5 comments about Schumann: Piano Works.

1. I almost passed on this set due to the 2 reviewers that trashed it. I am so glad that I trusted the majority and purchased this set! I have enjoyed every minute of it. It has to be the best sampler of Schumann's solo piano music on the market today. You will not regret this purchase.



2. 
   Wilhelm Kempff made sing the piano as any other pianist ever born. But besides, his profound domain of the thematic material as well as his tune produced a Schumann so original, expressive and eloquent with sentiment but no sentimentality.
   
   This album is a formidable and fundamental set of the most remarkable Schumann piano works. To create such atmosphere and interpretative freshness in this composer is not easy, but in Kempff hands we are talking about another dimension of pianism.
   
   In this age, pitifully, you cannot count with many thinkers pianists; ones due the very adjusted schedule and the rest by unknown reasons seem to consider a matter of second priority to play with a determined conception. The technique seems to prevail under any other aspect. And that's not a good symptom.
   
   That is why among other arguments you should acquire as soon as possible this extraordinary set.
   
   Absorbing and rewarding in summon grade.



3. When I first read the reviews here on Amazon, I was a bit concerned about buying this set. I truely love Kempff and elegant performing style, but after having almost around 150 of his collections and cd's, I know that he can be dreadful when he is not on form. So I was worried about this set, but it was useless.
   
   This 4-cd set contains some of the best performances that Kempff could offer considering his age. There are numerous highlights here: Papillons, Davidsbündlertänze, fantasy,..... All of them find him on top form. Although one might argue that there are studio recordings and who knows how many takes one recording must have to become perfect, but let me tell you, even in his live and extremely nerve breaking situations and venues such as the Salzburg festival, he was always on top form.
   
   So Kempff's fan, buy this. It's worth it. In here you won't quite find the excitement that Richter put into his Schumann, but you will find the poetry, emotions and sensitivity that many others lack in their recordings.



4. Despite his reputation as one of the towering exponents of the 19th Germanic repetoire, Kempff acquits himself poorly in these recordings, made at the end of his life. Whether these weak performances are due to his advanced age or to more basic flaws in his training and capabilities is purely academic. They are among the poorest choices in the catalogue, perhaps the very worst. But please - don't take my word for it. Listen to the Etde IX in the op. 13, on disc 2. Kempff's attempt to pull this off is embarrassingly amateurish; he cannot even cover all the notes at "presto possibile", much less raise his playing to something approaching an interpretation. Elsewhere, you can expect the same. The op. 17 is played with little poetry, no finesse and palpable frustration in following Schumann's basic roadmap. You cannot run away from this mess fast enough.



5. this compilation has the benefit of including most of schumann's important keyboard works (among excluded works are the toccata, first sonata, bunte blatter and fantasiestucke), under the hands of an extraordinary schumann interpreter.

   recorded in the 1970's, when kempff was nearing 80, this is genuinely classic schumann. the virtuosic extremes of the symphonische etuden and kriesleriana are not quite fully exploited, but there is no flubbing, stumbling or cutting corners: kempff has things always under control. look to argerich, pollini or pogorelich for white hot schumann, kempff delivers him as a human being.

   for the sheer poetry of schumann, kempff has never been bettered. his davidsbundlertanze, especially the last 5 movements, is without peer. the kinderszenen is delightful. the poetry of the fantasie in C is magnificent. there is a lifetime of musical experience and temperament in this playing.

   kempff's approach stands apart for his remarkable ability to turn the mood and momentum of the music from one measure to the next, never in a random or willful manner, but with an alert insight and organic flow. other players tend to caricature schumann by emphasizing the contrasts, swinging from bombast to bathos: kempff emphasizes the transitions and continuities. if his fortissimo chords clang a little, the pianissimos are breathtakingly transparent. and no one, simply no one, captures schumann's nobility of heart and aching yearning for the beyond -- in the fantasie, in "zart und singend" -- better than kempff. a benchmark for any schumann collection.

3 comments about The Original Jazz Masters Series, Vol. 2.

1. I bought all five of these at once so I could get "jazz literate" without spending a lot of money. They are a very cost effective introduction to jazz, and you get a lot of classics so eventually you can impress people by telling them about your favorite jazz tunes and artists. Just make sure to change the subject before you have to go into any detail.
   
   Great recording quality considering the source material (old hissy tapes sometimes) and an almost-free price make this an unbeatable bargain with a jazzy beat!



2. This set was bought for me. I used to eat lunch at small sub shop on Belmont Ave. in Chicago. It was named the Jazzy Cafe. You went not just to eat and listen to whatever Jazz the owner was playing that day but to listen to whatever the owner wanted to tell you. He knew enough about Jazz to be dangerous. His subs would have a different taste depending on the music he was playing that day. He recommended this set to me one day and I never got around to getting it, so he bought for me.

   To this day I am very greatful for this set and for the many subs I ate there.'

   Put this set in and hit random and you'll get a real taste of the Jazzy Cafe as I remember it.




3. Say you're trying to be kool. Your perhaps thinking of inviting some people over to your house. You maybe have designs about impressing them with your worldly tastes. You may even know a lady you want to slice, but you're unsure as to how to get her off her guard. Get this set and all your dreams will come true. The song selection is A+, but some of the old tapes have some hiss that carried over onto the digital format. It is noticable, but primo if you have a mono state on your amp- you do have an amp...WHAT! You ain't got an amp and you wanna impress somebody with your stereo? Nevermind your in the wrong genre`- you must've got to this by mistake. Over the Rainbow, written by H.Carmichael and performed here by "Fatha" Hines on the ivory and Stephen Grapelli on the violin is worth the price of this set. Not to mention Theopolis Monk. Peace

No comments about Country Gospel Greats.

2 comments about Love and Passion.

1. I agree this is a wonderful collection of Piaf, by far the best I've heard, and containing almost all her songs. If you want the lyrics for these songs, go to www.paroles.net/artis/1001.



2. Edith Piaf was to popular French music of the 1930s to the 1950s as Sinatra was to American music; an unstoppable force. Much like Sinatra Piaf sang with a naked raw emotion and a gritty evocativeness that cuts to your heart, and like Sinatra her voice is immediately identifiable. "Love and Passion" is a truly massive helping of Piaf's recordings from 1936 to 1950, the prime of her recording years and includes many of her most memorable signature songs. Even if you don't understand a word of French you cannot miss the powerful delivery and evocative nature of Piaf's voice, and if you understand French you fully comprehend the gripping and vital lyrics of love, loss, anger, regret, and a life well lived with no regrets. The sound quality on the recordings is quite good, especially when compared with other recordings of the era that have sometimes been inadeptly re-mastered. I've seen quite a few Piaf compilations over the years but nothing matches the beadth, scope, quality, and depth of this collection. Any beginner should start here.

1 comments about The Original Jazz Masters Series, Vol. 3.

1. My son, a Music professor in an out of state college asked for this vol.3 of THE ORIGINAL JAZZ MASTERS SERIES, VOL. 3 by various artists to complete his set. He is very pleased that Amazon had it before Christmas 2007.

No comments about Schubert: Complete String Quartets (Box Set).

No comments about Hans Pfitzner: Complete Orchestral Works [Box Set].

1 comments about Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko.

1. If the sound in this recording was just a bit better, it would be one of Bolshoi's greatest recordings ever made. All singers are wonderfull and the stage movement is not very distracting. It is unfortunate that the names of the performers are either incorect or just not shown. Liubava is sung by Larisa AVDEYEVA, not Andreyeva. The foreign mercheants, or guests are sung by Alexander Vedernikiov (Scandinavian guest), Alexey Maslennikov (Indian guest) and Yuriy Mazurok (Venetian guest). All three singers are very well known, so it would make sence to put their names on the package. In addition, the Spirit is sung by baritone Vladimir Valaitis. Svetlanov conducts very well, and the singers follow him. Sadko is not an easy opera to listen to, unless you speak Russian very well, and know ancient Slavic words and expressions. I personaly recomend you to start with such operas as The Tsar's Bride or May Night. However, if you are interested in the Bolshoi's greatest period 1940-1980, this is a recording that you need. Tenor Vladimir Petrov, in no relation to the great bass Ivan Petrov, is not the most famous tenor of his period. Maslennikov, Vladimir Atlantov and Vladislav Pyavko are much more famous, but he is one of the best Sadko's.

2 comments about The Complete Vanguard Recordings.

1. I am not a Blues nor a Buddy Guy scholar, so all I can tell you is that this album is smokin', especially the live disk #2 (This is Buddy Guy). What I especially like about the album is Guy's versatility. He does a first class job whether he is doing Motown, funk, or down and dirty blues. My favorite is the live disk just because I think you get the flavor of the man as a performer. This is also one CD I have to share equally with my wife.



2. Anyone familiar with the soul-raking sounds of Buddy Guy, any lover of "good" blues, anyone aspiring to the type of career that this fantastic bluesman had...HAS TO have this CD! And those of you who haven't heard his performance...buy it, you'll love it!

5 comments about Mansfield Park.

1. Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price, who at ten years old is taken away from her indigent family to live with her rich cousins, the Bertrams of Mansfield Park. Both Fanny's uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, and her Aunt Norris, his sister-in-law, want the distinction of rank preserved between Fanny and her richer cousins. Consequently, Fanny suffers under the tyranny of her Aunt Norris and the neglect of most everyone else at Mansfield Park. The only real exception is her cousin Edmund, who, as Fanny grows older, becomes both friend and counselor to her. The monotony of Mansfield Park is upset when brother and sister, Henry and Mary Crawford, visit their sister at the parsonage of Mansfield. Henry Crawford toys with the affections of Fanny's cousins, Maria and Julia, while Mary Crawford earnestly seeks the affections of Edmund. Fanny quietly observes all.
   
   Mansfield Park is a complex and sometimes disturbing novel, and its conclusion has a tendency to feel less than satisfactory. Jane Austen contrasts the very moral Fanny Price and her cousin Edmund Bertram with the very charming but amoral Mary Crawford and her brother Henry Crawford. While doing this, Jane Austen never actually tells her readers what to think about her characters. She presents their thoughts, words, and actions in an almost unbiased manner and leaves judgment up to the reader. The novel is definitely food for thought, and every time I read it, I find myself feeling differently about both it and its characters than I did the time before. I appreciate both the storyline and its thought-provoking complexity.
   
   The Oxford Illustrated edition of Mansfield Park contains a copy of the play Lovers' Vows referred to in the novel, which is such a treat. After reading both the novel and the play, one cannot help but be struck by the parallels between the two. I recommend this edition to anyone curious about the controversial play in the novel.



2. I love Jane Austen and would actually give this book 4 1/2 stars. It's a little slow in parts but like all of her characters, I loved getting to know Fanny Price. Fannie is a quiet girl who is sent to live with her wealthy uncle. She has a very kind heart and is very patient with her Aunt Norris who loves to "put her in her place". She is often reminding her that she is in a different class than her cousins that she is so fortunate to live with. It is wonderful to watch as Fannie grows into a young woman, how she learns to speak her mind and not allow others to manipulate her as they once did. It is definitely one of my very favorite books.



3. Since Edward Said wrote his foolish piece on Mansfield Park it has become de rigeur to attach agendas that reflect the intramural (ie bogus) leftism of the academy to novels (sorry texts) Even so this effort to do so in Mansfield Park is particularly outlandish. In fact the question "What is Mansfield Park about" is less interesting than the question "what is it like to read Mansfield Park" To answer that question one has to explore the LANGUAGE of the novel and see where it leads. The plot of Mansfield Park is off-putting--the verbal architecture of the novel is unsurpassed. Trust me--delight in the language, the layers of irony in a sentence or scene. Ignore current opinion which is both intellectually lazy as well as dishonest. Jane Austen made her feelings clear about the slave trade in EMMA. That A "political" intereprative industry should have grown up about this book testifies to the reigning stupidities of English Studies-- well an English Professor has got to make a living.



4. In MANSFIELD PARK, Jane Austen expands her sphere of moral vision. In her earlier novels, she focused on the relationships between marriage partners that were framed in a comedic context of how the typical English society of the late 18th century might complicate the likelihood of a series of happy marriages. In this novel, however, she abandons the world of light and trifling romantic comedy for one in which she shows the unpleasant underside of the genteel society that was so noticeably lacking in say, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. This dark underside includes a number of troubling aspects, all of which are antithetical to the world of light comedy.
   
   First, Austen relentlessly considers the impact of the lack of moral values as a result of inadequate education of children. The patriarch of the Bertram family, Sir Thomas, dearly loves his four children but he has given them a profligate style of life without teaching them how to live that life without being corrupted by its debilitating disadvantage of conspicuous consumption. Second, for the first time in her writing career, Austen boldly places the theme of good versus evil squarely on the interaction of several of her characters. The virtuous Edmund, who is as priestly as the collar that he wears on his neck, is tempted by the lascivious charms of the amoral Mary, who sees in Edmund only a fleeting diversion. Further, Austen places London itself as a den of urban iniquity, the source of the theatrical evil that threatens the pastoral innocence of Mansfield Park. Third, she calls into question some basic paradoxes about the nature of character itself. Are peoples' characters fixed at birth or are they molded by environment? And when character is fixed, is it capable of change, and if so, by what, by whom, and to what extant? These latter questions come into play mostly in the person of Fanny, the outcast relative of the Bertram family who loves Edmund. She is presented as impossibly virtuous, but in the face of her open defiance to marry the rich Henry Crawford, she is labeled as an ingrate and worse. No one in that group perceives her virtue, but the readers certainly do. From where does this virtue spring? It cannot be genetic since several others of her family are woefully deficient in virtue. It cannot be solely the result of environment since, except for the equally virtuous Edmund, the others treat her as uniformly unwanted and unloved.
   
   The answers to the above questions are raised, but only partially answered. Part of the problem in seeking answers to such eternal questions as love versus honor, duty versus obedience, and heredity versus environment in a novel is that this is a novel, and for Austen, a didactic one at that. Since she chooses to use a number of flat characters to represent allegorical archetypes of good and evil, their responses to their encounters cannot convey the full spectrum of thought that a more fully fleshed person might. Further the many plots--the love affair between Fanny and Edmund, the plots of the Bertram sisters, and the interweaving of the many strands of plot between the Bertram children--combine to cause the reader to zero in on these many threads rather than ponder their potentially more universal significances. What is lacking in MANSFIELD PARK is a pleasing balance and harmony among the many snipped strands of plot and theme which cry out for a splicing that does not occur even at the happy marriage of Edmund and Fanny. This imbalance, combined with Austen's atypical use of realism and pressing social concerns, and her lack of a truly engaging heroine along the lines of Elizabeth Bennett, make MANSFIELD PARK a dutiful slog rather than a joyous read.



5. i'm not as in love with this story as i was about Pride and Prejudice, but it's still austen and it's still an excellent read.