Complete Chopin Recordings ~ Solomon

There have been a lot of pianists in the 500 years since the piano was invented. However, the majority of them were mediocre, a heap of were good and a very few were perfectly stunning. Many of those who made it to this list started out their musical training at a very young age which permitted them to perfective their talent early on. This article will take a look at a handful of the most amazing pianists ever.

1. Sergei Rachmaninoff. Known for having the greatest hands of all the most famous pianists, Rachmaninoff was capable to span up to 14 notes at a time and he made use of this capacity in his compositions, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 8 Preludes, and others.

2. Josef Hoffman. This young prodigy begun performing piano concerts at the tender age of six and at 12, he was the basi recorded musician, working with Thomas Edison to invent the basi musical recordings.

3. Ludwig Van Beethoven. This young German composer and pianist was famous for his talent on the piano and the fact that he continued to both play and compose after losing his hearing at the age of 26.

4. Vladimir Horowitz. Perhaps one of the best known pianists of the 20th century, Horowitz studied under Felix Blumenfeld and Sergei Tarnowsky. He is well known for his capacity to play strong pieces creatively rather than plainly banging away on the keys.

5. Fredric Chopin. Chopin is many times one of the firstborn composers that young piano students play. He was likewise a child prodigy, ofttimes equated to Mozart. Steeped in the world of music from a young age, he was already playing and attempting to compose at the age of six.

6. Wolfgang Mozart. One of the most widely known and esteemed child prodigies, Mozart was playing piano at age three and by five, he had begun to compose songs which were written down by his consecrated father. He went on to give concerts from a very young age.

7. Franz Liszt. A virtuoso pianist, this Hungarian started out his career at a reasonably young age, though little info is available for the duration of this amount of time of his life. It is known that not only was he an magnificent pianist, he could also play assorted other instruments, including the cello.

8. Walter Wilhelm Gieseking. Gieseking was distinctive in that he supposedly never practiced on a piano. Instead, he would sit for hours in finish silence, playing the songs in his mind. Mostly self-taught, the pianist would then carry out the piece flawlessly.

9. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. A more recent pianist, Michelangeli honed his talent to perfection, fabricating recordings that were closely perfective even when unedited. He was notorious for randomly canceling concerts and for his intense focus on the tiny details of the music, often forgetting the huge picture.

10. Alfred Cortot. Well known for his astounding recordings and variations of the likes of Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, and a good deal of other famous composers. He likewise added his own variations and twists to the most mutual of compositions, turning them into something distinctive and special.

Any list of the biggest pianists is going to be more or less subjective. Each person has their own preference and there are a great deal of outstanding pianists who plainly didn’t fit onto this list of the top ten. However, you may be sure that the ones who did make it here are veritably outstanding pianists and unquestionably worth listening to when you have the chance. Many of them committed their lives to their music and a good deal of passed away while still playing and recording it.

Complete Chopin Recordings Solomon 2 Photo

Complete Chopin Recordings Solomon 2 Pic

Complete Chopin Recordings Solomon 2 Image

Complete Chopin Recordings Solomon 2 Picture

Complete Chopin Recordings Solomon 2 Image

Complete Chopin Recordings Solomon 2 Pic

Most helpful customer reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Solomon –a wise giant of the piano
By herman joseph
This is surely one of the greatest Chopin CDs issued–a great legacy. The performances of Solomon are of the highest artistic quality. His combined qualities of technique, tone and interpretative aesthetics have not been matched. Solomon was one of the giants and his Chopin performances are among his greatest achievements. The f minor fantacy and the ballade have not been surpassed. Everything on this album is a revelation –

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A noble and sublime Chopin
By Anton Zimmerling
I bought this Testament CD after I stumbled on Solomon’s recording of the `Tristesse’ Étude, Op. 10, No. 3 (track 1 on the reviewed CD) and was captured by its clarity and tonal beauty. The rest of the CD did not disappoint me though some Chopin performances on this CD are marginally less exciting. Anyway, these are complete studio Chopin recordings made by Solomon in 1932-1946, and I am glad to own them. Solomon Cutner (1902-1988) is remembered primarily as a Beethoven and Brahms pianist Piano Sonata 3, but this CD proves that he was a great Chopin pianist too. The pianism is exceptional, the technical difficulties, even in the most demanding places, cf. the cadence to Chopin’s Fourth Ballade, Op. 52 (track 16), as if did not exist for this performer. Solomon did not only had great fingers – he also possessed a great ear. The right-hand cantilena is arrestingly beautiful and the left-hand support never becomes obsessive. The dialogue of the hands is nowhere more revealing as in the `Berceuse’, Op. 57 (track 17). Solomon is neither an impassioned performer – his renditions of the A major and A flat major polonaises(tracks 10-11) lack the emotional tension characteristic of Artur Rubinstein and other Polish pianists – and not a story-teller – the progression of Fourth Ballade is exposed in detail, but it lacks the feeling of a tragedy (go to Josef Hoffmann, Cortot or Moiseiwitch). Solomon is a man who can bring out the beauty and inner logic of Chopin’s music. I feel that his approach works best in the miniatures. The 6 Études from Opp. 10 and 25 (tracks 1-7, Op. 25/3 being recorded twice) are treasures. I particularly value the two F minor Études (Op. 10/9 and Op. 25/2) with their filigree passage-work: Solomon’s tonal shadings and slight rhythmic inflexions need to be heard. The E flat Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2 (track is a stunner. One more high point of this CD is the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 68, No. 2 (track 15) – a favourite encore of many great Romantic pianists from Friedman to Michelangeli. Solomon’s rubato is very delicate compared with such extreme cases as Friedman’s Ignaz Friedman: Complete Recordings, Vol. 3 or Geza Anda’s rubato Troubadour of the Piano [Box Set]( CD 4), but each of these performances captures the beauty of Chopin’s piece.
Even the relatively weaker items on this CD are worth hearing. The E minor Waltz in Solomon’s hands is less demonic than by Rachmaninov, but then, who could match Rachmaninov here?

The selection of Chopin’s works on this CD is typical for its period, when most major pianists did not record complete Chopin cycles but played the pieces they loved and felt best. The main attraction for me is that every great Chopin pianist – from Maurice Rosenthal and Vladimir Pachmann to Artur Rubinstein and Wilhelm Backhaus – had its own voice and did not resemble others. I think Solomon is one of them.

The sound quality is very good for its period.

Recommended for recorded collectors and for everybody who loves Chopin. The final comment is that these Solomon’s recordings are not included in the recently reissued Solomon’s EMI box set Icon: Solomon (Cutner).

4 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Plain-faced, humane Chopin from an English legend
By Santa Fe Listener
If Solomon Cutner’s career hadn’t been tragiclly cut short by a storke in 1958 I don’t know if he would have quite the halo that surrounds him in the British mind. Performing simply as Solomon, his virtues are very English–he is recessive, unflashy, humane, and warm, the virtuoso who would never be so impolite as to show off. Here we get 72 min. of Chopin, all that he recorded, from 1933-46. The mono recordings have been remastered to remove any trace of shellac hiss, but in the process they’ve become a bit dull.

It would be hard to imagine Chopin that is more un-French. Solomon’s playing isn’t about fantasy or romantic abandon. No maiden was ever seduced with these recordings in the background. Still, his musical personality is agreeable, even comforting. Whether he’s playing Etudes, Nocturnes, Waltzes, or Polonaises–we get a smattering of each–Solomon plays in the same steady style. The big works here are the F minor Fantasie and the Fourth Ballade. It’s a bit pointless to coment on Solomon’s interpretations, because they’re exactly like every ohter piece here. This Saint of the Middle Way has many fans; I am a tepid one, I guess.

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