Maurizio Pollini Edition (Box Set)

Read About This Recording

Rarely have we come across a collection of an artist's work that is as well assembled as this collection of the recordings of pianist Maurizio Pollini.

Pollini is an artist whose concerts all around the world are instant sellouts. Known as a musician's musician, Pollini's interpretations are at once cerebral and emotional, and the works assembled on these discs show the wide range of styles with which Pollini is comfortable.

Beethoven is represented not only by four of the great Sonatas ("Moonlight," "The Tempest," "Waldstein" and "Hammerklavier"), but also by two of the Piano Concertos in which Pollini is accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado. It is a fine collaboration that brings out the romantic nature of Beethoven's music. And when it comes to the Romantic era, hearing Pollini in concertos by Chopin and Schumann is simply breathtaking. He gives the music room to breathe, never seeming to rush ahead, but never dragging either. These performances are well-thought out, but never feel lack spontaneity.

There are too many highlights in this collection to draw attention to them all, but I would be remiss if I failed to mention the extraordinary Schubert Sonatas and the modern works by Boulez, Nono and Schönberg.

While you may never have the chance to enjoy a live concert by this extraordinary pianist, you owe it to yourself to experience the best of Pollini's many great recordings.

—Jacob Anthony

Quotes

"Pollini's performance [is] of the highest distinction." (Mozart) —Gramophone, 1977

"Beethoven playing of true Olympian grandeur." —The Observer, 1980

"Everything about these performances is high class: the aristocratic authority of Pollini's pianism, the intellectual grasp of Abbado's conducting and the immaculate playing of the Berlin Philharmonic." —The Times, 1994

"Superlative technique ... at the service of sensitive understatement." (Schumann) —Daily Telegraph, 1990

"Pollini's playing ... is full of power and incisive rhythms, but he also manages to capture a rapt stillness when required ... Abbado's strong driving force bringing weight and poise in equal measure, this performance is a true meeting of great minds." (Brahms) —Daily Telegraph, 1999

"The first movement of the Tempest is a particularly persuasive example of Pollini's intensity, his fierce contrasts and his sudden revelations." (Op. 31 No. 2) —The Times, 1989

"Pollini's playing ... is quite superb, grasping and conveying almost every facet of Beethoven's immensely complex character with an extraordinary white-hot immediacy." (Op. 53) —BBC Music Magazine, 1998

"Pianistically and interpretatively, [Pollini's] performances are staggering: all things considered, I do not think any of the five [late] sonatas has been better served on records." —Stereo Review, 1979

"A feast of fine Schubert playing. ... How magnificent the A Major Sonata sounds in the big hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. ... What a sovereign pianist he is." —Gramophone, 1988

"The twelve Op. 25 Etudes of Chopin made up [Pollini's] finale: ravishing sonority, glittering fingerwork, moulded with deep feeling." —Concert review, Financial Times, 1972

"Pollini's aristocratically authoritative way of doing things [in the Sonata] is superb." —Gramophone, 1986

"Not only technically impeccable and musically penetrating ... Pollini's style is direct, natural and unmannered: Schumann to the life." —The Observer, 1974

"It seems not so much that Pollini has got inside the soul of [Liszt's] music but that the music has got inside him and used him, without mercy, for its own ends." —Gramophone, 1990

"His playing [of Debussy] grips by virtue of its unforced brilliance of execution and selfless pursuit of the music's inner spirit." —Classic CD, 1994

"Abandoning oneself to the sweep of Pollini's virtuosity [in Boulez], I cannot believe that the fierce purity of this titanic anti-sonata will leave many listeners indifferent." —Gramophone, 1986

"Virtuosity of the highest degree, a sense of musical purpose and commitment that is in complete control of the virtuosity, and, finally, first-rate recording (Stravinsky)." —Gramophone, 1972

"Performances of monumental authority, not a whit mechanical or frozen, but almost frightening perfection." (Bartók) —Financial Times, 1979

"The playing is alive in an almost electrical sense, but the broad lines are there too, and even an undercurrent of wit." (Schoenberg) —Gramophone, 1975

"Another performance of the most phenomenal precision and acute expressive poise, every note precisely weighted, coloured, above all felt.” (Webern) —Gramophone, 1986

"Fascinating as sound and moving as an expressive musical document." (...sofferte onde serene...) —Gramophone, 1979

"A strenuous, massive engagement between huge orchestral sonorities and a compulsively argumentative soloist.” (Masse) —The Musical Times, 1982

Contents

Mozart: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 in A Major, K.488; Beethoven: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 Emperor; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58; Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-Flat Major, Op. 27 No. 1; Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2 Moonlight; Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor, Op. 31 No. 2 The Tempest; Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 Waldstein; Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 Grosse Sonate fur das Hammerklavier; Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111; R. Schumann: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A Minor, Op. 54; Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17; Arabesque, Op. 18; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A Minor, Op. 54; Brahms: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15; Schubert: Piano Sonata in A Major, D959; Allegretto in C Minor, D915; Three Piano Pieces, D946 (Op. posth.); Chopin: 12 Etudes, Op. 25; Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35; Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 57; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11; Liszt: Sonata in B Minor; La lubugre gondola I; Debussy: Twelve Etudes for Piano; Stravinsky: Three Movements From Petrushka; Bartok: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2; Schonberg: Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11; Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19; Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23; Suite for Piano, Op. 25; Piano Piece, Op. 33a; Piano Piece, Op. 33b; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 42; Webern: Variations for Piano, Op. 27; Nono: Como una loa de fuerza y luz for Soprano, Piano, Orchestra and Magnetic Tape; ...sofferte onde serene...; Manzoni: Masse: Omaggio a Edgard Varese.

Maurizio Pollini, Piano; Slava Taskova, Soprano; Berlin Philharmonic; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, Karl Bohm, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Herbert von Karajan, Jerzy Katlewicz, Conductors.

CD Special Features

Maurizio Pollini — a legend in his lifetime

• Comprehensive selection from 30 years of exclusive DGG recordings

• New liner notes by leading international writers

• Many rare, unpublished photographs

• 12 CDs + bonus CD of previously unreleased material