIAP058 (it's a major recording).

11) Fourth Sonata, op.30, from the live performance on May 13, 1960. This performance is also available on Le Chant du monde LDC 278764, on Melodiya MEL CD 10 00747, and on Vista Vera VVCD-00014. (It's the only live performance that appears on Philips 456 970-2.)

12) Ninth Sonata, op.68, from a studio recording on September 12, 1958. This perfomance is also available on Diapason DIAP058.

Have you (or anyone else here) heard this set:

[George]

Thanks, Scherzian!

[staxomega]

Does anyone have this more recent release by Melodiya? If so how are the performances/sound quality? It has the Jan 8/Feb 2 1960 Scriabin set as well, which I have on an inferior sounding release so I would like to upgrade this in sound quality. Thanks

[staxomega]

I have this box-set.  For the most part, it contains the complete May 13, 1960 (Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Rachmaninov and Scriabin), and November 18, 1959 (all-Schumann) recitals.  It also contains excerpts from the January 8/February 2, 1960 (all-Scriabin), November 26, 1951 (Debussy, Liszt, Liadov, Mozart and Prokofiev), June 11, 1955 (Prokofiev and Chostakovich at the Scriabin Museum), and June 8, 1958 (all-Scriabin) recitals.  Then there's Andrei Konchalovsky documentary (without any Sofronitsky footage, of course).  The documentary deals much more on musical and pianistic questions than on biographical data--something I personally find refreshing.

The choice of performances is superb throughout, IMO; but the excerpts from some recitals may also be frustrating, I suppose, depending on what you already have elsewhere.  The sound quality is very good--probably as good as it can be, taking into account the vintage and sometimes difficult recording conditions.  I'd say it's at least on the level of the Denon series.  Some friends of mine claim that this recent Melodiya set is even better, sound-wise, than the corresponding Denon CDs, but I'm not sure I completely agree with them.

The case of the January 8 and February 2, 1960 all-Scriabin recitals is rather intricate; there's more detail in the discography here.  In any case, what has been released here by Melodiya, in this 5-CDs set, is nowhere near complete for those two Scriabin recitals.  You may have more material from these two recitals if you buy this 5-CDs set and the previous 2-CDs set by Melodiya (MEL CD 10 02237); the latter is equally superb, performance-wise and sound-wise, IMO.  But I think that the combination of the older Denon COCQ-83669/70 (2-CDs set) and Vista Vera VVCD-00014 still remains the best option if one wants to have the complete recordings from these two recitals. Sound-wise, Denon COCQ-83669/70 is excellent and Vista Vera VVCD-00014 is at least very good (it's one of their earlier VS releases, before they went the over-filtering road...).

Anyway, for the Jan 8/Feb 2 '60 recitals any reissue is, IMO, better than the later releases by Vista Vera (VVCD-00137) and by Brilliant Classics; those latter two are, to my taste, over-filtered in the upper half of the spectrum (above ca. 8kHz), up to the point where I'm no longer able to listen with pleasure...

(I hope this is of some help; discographical data are complicated here... )

This was very helpful, thank you. I take it the DVD has English subtitles?

[MusicTurner]

Bump. Good news:

Membran are now doing a Sofronitsky box, the content is luckily richer and quite different from the Brilliant one

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/from-moscow-with-love/hnum/9701165

[Spineur]

I bought this 34CD Sofronitsky box a couple of month ago



It is between frustrating and atrocious. Frustrating because it is mostly a collection of his live concerts without any remastering or editing effort (the concert dates arent even mentionned).  Because Sofronitsky repertoire was somewhat limited, he repeated the same pieces at many concerts.  So the box contains Scriabin 2nd sonata 6 times, Liszt B minor 3 times, Moonlight 3 times etc.  Atrocious because he often plays on terribly out of tunes pianos.  In comparison, the pianos in french train station are in perfect tune.

My advice: avoid this box, as it gives a very poor image of this very respected pianist. 

[MusicTurner]

I think the Scribendum box was released in December 2019.
The recording dates are on the label's website; some are live, some are studio recordings.
https://www.scribendumrecordings.com/our-shop/4583959841/sc817-the-art-of-vladimir-sofronitsky---34cd/11414200

I've abstained buying it for economic reasons, but I might buy it some time in the future. Their Yudina set is almost complete, but not totally complete.
Regarding Sofronitsky, I've got the Brilliant Box, the Membran box (oncoming), and ~8 old Melodiya LPs. I still find the Scribendum attractive, though, in spite of the errors in his playing.

Melodiya released a very large LP collection of box sets with Sofronitsky's "complete recordings". They are rare; I've  got one of those, vol.12, but I'm unsure how many there were; it seems at least 12 boxes, possibly more, or possibly less. This would suggest perhaps 60 LPs totally.
https://www.cdandlp.com/en/sofronitsky-vladimir/complete-recordings-vol.12-schubert-scriabin-chopin-ussr-melodiya-6lp-box-m43119-mint/lp-box-set/r118289536/

Vista Vera's Sofronitsky series seems to amount to 31 CDs
https://www.cdandlp.com/en/vladimir-sofronitsky/complete-vista-vera-recordings-31cd/cd-box-set/r117403255/

[George]

I think the Scribendum box was released in December 2019.
The recording dates are on the label's website; some are live, some are studio recordings.
https://www.scribendumrecordings.com/our-shop/4583959841/sc817-the-art-of-vladimir-sofronitsky---34cd/11414200

I've abstained buying it for economic reasons, but I might buy it some time in the future.

Did you (or anyone else) happen to buy this set? If you did, I am curious to hear what you think of it.

[MusicTurner]

Did you (or anyone else) happen to buy this set? If you did, I am curious to hear what you think of it.

No, I haven't bought it yet, am relatively satisfied with what I've got, & have to make priorities, also as regards shelf space ... the Scribendum is appararently available here for around DKK 500 /65 Euros.

Maybe others have it ?

[George]

No, I haven't bought it yet, am relatively satisfied with what I've got, & have to make priorities, also as regards shelf space ... the Scribendum is appararently available here for around DKK 500 /65 Euros.

Maybe others have it ?

OK, thanks.