Legendary Pianists
2023
Joseph Haydn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven
Various
Friedrich Gulda - Joseph Haydn: Klavierkonzert Nr. 11 D-Dur (Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Hans Müller-Kray, 1962) / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Klavierkonzert Nr. 23 (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud, 1962)
Clara Haskil - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Klavierkonzerte Nr. 9 & 19 (Sinfonieorchester des Süddeutschen Rundfunks, Carl Schuricht, 1952 & 1956)
Jörg Demus - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Klavierkonzert Nr. 27 (Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Hans Müller-Kray, 1961)
Paul Badura Skoda - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Klavierkonzert Nr. 24 (Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Carl Schuricht, 1962)
Alicia de Larrocha - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Klavierkonzert Nr. 22 (Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Garcia Navarro, 1986) / Ludwig van Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Ernest Bour, 1977)
Wilhelm Kempff - Ludwig van Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 (Sinfonieorchester des Süddeutschen Rundfunks, Hans Müller-Kray, 1957)
Wilhelm Backhaus - Ludwig van Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 5 (Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Joseph Keilberth, 1962) / Johannes Brahms: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 (Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Hans Müller-Kray, 1959)
Geza Anda - Frederic Chopin: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Ernest Bour, 1952) / Sergej Rachmaninoff: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud, 1953) / Maurice Ravel: Klavierkonzert für die linke Hand (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud, 1952) / Bela Bartok: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 (Sinfonieorchester des Süddeutschen Rundfunks, Hans Müller-Kray, 1950) / Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 (Sinfonieorchester des Süddeutschen Rundfunks, Ferdinand Leitner, 1973) / Johannes Brahms: Intermezzo op. 117 Nr. 1
Svjatoslav Richter - Camille Saint-Saens: Klavierkonzert Nr. 5 (Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Christoph Eschenbach, 1993) / George Gershwin: Klavierkonzert F-Dur (Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Christoph Eschenbach, 1993)
Annie Fischer - Robert Schumann: Klavierkonzert op. 54 (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, Hans Rosbaud, 1959)
Claudio Arrau - Johannes Brahms: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 (Südfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Eliahu Inbal, 1972)
For many decades the orchestras of the German broadcasting service SWR have worked together with many famous musicians from all over the world, including the outstanding pianists selected for this collection, among them Clara Haskil, Jörg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda, Alicia de Larrocha, Wilhelm Backhaus, and Géza Anda. Furthermore, Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (1903–1991) is regarded as one of the supreme keyboard masters of the 20th century and must feature in any comparative survey of performances of the central repertoire from Beethoven to Brahms. Annie Fischer (1914–1995), a pupil of Ernst von Dohnányi later went on to make some legendary recordings with Otto Klemperer. Friedrich Gulda (1930–2000) polarized the music scene by embracing the parallel worlds of classical music and jazz in equal measure. He was not only one of the most brilliant pianists of the 20th century with regard to tone and technique, but also one of the wittiest and most musically competent. For decades Wilhelm Kempff (1895–1991) was seen as the leading interpreter of German music from Beethoven and Schubert through Schumann and Liszt to Brahms. Sviatoslav Richter (1915–1997) from Schytomyr in today’s western Ukraine was one of the great Soviet pianists of his generation.
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