Music CD Box Set Review: 'Piano Masterpieces'
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| © ℗ 1992 Intersound Records |
Owned and managed by a music industry veteran named Don Johnson (not related to the eponymous actor) Intersound was 10 years old when it released Piano Masterpieces; starting in 1982 as a direct-to-retailers purveyor of licensed classical recordings. As a result, classical music aficionados could find good recordings by solo performers and orchestras from the Old and New World, though usually the featured artists tended to be from Central Europe and the former Yugoslavia. At one point in its short reign as (in the words of the New York Times) "one of the largest independent record companies," Intersound focused almost exclusively on classical recordings; the genre made up 90% of its sales. It specialized in manufacturing and selling multi-disc box sets such as The Complete Beethoven Symphonies and, of course, Piano Masterpieces.
Later, Johnson shifted Intersound's focus from classical to other, more modern genres, and eventually, box sets such as Piano Masterpieces accounted for just 5 percent of the label's sales. Four years later, Intersound was purchased by a rival company, Steve Devick's Platinum Entertainment, which in turn went bankrupt and was bought out by Compendia Music Group, which closed in 2003.
Still, while it was in existence, Intrasound's box sets could be found in most of the large music store chains; I remember buying this and The Complete Beethoven Symphonies at the Camelot Music store in the Miami International Mall in the mid-1990s. I was building up my still-modest compact disc library, and although I was not familiar with the performers or most of the ensembles in Piano Masterpieces, I had heard quite a few of the pieces presented in the four CDs.
Disc: 1
1.Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 457, 'Elvira Madigan': Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 457, 'Elvira Madigan': Andante
3. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 457, 'Elvira Madigan': Allegro vivace assai
4. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 In E - Flat Major, Op. 73, 'Emperor': Allegro
5. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E - Flat Major, Op. 73, 'Emperor': Adagio un pocco mosso
6. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E - Flat Major, Op. 73, 'Emperor': Rondo: Allegro
7. Beethoven: 'Fur Elise,' Bagatelle in A Minor, Wo0 No. 59
Disc: 2
1. Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15: Maestoso
2. Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15: Adagio
3. Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15: Rondo: Allegro non troppo
4. Beethoven: 'Moonlight Sonata No. 14 In C - Sharp Minor, Op. 27 - 2: Adagio sostenuto
5. 'Moonlight' Sonata No. 14 in C - Sharp Minor, Op. 27 - 2: Allegretto
6. 'Moonlight' Sonata No. 14 in C - Sharp Minor, Op. 27 - 2: Presto agitato
7. Schumann: Piano Masterpieces: Dreaming, Op. 15
8. Liszt: Love Dreams No. 3 in A - Flat Major
Disc: 3
1. Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B - Flat Major, Op. 23: Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso: Allegro con spirito
2. Piano Concerto No. 1 in B - Flat Major, Op. 23: Andantino semplice; Prestissimo
3. Piano Concerto No. 1 in B - Flat Major, Op. 23: Allegro con fuoco
4. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16: Allegro moderato
5. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16: Adagio
6. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16: Allegro moderato molto e marcato
7. Chopin: Waltz No. 1, Op. 18
Disc: 4
1. Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op.18: Moderato
2. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op.18: Adagio sostenuto
3. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op.18: Allegro scherzando
4. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
5. Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major: Allegramente
6. Piano Concerto in G Major: Adagio assai
7. Piano Concerto in G Major: Presto
My Take
As you can deduce from the box set's title, Piano Masterpieces presents 13 of the best-known compositions written for the pianoforte. Some, like Dreaming and Fur Elise,' Bagatelle In A Minor, Wo0 No. 59, are written as solo piano pieces. Others, especially Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin and Edward Grieg's Piano Concerto in A-minor, Opus 16, are works for piano and orchestra. And as I said earlier, they straddle various musical eras, starting with the Classical period pieces by Mozart and on to the 20th Century with the aforementioned Rhapsody in Blue and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op.18.
Even if you aren't a classical music listener, chances are that you've heard many of the works presented in Piano Masterpieces. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 457, for example, got its popular name "Elvira Madigan" when the Andante movement was featured prominently in the score of Swedish director Bo Widerberg's 1967 film Elvira Madigan. Television viewers have also heard quite a few of these works as underscore in dramas, animated shorts, and, in the case of Rhapsody in Blue, commercials. (United Airlines, in particular, uses bits from Gershwin's 1920s-era fusion of jazz and classical music in its "Fly the Friendly Skies" ads.)
Although these box sets are not as numerous as they once were (Amazon still offers them as of this writing, but there are only two left), they can still be found. The best places to look, other than FYE or used CD stores, are online emporiums such as eBay or Amazon. Piano Masterpieces is nice because the music is easy on the ears and reflects a variety of styles, tempos, and emotional tones that fit an equally wide array of moods and listening situations.
I strongly recommend this box set...provided, of course, that you can get it.
Sources:
Piano Masterpieces box set, Intrasound, Inc., 1994
The New York Times, Platinum to buy Intersound Records, November 14, 1996
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