Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major, K450

Swiss pianist Karl Engel was a student of Paul Baumgartner at the Basel Conservatory from 1942 to 1945. After World War II he studied with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique in Paris in 1947-1948. He toured internationally as a soloist with orchestras, a recitalist and as a chamber music performer. He became particularly known for his complete cycles of Mozart piano sonatas and concertos, and Beethoven piano sonatas. He also distinguished himself as an accompanist, often appearing in Lieder recitals with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey, Peter Schreier and Brigitte Fassbaender. Among his chamber music partners were Pablo Casals, Yehudi Menuhin as well as the Melos Quartet. From 1958 to 1986 Karl Engel was Professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany. He gave famous master-classes in France, Canada and Portugal.

Wilhelm Kempff was one of the truly great German pianists and one of the most remarkable performing artists of the 20th century. Kempff was renowned for his interpretations of Beethoven and this 10-CD compilation features performances of all five of the composer’s Piano Concertos made with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1953, and the Waldstein, Moonlight, Pathétique and Les Adieux Sonatas. The set also includes performances of Mozart, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms recorded between 1953 and 1958.

Viviana Sofronitsky followed in the footsteps of her father, the distinguished Russian pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky. She gained a DMA from Moscow Conservatoire and has degrees in historical fortepiano and harpsichord performance. Musica Antiqua Collegium Varsoviense is part of the Warsaw Chamber Opera and the musicians perform on original period instruments. The fortepiano was made by McNulty.

Mozart Piano Concertos are a cornerstone of any CD collection and this cycle features the winning combination of Alfred Brendel and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the direction of Sir Neville Marriner in 23 concertos (recorded 1970-84), with Imogen Cooper in the concertos for two pianos. Ingrid Haebler is soloist in Concertos 1-4.

"Throughout, his thoughts [Brendel] are never less than penetrating. The transfers are consistently of the very highest quality, as is the playing of The Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner" The Penguin Guide

Last year it was the Kempff solo recordings which brightened up our winter days at the start of the new year and sold nearly 6,000 copies of the 35-CD box.

Now for the first time, comes a compact 14-CD set of his complete concerto studio recordings. They span from his 1925 recording of Beethoven’s First Concerto (the first ever to be made of that work) to his visionary 1977 performances of Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 21 and 22, now receiving their first international CD release. Unlike the solo recordings set, this edition is non-limited.

Kempff traversed the set of Beethoven Concertos three times in the studio (only No.2 was not set down during the shellac era); all those performances are included in this set. There’s more Mozart, Brahms and Schumann. In addition, 1950s Decca recordings of two Mozart concertos, the Liszt and Schumann concertos are also featured.

Originally planned as an 85th birthday tribute, this set documents over 3 decades of exceptional artistry by the Sir Colin Davis, one of the musical pillars of the Philips label (now part of Decca Classics), who died Sunday 14th April 2013. He was a musician of incomparable integrity and class.

After signing to Philips exclusively in the mid-1960s, over more than three decades he then produced work for the label of the highest quality and range:-

• the first (and still greatest) Berlioz cycle

• pioneering Tippett,

• superb Haydn and Mozart,

• plus top-ranking Sibelius, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Dvorak and Britten, and much else.

His many recording orchestras included the English Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Opera House, Royal Concertgebouw, Boston Symphony, Bavarian Radio and Dresden Staatskapelle, as well as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics.

His great Philips collaborators on disc include Stephen Kovacevich, Kiri Te Kanawa, Jon Vickers, José Carreras, Jessye Norman, Arthur Grumiaux and Claudio Arrau.

An extraordinary number of his recordings have achieved legendary status and are enduring staples of the catalogue. This set balances all his most important musical spheres as well as many of his most important artistic relationships with soloists, orchestras and opera houses around the world.

The booklet notes are in English, French and German with an excellent appreciation of his work for Philips by Jeremy Hayes.