Byron Janis Edition [Box set]

I must take issue with Mr Lapidus on three points: (1) he himself describes these recordings variously as "extremely brilliant" and "staggeringly great," yet gives a 1 star rating to the release, and in the process is suggesting the casual scanner of recordings that they are bad--rather like the person who gives one star to a product, because there was a problem with delivery. (2) Copyright laws expire for a reason: I wonder if Mr Lapidus take a similar dim view of laws which permit drug companies to produce generic versions of older drugs which have lost patent protection. But (3) and most important, Mr Lapidus is simply wrong in claiming that Brilliant Records has robbed (his word) the original copyright owners. Upon reading his review I contacted Brilliant Records, and was informed by their Mr. Pieter van Winkel that "These recordings are not out of copyright. We licensed them from Universal in a fully legal way, paying Universal a royalty per CD sold."
Thus Mr. Lapidus review is wrong with respect to the facts, and misleading to those who assume stars are awarded on the basis of the merit of the product, not on extraneous ethical considerations.

This 4 disc set is all the evidence necessary to prove Byron Janis deserves his place as one of the finest American pianists of the past century, alongside Kapell, Katchen, Fleisher, Graffman and (perhaps to a lesser extent) Perahia. He was probably more famous than the aforementioned, due in large part to his marriage to the daughter of Gary Cooper (Maria). His "golden boy" image set aside, Janis had the chops to back up the virtuoso reputation. A pupil of two polar opposites, Adele Marcus the classicist and Vladimir Horowitz the romantic, Janis took the best both had to offer and blend it into something special. Many have referred to Janis as a Horowitz clone, but I find his playing more similar to Rachmaninov, as evidenced by his playing on this set. Unlike most pianists of the last few decades, excepting Argerich and Hough, Janis takes the concertos at an astoundingly fleet tempo, very reminiscent of the composer's own recordings. I just wish the 4th (I shamefully admit that I don't know if he ever recorded it) was included on disc 2 instead of the Prokofiev 3rd (not one of my favorite composers). I actually prefer these recordings with Dorati and Kondrashin better than his famous ones with Reiner and Munch on Mercury. In a very crowded field of excellent recordings of two old war horses (Tchaikovsky & Schumann), these recordings stand up nicely. The Liszt is also very good, but not quite equal to Richter (BBC). Last, but not least, Janis' performance of Mussorgy's Pictures stands just behind Richter and Kapell as my three favorite versions of that piece. All in all, another great release from Brilliant Classics (the folks who brought us some fine box sets from Richter, Oistrakh, Gilels, etc. in their Historic Russian Archives series). I found no issue with the sound at all. At under $20 this is a real bargain. *4 1/2 stars*

CD 1- Rach- Concertos 2 & 3 -Dorati/LSO (3rd), Dorati/Minneapolis SO (2nd); Preludes op.23/6 & op. 3/2
CD 2- Rach- No.1; Prokofiev- No.3 Kondrashin/Moscow PO
CD 3- Schumann- concerto- Skrowaczewski/Minn SO, Arabeske op.18; Tchaik- concerto- Menges/LSO
CD 4- Liszt- No.1 Kondrashin/Moscow PO; No.2 Rozhdestvensky/Moscow Radio SO; Mussorgsky- Pictures at an Exhibition (solo)

I first heard Janis on a recording of Burleske (sic?) by R Strauss and couldn't believe the intensity and flamboyancy of Janis' performance. I didn't hesitate to buy a "collected works" of Janis for the same reason. A great collection at a terrific price!!