Emanuel Ax - The Complete RCA Album Collection (23 CDS)

Emanuel Ax has been classed among the master pianists ever since his victory at the inaugural Arthur Rubinstein Competition in 1974. His long association with RCA began the very next year, with a spellbinding disc of Chopin and Liszt transcriptions (“virtuosity of the Michelangeli or Pollini class here”, wrote Gramophone). Over the next 12 years he released 23 albums on the label, spanning much of the great piano literature, and the complete set of his RCA recordings is now reissued by Sony Classical for the first time.

With a 19th-century focus, the collection contains five CDs of Ax’s famed Chopin, five more of Beethoven, several of Brahms, Schubert and Mozart, and many other classic recordings.Playing Chopin, wrote Gramophone, Emanuel Ax shows “all the relaxed fluency and tonal elegance of a master pianist”. His performances on that LP, containing the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante and Fourth Scherzo, were “of a superlative distinction”. Remarkably, Ax was only 26 when he recorded this album, in 1975.“Deeply felt and exuberant” (New York Times) performances of the Brahms cello sonatas mark his longstanding association with Yo-Yo Ma, while Ax accompanies baritone Håkan Hagegård in Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Die schöne Müllerin. “Emanuel Ax is a diligent and responsive Schubertian,” wrote BBC Music Magazine of a “Trout” Quintet recording with the Guarneri Quartet.Ax’s “deeply insightful” (New York Times) interpretations of Beethoven’s “Appassionata” and “Les Adieux” sonatas are joined here by the “Waldstein” Sonata and “Eroica” Variations, as well as a complete set of concertos with André Previn and the RPO, and a Choral Fantasy with the New York Philharmonic. “Ax is a first-rate Beethoven player,” wrote Gramophone of his “Emperor” Concerto.

Elsewhere, Ax’s virtuosity takes centre stage in a Ravel album including Gaspard de la nuit, while his commitment to chamber music is shown in Schumann, Dvo?ák and Brahms Piano Quintets with the Cleveland String Quartet, and a Weber and Schubert album with clarinettist Richard Stoltzman. Many fine concerto performances include four by Mozart, Brahms’s First with the Chicago Symphony, and both of Chopin’s concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy.

Of course, there are more of Ax’s legendary Chopin recordings as well, including the Second and Third Sonatas and the four Ballades. The Ballades, Gramophone wrote, are “a reminder of the awe-inspiring calibre of Emanuel Ax’s Chopin”.

 

 

DISC 1

Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 58

Schubert-Liszt: Das Wandern   

Schubert-Liszt: Der Müller und der Bach   

Schubert-Liszt: Liebesbotschaft   

Schubert-Liszt: Hark, Hark, the Lark   

Liszt: Gnomenreigen   

Liszt: Etude in A Minor after Paganini   

DISC 2

Chopin: Grande Polonaise brillante précédée d'un Andante spianato for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 22

Chopin: Nocturne in B Major, Op. 62, No. 1   

Chopin: Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54 (1975 Recording)   

Chopin: Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-Flat Major, Op. 61   

DISC 3

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"   

Beethoven: Variations and Fugue for Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 35 "Eroica Variations"   

DISC 4

Dvorák: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81   Emanuel Ax, piano Cleveland Quartet

DISC 5

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit, M. 55   

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales, M. 61   

Ravel: Ma mère l'oye (Piano four hands)   

Emanuel Ax, piano · Yoko Nozaki, piano

DISC 6

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor   

Emanuel Ax, piano

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Eugene Ormandy conductor

Chopin: Trois Nouvelles Études   

Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 31   

DISC 7

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20, KV 466   

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-Flat, K.482

Emanuel Ax, piano

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Eduardo Mata, conductor

DISC 8 

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata"   

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-Flat Major, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"   

Beethoven: Polonaise in C, Op. 89   

DISC 9

Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor

Emanuel Ax, piano

The Philadelphia Orchestra

Eugene Ormandy, conductor

DISC 10

Schumann: Humoreske, Op. 20   

Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 12   

DISC 11

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K.543   

Mozart: Piano concerto No. 18 in B-Flat, K.456

Emanuel Ax piano

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Pinchas Zukerman conductor

DISC 12

Weber: Grand Duo Concertant for Piano and Clarinet in E-Flat Major, J.204, Op. 48   

Schubert: Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A Minor, D. 821   

Emanuel Ax piano

Richard Stoltzman clarinet

DISC 13

Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34   

Emanuel Ax piano

Cleveland Quartet

DISC 14

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15

Emanuel Ax piano

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

James Levine conductor

DISC 15

Schubert: Quintet in A, D.667 "Trout"

Mozart: Serenade in G Major, K. 525 "Eine kleine Nachtmusik"

Emanuel Ax piano

Guarneri Quartet

DISC 16

Schubert: Schwanengesang, D. 957   

Håkan Hagegård baritone

Emanuel Ax piano

DISC 17

Brahms: Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1, Op. 38 in E Minor

Brahms: Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2, Op. 99 in F

Emanuel Ax piano

Yo-Yo Ma cello

DISC 18

Chopin: Ballades   

Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35   

DISC 19

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Opus 73 "Emperor" in E-Flat Major

Beethoven: Choral Fantasia in C Minor, Op. 80   

Emanuel Ax piano

New York Choral Artists

Joseph Flummerfelt chorus master

New York Philharmonic

Zubin Mehta conductor

DISC 20

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 1, Op. 15 in C Major

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 2, Op. 19 in B Flat Major

Emanuel Ax piano

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

André Previn conductor

DISC 21

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3, Op. 37 in C Minor

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op 58

Emanuel Ax piano

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

André Previn conductor

DISC 22

Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 47   

Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-Flat, Op. 44   

Emanuel Ax piano

Cleveland Quartet

DISC 23

Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin, Op. 25, D. 795  

Håkan Hagegård baritone

Emanuel Ax piano