Your Top 3 Piano Cycles on the Shelf

[Cosi bel do]

Shout out to Brahms, Katchen but I think Klien is actually the best Brahms cycle. Alas I don't have it.

I'd say the best Brahms cycle is Rösel. Didn't think about it but it could also have been in my top 3.

[Bogey]

I was waiting for this shoe to drop.  One of the pricier sets.  Am I correct here, Todd?

[Cosi bel do]

It depends. The price dropped around 40€ a few months ago, before going up again. I got mine 25€ used.

Essential at any price, anyway. Could also have been in my top 3. My top 3 could have been all Beethoven.

[Todd]

I was waiting for this shoe to drop.  One of the pricier sets.  Am I correct here, Todd?

Depends where you buy.  Amazon.de has it listed in stock for 75 Euro, which is not a bad price at all.  Japanese cycles and Michael Houstoun's cycle are where one must spend big money for LvB cycles.

[Bogey]

While I have you, how about this Denon set.

[Todd]

While I have you, how about this Denon set.

It's available on Amazon marketplace for around $50.  It's been my preferred set since I imported the individual discs from Japan in the mid-aughts.  Very dry sound, but one can hear everything Beroff does with ease, and his style evolved and matured from his EMI days, though that set is superb, too.  If you want hammerless Debussy, I'd say look elsewhere, though.

[North Star]

I'd say the best Brahms cycle is Rösel. Didn't think about it but it could also have been in my top 3.

What I've heard from Rösel is great indeed. Kovacevich is good too, but it's not a full cycle (he didn't record the sonatas or the variations, apart from the Handel set)

Ah, no worries with the instrument.  If you need two posts, one with older instrumentation, then make two posts.

Nah, I don't have that many recordings - or cycles anyway - of the earlier stuff. If I did own all Bezuidenhout's Mozart, it would definitely be on the list, though.

No Ravel sets so far, but then again, he didn't write that much.

[Bogey]

My turn. Funny that Collard resonated twice here for me.:





and like Lisztianwagner:

[Wakefield]

Alfred Brendel playing Schubert:

[asin]B001BNQJDC[/asin]
[asin]B0042LJTQO[/asin]
[asin]B000BYNC28[/asin]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0043Z35XM/?tag=goodmusicguideco
[asin]B001CW7LT8[/asin]

Ekaterina Derzhavina playing Haydn:

[asin]B00BHEG6CO[/asin]

Reinbert de Leeuw playing Satie:

[asin]B000GIX9WW[/asin]

[kishnevi]

Modern piano:
Hewitt playing Bach
Ponti playing Scriabin
Player to be named playing Beethoven sonatas---too many possibilities to make an easy pick; give me a couple of months--but a Ludwig cycle would definitely be in the top three.  But if "cycle" means sonatas plus variations, bagatelles and other works,  then the choice narrows very suddenly and definitely to Brendel.

Period instrument:
Brautigam playing Haydn
van Oort playing Mozart
Stella playing Buxtehude

[kishnevi]

I was waiting for this shoe to drop.  One of the pricier sets.  Am I correct here, Todd?

Call me confused.  In what ways does this differ from the recordings to be included in that Warner/EMI Icon box you posted in the New Releases thread last week (and which I thought was the AF cycle you like to mention)?

[DavidW]

I see some beautiful recordings mentioned, outside of what has already been listed... this is one of my favorite recordings:

[asin]B00070FTM2[/asin]

[Todd]

Call me confused.  In what ways does this differ from the recordings to be included in that Warner/EMI Icon box you posted in the New Releases thread last week (and which I thought was the AF cycle you like to mention)?

This is Annie Fischer's complete cycle, recorded for Hungaroton starting in the late 1970s.  The Warner box/EMI recordings are studio recordings from the 1950s (and maybe early 1960s; I can't recall off the top of my head).  She recorded only a selection of Beethoven sonatas for EMI, along with a variety of other core rep.  Some Annie Fischer fans prefer the EMI Beethoven, some the Hungaroton, and some deem it prudent to have it all.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Three-and-half since the Lupu isn't complete.








[asin]B000004294[/asin]  [asin]B00004SDRF[/asin]

[kishnevi]

This is Annie Fischer's complete cycle, recorded for Hungaroton starting in the late 1970s.  The Warner box/EMI recordings are studio recordings from the 1950s (and maybe early 1960s; I can't recall off the top of my head).  She recorded only a selection of Beethoven sonatas for EMI, along with a variety of other core rep.  Some Annie Fischer fans prefer the EMI Beethoven, some the Hungaroton, and some deem it prudent to have it all.

Thanks.  "Have it all" is of course the GMG unoffical motto.

[Bogey]

Thanks.  "Have it all" is of course the GMG unoffical motto.

Rob should make this the homepage banner! 

[Wanderer]

Three great favourite sets that I've been recently listening to for the umpteenth time:

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...and two honorary mentions:
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[prémont]

Yes, I deliberately excluded fortepiano recordings.
If included, then here's another fine cycle, worthy of a Top 3 classification:

I also considered this Haydn box as well as van Oort´s Mozart box and also Sandor´s Bartok box (Vox), but in the decisive factor for me is, that I stick more to Bach and Beethoven than to Haydn and Mozart.

[Marc]

I also considered this Haydn box as well as van Oort´s Mozart box and also Sandor´s Bartok box (Vox), but in the decisive factor for me is, that I stick more to Bach and Beethoven than to Haydn and Mozart.

Yes, I have some 'honorary mentions', too, and Van Oort's (fortepiano) Mozart box is certainly one of them. Other (modern piano) sets I like are the 5-cd Schubert sonatas set by Christian Zacherias (EMI France) and Rubinstein's Chopin Collection. The latter has been mentioned in this thread more than once, and rightly so.

I think I'm getting in a Nocturne mood right now!

[Bogey]

[asin]B000F6ZICE[/asin]

'Attaboy'!