Arthur Rubinstein - The Complete Album Collection [Box set]

Way back in the Twentieth Century (1999) RCA/BMG (not yet Sony) issued the complete Rubinstein on 94 CDs with a nice book.
It was an expensive proposition - at the time it was advertised at Tower Records for $1300.

Now we have 142 CDs + 2 DVDs and a nice book for approximately $300.

This is not quite as remarkable as it seems.
The new collection is in the "original jacket" format which faithfully reproduces the contents of each original LP.
The timing of each CD is a great deal shorter than its 1999 equivalent.
92 CDs of the 1999 edition are now spread out to 139 CDs.

Bad News: This new box is missing the 2 CD set of Rubinstein's Moscow concert of 1964 (Volume 62 of the old box).

Good News: The 1964 Moscow concert was recently issued on DVD by Euroarts, so you don't need the CDs.

Good News: There are 3 new CDs:
In 1961 Rubinstein gave ten concerts at Carnegie Hall.
One LP of this material was issued on LP in pretty good stereo sound.
We now have an additional 3 CDs in adequate mono.
Apparently Rubinstein ordered the master tapes of all but the single LP destroyed, but his son kept a 7 1/2 ips copy of the tapes.
The tapes have not aged well physically, but their contents are fascinating - especially Stravinsky's 3 Scenes from Petrushka.

Good News: Four works of Chopin are new to the Rubinstein discography:
A 1957 studio recording of Chopin's Prelude in C sharp minor, Op 45.
This is in a collection called "Unpublished Recordings" [OK, this was also part of the 1999 box, but it shouldn't be overlooked].
The 1961 Carnegie Hall concerts produced three elusive Chopin Etudes: Op 10, No. 12, and Op 25, No. 2 & 3.

Baddish News: I don't like the "original jacket" format.
The mini-LP notes are tiny, and you have to look in the book for track listings and timings.
The program notes for the 1999 CDs were more informative than the original LP notes included here.
Multi-CD sets don't get any notes at all because the original LP notes were on a leaflet, not the back of the LP.
The first 14 CDs in the new box are 78s that RCA did not issue on LP.
They get no notes, even though they are among the most important recordings in the Rubinstein discography.
Why can't they put the track listings on the back of the mini-LP and the notes in the book?
DG actually did it this way in their box of Horowitz recordings.

Of course some people actually like the look of these miniature LPs.
The old record labels are kind of cute (except for the hated "Dynaflex" labels that RCA used on some of their last LPs - the Schubert Trios here). Fortunately the CDs are rigid, not flexible like the Dynaflex LPs.

Baddish News: The new book is prettier than the old one, but not as interesting.
It still has a Discographical Index - Indispensible [and a damaging ommision from Sony's earlier Vladimir Horowitz "Original Jacket" Collection].
But the articles about Rubinstein are briefer and more generic.
Also, strangely gossipy - I really didn't need to know that Rubinstein left his wife when he was 90 and spent the last 6 years of his life living with his mistress.
The new book does have a lot more photos (none of the mistress).

Confusing News: The new book states "The masters for the principal works in the collection come from the series of Living Stereo SACDs and Japanese XRCDs. All the other recordings are based on masters from the Rubinstein Collection of 1999, technically and sonically refurbished for this edition."

But on page 162 of the book, all remasterings are credited to six gentlemen with Teutonic sounding names, none of whom had any connection with the Japanese XRCDs or the Living Stereo SACDs or the 1999 collection.

Japanese XRCDs (they play on standard CD players) are extremely expensive. Way out of my league.
- Rubinstein's XRCD discography:
Brahms Sonata 3 (1959), Chopin Scherzi & Sonatas (1959-61), Liszt Concerto 1 (Wallenstein), Rachmaninov Concerto 2 (Reiner), Tchaikovsky Concerto 1 (Leinsdorf).

RCA SACDs are reasonably priced - I own many of them. The catch is that they are "hybrid."
If you play them on a standard CD player you get CD quality sound.
You need a special SACD player to appreciate the sonic improvement of SACD.
None of the new discs is marked "SACD", so I am guessing that they contain just the standard CD sound track (which is pretty good).
I don't yet own an SACD player so I am unable to tell if any have an unadvertised SACD track.
- Rubinstein's SACD discography:
Beethoven Sonatas 8,14,23,26 (1962-63), Brahms Concerto 1 (Reiner), Chopin Concerti (Skrowaczewski/Wallenstein), Ballades & Scherzi (1959), Franck Symphonic Variations, Liszt Concerto 1 and Saint-Saens Concerto 2 (Wallenstein).

I should point out that all of the stereo CDs sound very good. I am just unable to make comparisons with the XRCDs or SACDs.

Good News: 2 DVDs are included:
The 1987 documentary "Rubinstein Remembered" was issued by RCA in 2004.
The "Benefit Recital for Israel" filmed in 1975 is issued on DVD for the first time (it used to be on VHS).
It is very moving to watch the blind 88 year old pianist. He never lost the magic.
The soundtrack was on LP and is included in both the old and new boxes.
Though made in Europe, the DVDs in my box - I live in the US - are in the NTSC format and region-free.

Really Good News: The price is beyond belief (act quickly?).

A Mystery: I found my first discrepancy. Rubinstein's stereo recordings of Schubert's Impromptus D 899, No. 3 & 4 are dated April 21, 1958 in the new box (CD 86). They were dated March 23, 1961 in the 1999 box (Vol. 54).

28 January 2012 marks 125 years since Rubinstein was born. A great time to consider his legacy in this marvellous set.

The title words to this review are those Harvey Sachs uses in the liner notes to the original Rubinstein Collection to describe how those of us who were lucky enough to hear Rubinstein play live felt after one of his performances. As Sachs says, those words also describe how one feels after hearing Rubinstein's recording of Chopin's B Minor Sonata.

This set is full of such wonderful performances. The recording of the Busoni arrangement of Bach's Chaconne is titanic and must rank among the greatest piano recordings. It exemplifies what Eunice Podis (quoted by Sachs in his excellent biography of Rubinstein) says of Rubinstein's ability to shape very long legato lines, especially in Chopin. Barenboim, also quoted by Sachs refers to something unerring about Rubinstein's healthy musical intellect and Jeremy Siepmann in sleeve notes to the BBC Legends series speaks of his powerful, all embracing sense of rythm, stating that his playing was straightforward, natural simple and healthy. Siepmann also refers to Rubinstein's ability to hear and balance voices in single chords.

Then there is Rubinstein's natural and delicate use of rubato and his gloriously beautiful tone. I would add to the learned opinions above that Rubinstein's sheer love of the music he plays shines through time after time.

You will hear and be touched by these qualities countless times throughout this set. Listen to the delicate weaving of Chopin's Nocturnes, especially Op. 55, no.2 in the 1967 recording and the powerful sense of structure in his Ballades and Scherzos. The recording of the F minor Ballade is another towering performance.

The 1932 recording of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto under Barbirolli is out of this world and the Andantino unbearably beautiful. This recording also demonstrates the amazing clarity of even the earliest recordings in this set thanks to the legendary Fred Gaisberg who produced the original recordings and to the painstaking transfers by Ward Marston.

Going to the very end of the set, despite some imperfections, Rubinstein's Decca recording of the Brahms D Minor Concerto with the Israel Philharmonic under Mehta is of such intensity and so full of love for the music that for me it is an essential reading of this great work. Rubinstein was 89 with only one more recording session to go and weeks away from his final ever recital at London's Wigmore Hall on 31 May 1976.

Unusually for such a prominent musician, Rubinstein recorded a lot a chamber music and there are many beautiful chamber recordings here. No less of an opposite in many ways to Rubinstein than Glenn Gould was quoted in Look magazine in 1971 as saying in an interview with Rubinstein that the Rubinstein/Guarneri Quartet recording of the Brahms Quintet was the greatest chamber music performance with piano he had heard in his life and that the recording had changed his view of what Brahms represented.

One of the pleasures of the set is a wonderful photograph of Rubinstein and Gould in the beatifully illustrated and well set out book which accompanies the set.

In addition there are lovely reproductions of the original LP sleeves and the CD's (with the original LP length programmes) are illustrated with the original labels and made to look like mini records. The earliest recordings are in covers cleverly representing 78's in plain sleeves showing only the record label. It is all a pleasure to look at and I find the original LP sleeve notes legible despite their reduced size.

I am still discovering new beauties in the original Rubinstein Collection after ten years and have returned to favourite recordings dozens of times.

Buy this incredible bargain set: 142 CD's (the equivalent of 95 full length CD's) and 2 DVD's for the price of about 20 CD's. It will reward you with a lifetime of pleasure.

It is the Christmas present I have got for this year.I cannot wait for the boxing day and opened it this morning. Since then I have been sitting for the whole Christmas day listening to it. This box set has a great presentation to me. Sony, as you can see, changed the usual art work of the big box, as used for Glenn Gould, Horowitz and Heifetz, making it simple and elegant.

The big book, written in multi-language, is gorgeous. Again unlike the previous complete album collection, it size is four times bigger which makes a great pleasure to read. However, if you want to make references to the tracks, it can be a bit clumsy.

This box set not only has the entire RCA records, but also the early EMI records(CDs 1 - 14) and one from Decca (CD 138, Brahms Piano concerto no. 1 with Zubin Mehta), and so it is quite a very complete set. As for the sound quality, I do not have high end stereo, but they do sound good to me. And according to the big book, Sony had all remastered by the engineers of Rubinstein's SACD and XRCD collections.

The 2 DVDs has no surprise to me as I already have them, but the 3 bonus CDs are a real treasure. They were all recorded live from a series of recitals that the Masetro decided to impress the city, 10 recitals without a repeat repertoire within forty days! Although the sound quality of these bonus discs are not impressing, the performance are superb and astonishing.

It worth every penny I spent.