Lili Kraus: The Complete Parlophone, Ducretet- Thomson & Discophiles Français recordings [1933-1958]

Lili Kraus: The Complete Parlophone, Ducretet- Thomson & Discophiles Français recordings [1933-1958] cover $130.00 Special Order
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MOZART / BEETHOVEN / BRAHMS / SCHUBERT / etc
Lili Kraus: The Complete Parlophone, Ducretet- Thomson & Discophiles Français recordings [1933-1958]
Lili Kraus (piano), with Willi Boskovsky (violin) Gilbert Coursier (horn) Francois Etienne (clarinet)

[ Erato / Warner Classics / 31 CD Box Set ]

Release Date: Sunday 1 February 2015

This item is only available to us via Special Order. We should be able to get it to you in 3 - 6 weeks from when you order it.

While the outstanding reputation of the Hungarian-born pianist Lili Kraus was built on a comparatively narrow repertoire of Viennese classics (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert), her experience as a musician and as a human being was of extraordinary breadth.

A pupil of such towering figures as Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály and Artur Schnabel, she made an international career from the age of 18, becoming a professor at the Vienna Conservatory at the age of 20, and over the years she lived in Europe (Austria, Italy, UK, Germany, France) and the USA - where she died in 1986, having given her final concert in 1982- but also in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

It was while touring Indonesia in 1943 that she and her family were captured by Japanese forces, and she subsequently spent three years in prison camps, where studying her repertoire in her head helped her to survive hard labour. As she said: "Stimulating unsuspected resources of courage, my faith and the music vibrating in me saved me. That energy would never leave me again." She relaunched her career after the War in Australasia, before returning to Europe (1948) and then moving to South Africa for a period. In the 1950s, she spent much time in France and moved for a time to London, but finally settled in the US in 1967.

Her long recording career spanned the eras of the 78, the mono LP and the stereo LP. All the recordings in this 31-CD anthology date from a 25-year period on either side of World War II - 1933-1958. In addition to many solo recordings, they document her collaboration with two major violinists who had led great European orchestras: in Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn with the Polish-American Simon (Szymon) Goldberg, who spent four years as leader of the Berlin Philharmonic before ostracisation by the Nazis, and in Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert with Willi Boskovsky, famed for his association with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2006, Gramophone, affirming the durability of her achievement, wrote: "Her superb playing in various violin sonatas by Beethoven and Mozart set standards that have not been matched since the 1930s," In addition to works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, the anthology includes music by Chopin, Brahms and Bartók.

This collection gathers together all the recordings Kraus made for three separate labels - Parlophone, Ducretet-Thomson and Discophiles Français. 80% of them have never before been made available on CD in Europe, and all tracks have been re-mastered in 24 BIT / 96 kHz, which represents a significant gain in audio quality over any previous releases.

The New York Times' critic Harold C. Schonberg described Lili Kraus as ''a pianist with taste, skill and heart". In an interview in 1969 she spoke thus of her approach to her art: "In the really great works of music even a scale has something to say. And I assure myself the luxury of playing only the great works of music ... A great interpretation must go far beyond not only the instrument but the music itself, and great music tries to manifest nothing less than the cosmos. This cosmos includes all that exists: the music of the spheres in all its appearances, whether water, wind, bird noise, storm, lightning, thunder, or the sweetest rustling of the leaf. Great composers like Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, of course, had such fine perception, and heard these things within themselves so clearly, that they could give them immortal form."

THIS RELEASE IS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO NEW ZEALANDERS...

A pupil of Bartok and Schnabel, the great Hungarian pianist Lili Kraus was born in 1903. She was internationally known to pre-war record collectors through her acclaimed Parlophone 78s of chamber works by Mozart and Beethoven recorded with the concert master of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Szymon Goldberg. During a concert tour of the Dutch East Indies, the country was invaded by Japan and Kraus was interned in a Prisoner of War camp. At the end of the war she was rescued by the New Zealand Minister of Overseas Affairs, Sir Walter Nash, who invited her and her family to New Zealand to recuperate and rebuild a career, as well as offering her New Zealand citizenship. She was immensely proud to be a New Zealander, and regularly returned to give solo recitals and concert appearances almost to the end of her life. She died in 1986. Among many highlights of her career was performing all the Mozart piano concertos in New York for the first time.

This Warner Brothers 31-CD set (ERATO 0825646242238) contains the complete pre-war Parlophones and also the remarkably large catalogue she recorded in France through the 1950s. Many of these have been reissued on the French EMI Références label, but have not been generally available outside of France. They consist of the complete piano sonatas, violin sonatas, piano trios, etc. by Mozart; the complete violin sonatas of Beethoven; and works by Haydn, Brahms and Schubert. The collaborative violinist in these series is the legendary concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, Willi Boskovsky. This is a remarkable set and an astonishing bargain at $130.

Tracks:

Bartók:
Romanian Folk Dances for piano, Sz. 56, BB 68
3 Rondos on Slovak Folk Tunes, BB 92, Sz. 84

Beethoven:
Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-10 (Complete)
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2 'Tempest'
Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 'Waldstein'
Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109
Eroica Variations, Op. 35
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12 No. 2
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 'Spring'
Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 30 No. 1
Eroica Variations, Op. 35
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 'Kreutzer'
Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96

Brahms:
Variations on a theme by Schumann in F sharp minor, Op. 9
Rhapsody in B minor, Op. 79 No. 1
Intermezzo in E flat major, Op. 117 No. 1
Capriccio in B minor, Op. 76 No. 2
Intermezzo in E major, Op. 116 No. 4
Intermezzo in B flat minor, Op. 117 No. 2
Rhapsody in E flat major, Op. 119 No. 4

Chopin:
Waltz No. 14 in E minor, Op. post., KKIVa:15, B 56
Impromptu No. 2 in F sharp major, Op. 36
Prelude Op. 28 No. 4 in E minor

Haydn:
Piano Sonata No. 32 in G minor, Hob.XVI:44
Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Hob.XVI:46
Piano Sonata No. 53 in E minor, Hob.XVI:34
Piano Sonata No. 59 in E flat major, Hob.XVI:49
Piano Sonata No. 62 in E flat major, Hob.XVI:52
Piano Trio No. 40 in F sharp minor, Hob.XV:26
Piano Trio No. 43 in C Major, Hob.XV:27
Piano Trio No. 45 in E flat Major, Hob.XV:29
Andante & Variations in F minor, Hob.XVII:6 (Sonata - un piccolo divertimento)

Mozart:
Piano Sonatas 1-18 (complete)
Zwölf Variationen in Es-Dur über das französische Lied 'La belle Francoise' K353 (300f)
Fantasia in C minor, K396
Fantasia in D minor, K397
Fantasia in C minor, K475
Sechs Variationen in F-Dur über die Arie 'Salve tu, Domine' aus der Oper I filosofi immaginarii (Giovanni Paisiello) K398 (416e)
Variations (8) on 'Come un'agnello' from Sarti's Fra i due litiganti, K460
Clarinet Trio in E flat major, K498 "Kegelstatt-Trio"
Rondo in A minor, K511
Adagio in B minor, K540
Gigue in G Major, K574
Minuet in D major, K355
Adagio and Rondo K617 for flute, oboe, viola, violoncello & glass harmonica
Violin Sonatas (complete)
Quintet for Piano and Winds in E flat, K452

Divertimento (Piano Trio) in B flat, K254

Triosatz in D - K442

Piano Trio No. 1 in G major, K496

Piano Trio No. 3 in B flat major, K502

Piano Trio No. 4 in E major K542

Piano Trio No. 5 in C major, K548

Piano Trio No. 6 in G major K564
Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K271 "Jeunehomme"
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466
Violin Sonata No. 17 in C major, K296
Violin Sonata No. 25 in F major, K377
Violin Sonata No. 26 in B flat major, K378
Violin Sonata No. 27 in G major, K379
Violin Sonata No. 31 in C major, KV 404 (unfinished)
Violin Sonata No. 28 in E flat major, K380
Violin Sonata No. 33 in E flat major K481
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K457
Fantasia in C minor, K475
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K457
Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K271 "Jeunehomme"
Piano Sonata No. 13 in B flat major, K333
Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat major, K456
Rondo in D major, K485
Variations (10) in G major on Gluck's 'Unser dummer Pöbel meint', K455
Adagio in B minor, K540
Rondo alla Turca from Piano Sonata No. 11, K331

Schubert:
Sonata (Sonatina) for violin & piano in D major, D384 (Op. posth. 137 No. 1)
Sonata (Sonatina) for violin & piano in A minor, D385 (Op. posth. 137 No. 2)
Divertissement à la Hongroise D818
Variations in B flat major, D968A (D603)
Six Polonaises, D824
Sonatina (Sonatina) in G minor, D408 (Op. posth. 137 No. 3)
Piano Sonata No. 14 in A minor, D784
12 Waltzes, D145 (selection)
12 Valses Nobles, D 969 Op. 77: selection
Impromptu in B flat major, D935 No. 3
Impromptu in E flat major, D899 No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D845

CD 1 - 6 THE MOZART PIANO WORKS
CD 7 - 12 MOZART SONATAS PIANO / VIOLIN
CD 13 - 14 MOZART Complete TRIOS
CD 15 MOZART piano & orchestra concertos
CD 16 HAYDN piano sonatas
CD 17 - 19 BEETHOVEN Complete Violin / Piano Sonatas
CD 20 BEETHOVEN piano sonatas
CD 21 BEETHOVEN / BRAHMS
CD 22 HAYDN / SCHUBERT
CD 23 SCHUBERT
CD 24 to 31 Complete ODEON-PARLOPHONE : 1933-1948