Pianist Wilhelm Kempff: The Concerto Recordings / [14 CDs]

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Notes & Reviews:

Last year it was the Kempff solo recordings which brightened up our winter days at the start of the New Year. We sold nearly 6,000 copies of the 35-CD box.

Now we can offer, for the first time, a compact 14-CD set of his complete concerto studio recordings. They span from his 1925 recording of Beethoven's First Concert (the first ever to be made of that work) to his visionary 1977 performances of Mozart's Concertos Nos. 21 and 22, now receiving their first international CD release. Unlike the solo recordings set, this edition is non-limited.

Kempff traversed the set of Beethoven Concertos three times in the studio (only No. 2 was not set down during the shellac era); all those performances are included in this set. There's more Mozart, Brahms and Schumann. In addition, 1950s Decca recordings of two Mozart concertos, the Liszt and Schumann concertos are also featured.

The author of the new booklet essay is once again piano expert Gregor Willmes.

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