Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

Born in Eger in what is now the Czech Republic to Russian immigrants in 1903, Rudolf Serkin became one of the truly great performers of classical and romantic piano music. This 10-CD set - which features recordings that he made between 1932 and 1959 of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Strauss and Bach - form an impressive example of his creative art. It also includes recordings of Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas made with Pablo Casals and performances given with his father-in-law, the great violinist Adolf Busch, with whom Rudolf Serkin performed chamber music at the highest level for more than 30 years.

BIS presents a boxed set of Felix Mendelssohn’s complete symphonies, string symphonies and concertos.

The symphonies were recorded in 2007 and 2008 by Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and were warmly received by the reviewers when they were first released.

The 12 string symphonies give us the background to the symphonies for full orchestra, written by a boy not yet fifteen. The recordings are from the Amsterdam Sinfonietta conducted by Lev Markiz.

A further four discs offer all of the eight concertos that Mendelssohn composed. These include the youthful works with string orchestra accompaniment (concertos for violin, piano, violin and piano, and for two pianos), as well as the mature works for violin, piano and full orchestra, performed here by Isabelle van Keulen and Ronald Brautigam.

These are never-before-released Monteux live performances in state of the art digital restorations. The set includes works by Beethoven, Brahms, Glinka, Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Schumann, R. Strauss of which there are no studio recordings with Monteux. Soloists include Stern and Serkin.

A stunning set: Lang Lang’s complete recordings, on Deutsche Grammophon (9 CDs) and on Telarc (2 CDs), with the longest Bonus CD (82:49) you’ve ever heard. Plus the 200-page book, with new articles, original liner notes and photos galore of this uniquely charismatic artist – who just happens to be reaching the ripe old age of 30 on the 14th of June.

THE PACKAGING: The box captures the “feel” of Lang Lang in bold bright colours and evocative photos. Open up and you see 11 colour-coded digipaks, one for each of the CD sets (Carnegie Hall Recital in a double digi). Each digi slots into a space in the neat tray in the bespoke box, which cunningly conceals the book in an elegant drawer.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW: The 12 CDs represent Lang Lang’s complete recordings from 2000 to 2009, including the two Telarc CDs he made in 2000 and 2001 (his recording debuts).

There are 5 concerto CDs, 4 solo piano CDs, 1 chamber music CD and 2 “mixed” CDs. The set is arranged by label: DG first, then Telarc, with the bonus CD at the end.

John Ogdon was born on 27th January, 1937 in Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire and died on 1st August, 1989 in London. His first serious study of the piano was at the Royal Manchester College of Music where his contemporaries were Alexander Goehr, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies; he also studied composition with Richard Hall, all of whom have music recorded in this collection. His prowess was noticed when he replaced an indisposed soloist in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto in Liverpool and played almost at sight. At the age of 21 he made his London debut at the Proms in 1958 with Busoni’s Concerto (which he recorded in 1967).

In 1961 he was awarded the Liszt Prize in Budapest and the following year shared the coveted first prize at the Moscow Tchaikovsky competition with Vladimir Ashkenazy; this achievement launched his international career. His recordings from this time not only attest to his remarkable virtuosity and intense musicianship but also his determination to explore both rarer and modern repertoire and give them the performances that show them to their best advantage.

This collection therefore contains not merely the classics – concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schumann and Grieg and solos by Liszt and Chopin – but rarer concertos by Mendelssohn, Glazunov Bartók as well as the aforementioned Busoni. The major contribution to the catalogue of recorded music must be the solo piano works by the 20th century composers: Sir Michael Tippett, Alan Rawsthorne, Alun Hoddinott, Christopher Headington, David Blake, Robert Sherlaw Johnson and his teacher and colleagues from his days in Mancheser: Richard Hall and the previously mentioned Goehr, Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies as well as works by himself. One further work requires especial mention: Ronald Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH, the composer’s tribute to Dmitri Shostakovich.

At over 85 minutes duration it has to be split across two CDs and the work together with Ogdon’s support of it yielded the highest praise.