Lewenthal Sony Box

I’ve been waiting for Sony to release this. At last it’s coming soon!

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da CAPED RAY?

True, that will include some previously unreleased stuff.

Where iz da rep listed?

I don’t know if it’s been announced yet, a friend has been involved in the production of the set so I’ve had some teasers through him. But it’ll be what it says on the cover, only including material from sessions which were eventually abandoned.

According to JPC.DE:
Alkan: Etüden durch alle Moll-Tonarten op. 39; Barcarolle op. 65 Nr. 6; Klaviersonae op. 33 "Grande Sonate; Symphonie op. 39 Nr. 4-7; Sonatine op. 61; Petit conte; Le Tambour bat aux champs; Esquisses op. 63 Nr. 1, 7, 11, 12, 39, 45; Marcia funebre sulla Morte d’un Pappagallo; Etüde A-Dur
+Liszt: Hexameron; Reminiscences de Norma; Annees de Pelerinage (1. & 2. Jahr)
+Henselt: Klavierkonzert f-moll op. 16
+Liszt / Lewenthal: Totentanz für Klavier & Orchester
+Rubinstein: Klavierkonzert Nr. 4 d-moll
+Scharwenka: Finale aus Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 c-moll
+Lewenthal über die Werke von Henselt, Liszt, Rubinstein, Scharwenka, Alkan

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Ehhh this is an error. :slight_smile: Unfortunately.

But the Années are very true. They never were on LP.

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Moreover, from Amazon Australia:

Product description

‘‘In his own words, Raymond Lewenthal was an ‘‘octave thrower, long-distance arpeggioer and general producer of volcanic rumbles’’. This hugely talented, extroverted pianist was also a key figure in the revival of a great deal of 19th-century piano music, most of all that of Charles-Valentin Alkan. Sony Classical’s new 6-CD collection of Lewenthal’s complete recordings for RCA and Columbia Masterworks celebrates this maverick pianist’s recorded legacy, with three LPs of material specially remastered from the analogue tapes. Its release comes thirty years after Lewenthal’s death in November 1988.
Both a showman and a scholar, Lewenthal was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1923, working as a child movie actor in Hollywood before beginning formal piano study at the age of 15. His teachers included Olga Samaroff and Alfred Cortot. Though his early career in the US flourished after a debut with Dmitri Mitropoulos and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1948, he withdrew from public performance a few years later after being attacked in Central Park. By the time he returned to concertizing in the 1960s, he had become a champion of Alkan’s, much of whose music he edited for publication.
His enthusiasm for obscure Romantic repertoire was not limited to Alkan. He revived Adolf von Henselt’s little-known Piano Concerto in F minor, a spectacularly difficult work, recording it with Sir Charles Mackerras and the LSO alongside his own version of Liszt’s Totentanz. ‘‘The sheer virtuoso bravura of it all is dazzling’’, wrote Gramophone. With the same orchestra and conductor Eleazar de Carvalho, he also recorded Anton Rubinstein’s Fourth Piano Concerto in D minor, and the dazzling finale to Franz Xaver Scharwenka’s Second Concerto in C minor.
Two albums of Alkan’s solo piano music are a fitting tribute to Lewenthal’s obsession; they include his Symphonie, Grande Sonatine and many studies and miniatures. ‘‘Raymond Lewenthal measures up to Alkan’s fearsome demands with expressive gusto’’, wrote BBC Music Magazine one visionary eccentric pianist channeling the spirit of another. Lewenthal also recorded the Hexaméron, a work written collaboratively by five pianists and put together by Liszt, and now receiving its first CD release Liszt’s Réminiscences de Norma (’‘a revelation’’ Gramophone).
One final CD shows another, no less significant side to Lewenthal: several recordings of him discussing works collected here at the keyboard, again never before released on disc. This vital, vivacious communicator ‘‘a kind of Romantic idol’’, The New York Times remarked still has a lot to say to us today, about a repertoire that continues to benefit from his passionate advocacy.’’

Btw, any truth in the rumour that he recorded all the :kan: solo works, but they are sitting in vaults somewhere because it’s been deemed too much work to be worthwhile editing?

No. There is a session from 1970 I think with unreleased rep which was only entitled “Alkan grotesquiries” or something like that in the logs. I don’t know what was recorded there, but it was too short to contain that amount of music.

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My Amazon preorder had gotten cancelled. I read something about a last minute problem of obtaining rights for part of the release, so it got temporarily pulled. Anyone have more specific details?

Apparently, the set is still scheduled to be released on Oct 23rd. You can still order it at Amazon/CA and Amazon/DE. It should be back on Amazon/USA soon.

Is this the box Farhan was working on? I remember him mentioning something about getting all the Liszt années released.

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Yes, Sony sent the tapes to him for editing. A gargantuan task, but he’s sounded pleased with the results. And I’m glad they picked him since I have full confidence in his judgement; much less so in random employees or contract workers.

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Yes, Farhan and Manildi.

Hopefully Farhan and/or Manildi won’t suppress any individual recordings for “artistic reasons” or some such.