Pollini DG Box - 20th Century

[James]

From the outset of his recording career, Maurizio Pollini has championed modern music – in benchmark accounts of Bartók, Boulez, Manzoni, Nono, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Webern, to which can be added his later recordings of Debussy and Berg.

Here are his complete recordings of 20th-century music, brought together on a specially-priced 6-CD set for the first time.

[asin]B005PUUMQ2[/asin]
Contents:
CD 1
Igor Stravinsky
- Movements from Petrushka
Sergei Prokofiev
- Sonata No.7 in B flat Op.83
Anton Webern
- Variations Op.27
Pierre Boulez
- Second Piano Sonata

CD 2
Luigi Nono
- Como una ola de fuerza y luz
Slavka Taskova (soprano), Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Claudio Abbado
- .....sofferte onde serene ..., for piano and magnetic tape

Giacomo Manzoni
- Masse: Omaggio a Edgard Varèse, for piano and orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker / Giuseppe Sinopoli

CD 3
Arnold Schoenberg
- Three Piano Pieces Op.11
- Six Little Piano Pieces Op.19
- Five Piano Pieces op 23
- Suite for Piano Op.25
- Piano Piece Op.33a
- Piano Pieces Op.33b

- Piano Concerto Op.42
Berliner Philharmoniker / Claudio Abbado
(Live recording)

CD 4
Béla Bartok
- Piano Concerto No.1 Sz 83
- Piano Concerto No.2 Sz 95
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Claudio Abbado

CD 5
Claude Debussy
- 12 Études
Alban Berg
- Sonata for piano Op.1

CD 6
Claude Debussy
- Preludes Book 1
- L'Isle joyeuse

[val]

Extraordinary versions of "Como una ola de fuerza y luz" and Boulez Second Sonata. The 7th Sonata of Prokofiev is good but very far from Richter and in special Horowitz.

I never liked much his versions of Bartok (but Abbado is splendid) or the Variations of Webern (Ushida is much more expressive). And the piano work of Schönberg has not the imagination or the fantasy of Gould.

The problem with Pollini, to me, is the imagination. He has a powerful technique, a great sense of the global structure of the works, but remains always distant, with standard phrasings, almost didactic.

I never heard his version of Debussy's Etudes and Preludes.

[DieNacht]

Agree very much with Val, though didn´t really dig into the complicated-bordering-to-the-absurd Boulez
2nd Sonata so far. His exploring of lesser known 20th century repertoire deserves a lot of merit, such as
Manzoni and Nono. But some recent live clips I have heard of the Chopin preludes suggest a much more
expressive playing style than the majority of his early EMI and DG recordings.

Regarding Schöenberg solo works, I like the old Philips LP by Marie-Francoise Buquet, very expressive,
rather than Gould, but I don´t know Pollini´s. As for the Schöenberg Piano Concerto the old Vedernikov
LP appeals to me; I think it is on you-t also. I prefer it to the two first Brendels, but would find Pollini
interesting to hear.

In Bartok concerti 1+2, the first Kocsis recordings with Lehel on hungaroton Bartok edition remain
my preferred, in spite of having quite a few, together with Richter/Svetlanov and Farnadi/Scherchen
in no.2.

Yudina´s expressiveness in the Berg sonata is particularly striking, but it is a work where a lot of
pianists have something interesting to add, and I would like to hear Pollini there also.

In Prokofiev I own Kempf, Horowitz, Gould, Boukoff, Sandor and Richter, preferring the freshness
of Kempf (Freddy Kempf, that is).

[karlhenning]

I should have called this more a Great Recordings and Reviews sort of topic.

That said, though: I am probably interested in this reissue.

[Todd]

All that's old is new again.  There was an LP set that had all of the analog recordings, and now there is this, with the digital recordings tacked on.  Debussy doesn't quite seem to fit with the other works in the set, and it's definitely not Pollini's best work, but it's hard to think of better recordings of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, or Boulez (though Jumppanen offers a nice contrast in the last.)  Webern and Berg are possibly better served by Uchida.  Overall, though, this is a pretty darned good set.

[StephenC]

All that's old is new again.  There was an LP set that had all of the analog recordings, and now there is this, with the digital recordings tacked on.  Debussy doesn't quite seem to fit with the other works in the set, and it's definitely not Pollini's best piano classes work, but it's hard to think of better recordings of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, or Boulez (though Jumppanen offers a nice contrast in the last.)  Webern and Berg are possibly better served by Uchida.  Overall, though, this is a pretty darned good set.

I have to agree. Compared to others, I also think this serves as a good, not great nor that bad, set to listen to.