Icon: Alexis Weissenberg

Some tremendous playing by a great pianist. Champagne it is not - rather fire and ice! Might not to be everyone's taste and some of the readings are controversial. But how much better than the sort of routine run-through we often get. Weissenberg was a pianist of great character and this set deserves to be heard.

This is my introduction to a pianist with whose work I was not familiar. I am so glad I bought this. He seems equally at home playing with an orchestra or playing solo. Wonderful interpretations, in particular the Prokofiev piano concertos. An absolute bargain if you love good music superbly played and interpreted.

I bought this set for the Bach disc, which has been impossible to get on CD.For the rest of the set, although obviously there are good things, I would put these recordings pretty far down of my list of preferred versions.The so-called champagne pianist plays brilliantly enough to bring down the roof, but for me his playing sometimes lacks poetry (perhaps what some call "unsentimental"), for instance in the breakneck tempi of most of the fast episodes of Schumann's Humoresque or the brutalized Arabeske by the same composer (try Horowitz' 1962 recording!). Other places, like in the 1st movement of the Tchaikovsky concerto, the speed is lethargic enough to evoke an image of somnambulant dinosaurs.Much better, among the best in the box, are the Ravel, Prokofiev, and Gershwin concerti, where the music is "cool" to begin with and thus fits AW perfectly.The Bach transcriptions are wonderful and worth the price of the box alone.The piano sound is often dry and hard, unlike EMI's English recordings of the time, which were better in all respects (eg the Barenboim Mozart concerti).The Paris Salle Wagram may bear some of the blame perhaps, - it's even bluntly described in the booklet as having poor acoustics.I might have enjoyed some of these recordings more if I hadn't heard so many better versions of the repertoire.Fans will listen with different ears. A welcome relative rarity is the complete Schumann Album für die Jugend.Later reply to comment :.... After repeated listening and reconsidering, I understand better the special attraction of W. The review reflected initial disappointment . W provides a valid alternative to the over-abundance of standard versions....Thus a change from three to four stars.

This is a real treasure box. His Bach interpretations are absolutely magnificent. In fact, everything recorded by this great man is a masterpiece.

excellent deal