William Kapell

[George]

Just ordered this from amazon for $35 in like new condition:

[asin]B00000B9MR[/asin]

"Willy was beyond a doubt the greatest pianistic talent this country [United States] has ever produced." - Leon Fleisher

Review here

[dirkronk]

Braggart.







(Actually...congratulations are in order. GREAT buy, George.)

Dirk

[George]

Braggart.

I was going to post that in the Kapell thread, but we didn't have one, so I started one.

(Actually...congratulations are in order. GREAT buy, George.)

Dirk

Thanks.

Do you have it? How do you like it?

[dirkronk]

Do you have it? How do you like it?

Love it, but don't own the whole thing (see below). If you're not fully familiar with Kapell yet, try his Frick recital, his Chopin mazurkas and maybe his sonata disc (w/ Heifetz, Primrose et al) to get a preliminary glimpse...then go on to what he's perhaps more famous for: various Liszt solo items, Rach and Prokofiev concertos...and naturally the Khatchaturian PC. Then again, maybe I'm carrying coals to Newcastle, as the saying goes. Do you already know most of his work?

I do have most of the individual CDs from the set. I had purchased the GP20C two-disc set already, so I began buying the performances that weren't included there. And then, I already owned most of the music on LPs, some on early 1950s pressings and others in private editions, IPAM releases and the like. Several times, I have paid as much for a single LP as you paid for that entire set. Not that I really regret it: I could not foresee back then that such a set would become available at all, let alone at any kind of affordable price. I had been introduced to Kapell's playing long ago and almost immediately fell under the spell of his approach. I'll be interested to read how YOU like him. Not all of his performances are awe-inspiring or even special, but some certainly are. And many of them reflect the serious thought he put into almost everything he slowly and meticulously added to his repertoire. Oh, and keep in mind that what you have is MOST of his recordings...not all. The 2-CD set on RCA of recordings from his final tour in Australia, a VAI of his Rach PC3 with MacMillan, and a couple of other discs are must-have supplements if you want to hear a hint of what we might have heard had he lived longer.

In case you couldn't tell, I sorta like the guy.


Dirk

[George]

Do you already know most of his work?

I've only heard some of his Chopin and the VAI Rach/Khachaturian concerto CD, but I really enjoyed them.

Oh, and keep in mind that what you have is MOST of his recordings...not all. The 2-CD set on RCA of recordings from his final tour in Australia, a VAI of his Rach PC3 with MacMillan, and a couple of other discs are must-have supplements if you want to hear a hint of what we might have heard had he lived longer.

Thanks, I have already wishlisted the Rediscovered set and a M&A CD with a Brahms and Prokofiev concerto.

[mjwal]

That M&A CD with Kapell playing Brahms #1 and Prokofiev #3 is amazing - I especially value the Mitropoulos-conducted Brahms D minor concerto, on a level with Dino Ciani/Abbado for me (the latter very OOP I think, unfortunately).

[George]

That M&A CD with Kapell paying Brahms #1 and Prokofiev #3 is amazing - I especially value the Mitropoulos-conducted Brahms D minor concerto, on a level with Dino Ciani/Abbado for me (very OOP I think, unfortunately).

Just ordered it:

[George]

Listening to the Schubert, Schumann and Brahms on this CD, from my new RCA Box. Great, no nonsense playing here in sound that is better than I expected.

[Wanderer]

Just ordered this from amazon for $35 in like new condition:

That's a great set! I'm sure you'll enjoy. 

[George]

Just got this in an email from Marston Records:



NEXT RELEASE

William Kapell:
Broadcasts and Concert Performances, 1944-1952
53021-2 (3 CDs): $54
At the end of this month, we will release our next piano project, which we know you have been awaiting with great anticipation--William Kapell, newly discovered recordings. More than six decades have passed since the tragic death of William Kapell in 1953 at the age of thirty-one, yet his name continues to resonate among a large group of worldwide music enthusiasts. Whenever new Kapell material appears there is an immediate buzz among "pianophiles", and particular interest is always generated when new recordings become available. Among the highlights of his set are: Kapell's only performance of Richard Strauss's Burleske for piano and orchestra, two recently discovered half-hour studio broadcasts from radio station WQXR, and a virtually unknown recording of Schumann's Piano Quintet with the Fine Arts String Quartet, recorded during a chamber concert at Northwestern University. Many of these performances are new additions to the Kapell discography, including several notable examples of new repertoire. We are grateful to Donald Manildi, curator of the International Piano Archive at the University of Maryland, for his generosity in permitting us to include material from the Kapell archives in the IPAM collection.