If you could only have one...

[mc ukrneal]

If you could only have one big box of one pianist (assuming multiple composers), which pianist/box would you choose?  For those of you who follow rules, I salute you (and will respect you all the more for it). Those who cannot, tough!   Seriously, if you are stuck, you can provide 1-2 alternates in addition. I'm looking for something I just can't live without... (keeping in mind that Richter is not my thing, though others may be interested, and thus an alternate there would be appreciated, if there is one)...

[JCBuckley]

Tough decision, but I think this one:

[Karl Henning]

I guess I voted with my wallet, there.

[Ken B]

It helps that it's such a big box

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Pluses: great sound, wide variety of (standard) repertoire, some truly great bits (Schumann, Mozart), many excellent bits, and no bad ones.

[springrite]

Richter

Some of my other top favourites did not record that much for a BIG box (Levy, for instance).

And I don't want to go with one of the other usual suspects (Argerich, Gilels, Michelangeli, etc.)... so...

My alternate would be Ginsberg!

[North Star]

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[Sergeant Rock]

Yeah, this would be my choice, and not just for his Bach.


Sarge

[Ken B]

Yeah, this would be my choice, and not just for his Bach.


Sarge

Has the advantage of being a complete recording of his vocal music too.

[Sergeant Rock]

Has the advantage of being a complete recording of his vocal music too.

I love a good yodeler 

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

I love a good yodeler 

Sarge

I want to teach the handicapped how to yodel!

[Ken B]

yodeller

I have posted this before, but if Neal is interested in the Gould box he might want a good devocalizer. http://www.davegrossman.net/gould/

[Karl Henning]

Canadians Grunting

[Ken B]

Canadians Grunting

Hey! Leave Parliament out of this!

[Florestan]

One of these but I'd have a hard time deciding which.

[Todd]

[Brian]

I love the Murray Perahia box and would rate it #2, but there's no doubt my answer is also...

[Ken B]

I love the Murray Perahia box and would rate it #2, but there's no doubt my answer is also...

I don't have that but I have large sections of it in smaller boxes. The Brahms box especially is great.

[Jo498]

It depends on the meaning of "only": Only one of a number of big pianist boxes or only one big box of piano music ever. I have only a few that might qualify, so for the second reading I could not answer because with any of the ones in my possession I'd miss too much music that is important for me (e.g. none contains enough Beethoven and/or Bach). So I have to go with the first reading and than it is easy to pick the big pink Rubinstein. Almost no Bach, not enough Beethoven and Schubert. But Brahms and Chopin as good as it gets and a lot of other very nice stuff (although I would not need all the 3rd and 4th recordings of piano concerti).

2nd choice, although this is really too small a selection would probably be Edwin Fischer "Icon".

(My other biggish or smaller boxes (Francois, Marcelle Meyer, Horowitz are too much centered around music that is not so important to me.)

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Would probably take the largest/best Richter set I could find--not so much for his playing (which I generally greatly admire), but also for the fact that he probably had a broader recorded repertoire than any other pianist, stretching from J.S. Bach and before, right on up to Shostakovich (the BEST Shostakovich piano IMO), and beyond. 

If repertiore were not an issue (i.e., I had everything I wanted on single discs) I would look for a complete Solomon set. I have most of his stuff on various LPs (HMV and RCAs from the 50s and 60), so I am not sure what lurks out there in the CD sphere. I find his Beethoven (except Op. 111), Schumann Carnaval, Brahms sonatas, concertos, and smaller pieces, to be the best, or among the best there is. His Bach Italian Concerto (sadly, the only Bach he recorded to my knowledge) is also breathtaking.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I don't have either of these boxes but own large chunks of each in independent releases:



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