Decca Piano Sound - Premium Digital Piano Sound Library for Professional Musicians & Producers | Perfect for Studio Recording, Live Performances & Music Production

This is a thoughtfully planned set. By my count there are 42 pianists and 29 conductors, performing works of composers from Abéniz to Weinberger and covering musical periods from Dowland to Lutoslawski. There is a generous selection of solo piano repertory, a satisfying number of works for piano and orchestra and some intriguing extras for piano duet and for two pianos. Recognizing the long history of the piano as a vehicle for music originally composed for other instruments (including orchestra), a number of transcriptions are included.Given the vastness of Decca's piano catalog and the ongoing popularity of piano literature, the choices in this box form a welcome combination of standard compositions and rarely heard works. The same is true of the artist performers: there are traditional headliners and less well known keyboardists.UPDATE: My set arrived today after a slight delay (not typical of Amazon shipping). Though I have not had a chance to do any listening yet, I will offer some descriptive comments:The packaging is an improvement over previous DECCA boxes; the lid slips off (it covers the top and all four sides, providing extra-strong protection). The discs fit snugly in the cardboard envelopes, but are easily removable. (The two-disc sets are a bit tight.). The set makes use of the black-and-white piano keyboard theme. Even the discs are alternately black and white.The face of each envelope reproduces the cover of an earlier release (in the tradition of 'Original Jacket' boxes). Performers and repertory are listed on the back of each container..There are two booklets: Booklet One has 90+ pages containing two essays - one is a descriptive history of Decca's technical developments through several decades of piano recording; the second contains interesting comments about the pianists represented in the collection.Booklet Two covers 165+ pages. It contains a complete list (by composer) of all the repertory included in the set, as well as complete details for each individual .disc (works, performers, recording details, timings). There are also interesting photos, mostly in color.CONTENTS: For convenience I list here the basic information for the individual discs. :(*) indicates bonus material, where original release would have been too short:DISC 1 Martha ARGERICH (Chailly) - Schumann: Piano Concerto* Julius KATCHEN (Argenta) - Liszt: Concertos Nos. 1 & 2DISC 2 Vladimir ASHKENAZY (Haitink) - Brahms: Concerto No. 2*ASHKENAZY (Previn) - Prokofiev: Concerto No. 3DISC 3 ASHKENAZY - Chopin: Études, Op. 10 & 25*ASHKENAZY - Chopin: 3 Nouvelles ÉtudesDISC 4 ASHKENAZY & André PREVIN - Rachmaninov: Suites for 2 Pianos*ASHKENAZY & PREVIN - Rachmaninov: Symphonic DancesDISC 5 & 6 Wilhelm BACKHAUS - Carnegie Hall Recital (1954)(Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms)*BACKHAUS - Haydn: Sonata; FantasiaDISC 7 Jorge BOLET - Chopin-Godowsky: ArrangementsDISC 8 BOLET - Liszt: Schubert Song TranscriptionsDISC 9 Shura CHERKASSKY (Temirkanov) - Rachmaninov: Concerto No. 3CHERKASSKY (Ashkenazy) - Rubinstein: Concerto No. 4DISC 10 CHERKASSKY - Kaleidoscope (Recital) Godowsky; Hofmann; Rubinstein; Tchaikovsky;Glazunov; Chaminade: Moszkowski*CHERKASSKY - Rachmaninov: Solo worksDISC 11 Clifford CURZON - Beethoven: Eroica Variations; Schubert: Solos*CURZON & Benjamin BRITTEN - Britten: 2-Piano WorksDISC 12 CURZON (Britten) - Mozart: Concertos 20 & 27DISC 13 CURZON (Kertesz) - Mozart: Concertos 23 & 24DISC 14 Ivan DAVIS - Gottschalk - Solo Works*Pascal ROGÉ & Christina ORTIZ (Dutoit) - Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des AnimauxDISC 15 Bracha EDEN & Alexander TAMIR - 2-Piano Recital (Rachmaninov; Khachaturian; Weinberger;Poulenc; Arensky; Schubert; Brahms; Schumann/Debussy)*EDEN & TAMIR - Poulenc; Milhaud; LutoslawskiDISC 16 Alan FEINBERG - The American Virtuoso (Macdowell; Grainger; Gottschalk; Beach; Carreño;Wodehouse)DISC 17 Nelson FREIRE - Villa-Lobos (& other South American composers)DISC 18 Benjamin GROSVENOR - Chopin; Liszt; Ravel*GROSVENOR - Bach; LisztDISC 19 Friedrich GULDA (Stein) - Beethoven: Concertos 1 & 2DISC 20 GULDA - The Early Recordings (Bach; Beethoven; Chopin; Prokofiev; Debussy; Mozart)DISC 21 Peter JABLONSKI (Maag) - Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1JABLONSKI (Maag) - Grieg: Piano Concerto*JABLONSKI (Ashkenazy) - Lutoslawski: Paganini VariationsDISC 22 Jean-Rodolphe KARS - Debussy: 24 PréludesDISC 23 Julius KATCHEN & Jean-Pierre MARTY - Brahms: Hungarian Dances*KATCHEN - Brahms: Paganini Variations, Books I & IIDISC 24 KATCHEN (Boult) - Rachmaninov: Paganini RhapsodyKATCHEN (Boult) - Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Tune*KATCHEN (Solti) - Rachmaninov: Concerto No. 2DISC 25 Peter KATIN (Collins) - Mendelssohn: Concertos 1 & 2*KATIN (Martinon) - Mendelssohn: Capriccio Brillant & Rondo BrillantDISC 26 Wilhelm KEMPFF - Bach: Recital*KEMPFF - Handel; Couperin; Rameau; BeethovenDISC 27 KEMPFF - Schubert: Sonata in A Minor*KEMPFF - Schubert: Sonata in B-Flat MajorDISC 28 Alicia De LARROCHA - Albéniz: IbériaDISC 29 De LARROCHA - Liszt: Sonata; Schumann: Fantasie*De LARROCHA (Comissiona) - Falla: Noches en los jardines de EspañaDISC 30 De LARROCHA (Foster) - Ravel: Concertos (G Major; Left Hand)*De LARROCHA (Frühbeck de Burgos) - Franck: Variations SymphoniquesDISC 31 Robert LEVIN (Hogwood) - Mozart: Concertos 9 & 12*LEVIN (Hogwood) - Mozart: Concerto No. 11DISC 32 Dinu LIPATTI (Ansermet) - Schumann: Piano Concerto*Eileen JOYCE (Fitelberg) - Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 2DISC 33 Valentina LISITSA- Liszt: Solo WorksDISC 34 Kathleen LONG (Van Beinum) - Mozart: Concerto No. 24Clara HASKIL (Zecchi) - Beethoven: Concerto No. 4*HASKIL - Schumann: WaldszenenDISC 35 Radu LUPU (Mehta) - Beethoven: Concerto No. 5*LUPU (Foster) - Beethoven:Concerto No. 3DISC 36 LUPU - Beethoven: Sonatas 14, 8, 21*LUPU - Beethoven: 32 Variations in C MinorDISC 37 LUPU - Brahms: Solo Works*LUPU - Brahms: Solo WorksDISC 38 Moura LYMPANY (Fistoulari) - Khachaturian: Piano Concerto*LYMPANY (Martinon) - Saint-Saëns: Concerto no. 2DISC 39 Arturo Benedetti MICHELANGELI - Recital*Leonard BERNSTEIN (Bernstein) - Mozart: Concerto No. 15DISC 40 Olli MUSTONEN (Saraste) - Beethoven: Concerto in D (Violin arr.)MUSTONEN (Mustonen)- Bach: Concerto in D*MUSTONEN - Shostakovich: 24 PreludesDISC 41 & 42 John OGDEN - Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jésus*Sviatoslav RICHTER (Britten) - Britten: Piano ConcertoDISC 43 & 44 Kun-Woo PAIK (Wit) - Chopin: Works for Piano & Orchestra (complete)DISC 45 Jorge Luis PRATS - Solo Recital: Granados; Villa Lobos; Fariñas; Cervantes; LecuonaDISC 46 ROGÉ (Weller) - Bartók: Concertos 1, 2, 3DISC 47 ROGÉ - Fauré: Solo WorksDISC 48 ROGÉ - Satie: Solo WorksDISC 49 Arthur RUBINSTEIN (Mehta) - Brahms: Concerto No. 1*ROGÉ (Weller) - Bartók: Rhapsody for Piano & OrchestraDISC 50 András SCHIFF - Bach: Goldberg VariationsDISC 51 SCHIFF & George MALCOLM - Mozart: Works for Piano 4-HandsDISC 52 SCHIFF - Scarlatti: SonatasDISC 53 Jean-Yves THIBAUDET - Chopin: Solo WorksDISC 54 THIBAUDET - Conversations with Bill Evans*THIBAUDET - Nyman: SolosDISC 55 THIBAUDET (Alsop) - Gershwin: Works for Piano & OrchestraMost of these recordings are still available, but gathering them would require a major effort and be far more expensive than this set. A few gems are only available here at the moment.By comparison, the DGG piano box set (111 The Piano) contains only solo music, comprises 31 pianists spread over 40 discs. 5 pianists appear in both sets: Argerich, Gulda, Kempff, Michelangeli and Richter.There is almost no duplication of repertory.For me, the works for piano 4-hands, 2-pianos, and piano and orchestra offer a welcome addition to the pleasure of the set.Surely there is something here for every piano fan..With a price of less than $2.00 per disc, there's no reason to hesitate.