Credits:

Gyorgy Sandor

Description:

This is the first 17-CD collection of the complete recordings for Columbia and Sony Classical by Jorge Chandor, a master pianist who was called "the perfect pianist" and popularized Bartók's music. Jorge Chandor (Hungarianized: Sándor Jerzy) was born in Budapest in 1912. He studied piano under Bartók for four years and composition under Kodály at the Liszt Academy of Music, and made his debut as a concert pianist in 1930. After performing widely throughout Europe, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1939. The following year he settled in the United States and became a citizen. He taught at Southern Methodist University, the University of Michigan, and in the 1980s at the Juilliard School, where he produced the likes of Malcolm Bilson and Hélène Grimaud, and continued to perform as a pianist well into his 80s, giving concerts actively until the year of his death in 2005. He was a lifelong friend of Bartók, his piano teacher, a leading performer and interpreter of Bartók's piano music, and one of the ten people who attended his funeral in 1945. He prepared the first two piano concertos under Bartók's direction, and in 1946 gave the world premiere of his surviving Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, and shortly thereafter made the first recording of the work on Columbia (CD3).Not only is this the first complete recording of the "Microcosmos" (CDs 10 and 11), but it is also the first recording of Bartók's solo piano works and concertos (also on the American VOX label). The recordings in this 17-CD box can be divided into two main categories. First, CDs 1-11 are SP to monaural recordings made between 1945 and 1955 for Columbia in the U.S. In addition to Bach's arrangements, Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt, the first recordings of Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 and "Microcosmos" mentioned above are of historical value. CDs 12-17 are the "Golden Age" of Chandor's most mature period, and include re-recordings of Bartók's three piano concertos (Adam Fischer and the Hungarian National Orchestra, CD13) and the first recordings of the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 3 and "Microcosmos," both of which were released on CD in the early CD series "Masterworks Portrait. CDs 12-17 are the "golden age" of Bartók's most mature period, and include digital recordings of three Bartók piano concertos (CD13, Hungarian National Orchestra conducted by Adam Fischer), a collection of his major piano works (CDs 14-17) except for "Microcosmos," and, most unusually, the first recordings (CD13) of piano versions of "Concerto for Orchestra" and "Small Suite. The master's ability to express the charm of Bartók's unique musical language in a very natural way is the result of his maturity.The monaural recordings have been remastered at 24bit/192kHz from the original analog masters, and all discs are enclosed in paper jackets using the jacket design of the LPs when they were first released. All discs are packaged in paper jackets using the original LP jacket design. An all-color booklet with detailed recording data, track listing, and discography is also included. Sony Music