Claudio Abbado - Schoenberg: Gurrelieder - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Early in his career, Claudio Abbado gained attention as both a pianist and conductor in his native Milan. In these rediscovered recordings, dating from the years between 1954 and 1962, he interprets concertos by J.S. Bach (as a harpsichordist), Giuseppe Tartini, and, in a first-time CD , Giuseppe Cambini. The 'Piano Concerto No 3' by the Paris-based Italian composer is conducted by Abbado's father, Michelangelo, a noted Tartini scholar and founder of the Orchestra D'archi di Milano.

Monroe Golden - Alabama Places [COMPACT DISCS] date 08/21/2007

Chopin Preludes; Impromptus by Composer Frdric Chopin (1810 1849) Artist Arrau, Claudio [Piano] When this reissue of Claudio Arrau's 1973 recording of Chopin's preludes was released by Philips, it was the third reissue of that particular recording released that year. PentaTone, the astoundingly clean Dutch tag, had released a disc coupling Arrau's 1973 recording of Chopin's preludes with his 1974 recording of Schumann's Papillons, and Philips, the great Dutch tag itself, had released an eight-disc set of all Arrau's postwar Chopin recording for them. Of course, Arrau's preludes are uniformly ineffably beautiful, perhaps a little slow sometimes, but with such effortless technique, such tonal opulence, and such poetic soulfulness that it only serves to grant the listener more time to contemplate the heights and depths. The sound from all three issues presents different aspects of recorded perfection the PentaTone may be somewhat clearer, but all three incarnate in their zillions of zeros and ones in breathtakingly real representations of a real piano in a real room in real time.