V3 1941-1972 Decca Recordings [Box set, Classical]

After enjoying (and reviewing) the previous two installments of pianist Clifford Curzon's Decca Recordings in the "Original Masters" series, I was delighted to pick up Volume 3 over the holidays. The performances on this six disc set span nearly thirty-five years, from a 1937 orchestrated account of Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy with Sir Henry Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra, to a final disc of all Schubert, the majority of which was made in 1971. In between are many brilliant concerto recordings, and though some have been previously available on CD, all have been out-of-print for some time. The true gems are paired on disc four -- the 1959 stereo Grieg with Fjeldstad and the London SO (my personal favorite -- I had the old "Classic Sound" series CD), and the 1957 mono Brahms No. 2 with Knappertsbusch and Vienna. Coming in a close second is disc three's coupling of the Tchaikovsky 1st, with Solti leading Vienna in stereo from 1958, and the Rachmaninov 2nd, with Boult and the LPO in mono from 1955. The remaining two Concerto performances -- Mozart's 23rd and Brahms' 1st -- are regrettably from the 1940s and suffer from both mediocre sound and comparatively uninspired conducting (Neel and Jorda respectively). Rounding out this set are 1952 performances of the two Mozart Piano Quartets with members of the Amadeus Quartet, and an entire disc (no. 5) of stereo Liszt solo piano works. In all, this is a great collection, and here's to hoping there is enough material in the vaults to produce a Volume 4!

Clifford Curzon's recordings with Decca have been packaged together differently over the years; this box set, 6 CD's includes recordings made between 1937 and 1971 and is the third of four volumes that were issued by Decca between 2003 and 2006. Decca later combined all of the recordings into a comprehensive box set which was released in 2012 with additional material added that was not included with the earlier four individual volumes, and it is the currently available package for these performances (see links below).

This Volume 3 of the initial releases is currently available at a real bargain price here on Amazon and for that reason (as well as to enjoy the performances, of course), I picked it up.

Recording quality is very fine, particularly considering the age of the various recordings included with this collection (as early as 1937!).

Contents of this volume 3:

- disc 1:
-- Schubert Fantasy in C Major "Wanderer", Arr. Liszt, recorded April 1937, London (studio recording)
-- Mozart Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor, K.478, recorded Sept 1952, London (studio recording)
-- Mozart Piano Quartet No.2 in E flat, K.493, recorded Sept 1952, London (studio recording)

- disc 2:
-- Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K.488, National Symphony Orchestra, Boyd Neel, recorded Dec 1945, London (studio recording)
-- Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 In D Minor, Op.15, National Symphony Orchestra, Enrique, recorded June 1946, London (studio recording)

- disc 3:
-- Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23, Wiener Philharmoniker, Georg Solti, recorded October 1958, Vienna (studio recording)
-- Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, Op.18, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult, recorded June 1955, London (studio recording)

- disc 4:
-- Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16, London Symphony Orchestra, Oivin Fjeldstad, recorded June 1959, London (studio recording)
-- Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 In B Flat, Op.83, Wiener Philharmoniker, Hans Knappertsbusch, recorded Oct 1957 (studio recording)

- disc 5:
-- Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178, recorded Sept 1963, Vienna (studio recording)
-- Liszt Liebestraum No.3 in A flat, S.541 No.3, recorded Sept 1963, Vienna (studio recording)
-- Liszt Valse oubliée No.1 in F sharp, S.215, recorded Sept 1963, Vienna (studio recording)
-- Liszt Gnomenreigen, recorded Sept 1963, Vienna (studio recording)
-- Liszt Berceuse, S174, recorded Sept 1963, Vienna (studio recording)

- disc 6:
-- Schubert 4 Impromptus, Op.90, D.899 (#3 & 4), recorded June 1963, Vienna (studio recording)
-- Schubert Impromptu in A flat, D.935 No.2, recorded Feb 1971, UK (studio recording)
-- Schubert 6 Moments musicaux, Op.94 D.780 (complete), recorded Feb 1971, UK (studio recording)
-- Beethoven 15 Piano Variations and Fugue in E flat, Op.35 -"Eroica Variations", recorded April 1971, UK (studio recording)

Following are the details of the various box set releases that I summarized at the beginning of this review, so that anyone interested can take a look at each of them and see what is currently available:

- Decca Recordings, 1949-1964, Vol. 1, 4 CD's, originally released 2003
- Decca Recordings 1941-1972, Vol. 2, 4 CD's, originally released 2003
- Decca Recordings, 1937-1971, Vol. 3, 6 CD's, originally released 2005
- Decca Recordings 1944-1970, Vol. 4, 7 CD's, originally released 2006
- Clifford Curzon Edition: Complete Recordings, 24 disc's (23 CD + 1 DVD), originally released 2012

As mentioned earlier, the 24 CD complete edition includes 3 additional discs. The first includes performances from the 1940's; the second includes radio programs that were first released in 1973 and 1978 (recording dates are unclear to me); the DVD includes several performances as well as a couple of interviews and also the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Ceremony from 1980.