GYORGI SANDOR: THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA ALBUM COLLECTION (17 CDS) SONY CLASSICS

Few musicians were more significantly linked with a single composer than the late Hungarian-American pianist György Sándor with his teacher Béla Bartók. The authoritative recordings of Bartók’s music that Sándor made for American Columbia between 1945 and 1955 and decades later for Sony Classical during his “golden years” are now being reissued in a single release of 17 albums. It also contains his justly famed interpretations of composers ranging from Bach to Rachmaninoff. György Sándor was born in 1912 in Budapest, where he studied the piano with Bartók for four years at the Liszt Academy as well as composition with Zoltán Kodály. He made his public debut in 1930 and, after performing widely throughout Europe, made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1939. The following year he decided to settle in the US, where he took citizenship, taught at two universities before moving in the 1980s to New York’s Juilliard School, where his students included Hélène Grimaud and Malcolm Bilson. He continued to perform right up to 2005, the year of his death. He performed and recorded Bartok’s music throughout his career, and his recordings document his special insight into the master’s works. Having prepared Bartók’s first two piano concertos under the composer’s guidance, the year after Bartók’s death Sándor gave the world premiere of the Third Piano Concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and recorded it for Columbia. Decades later, in 1989, Sándor made an acclaimed recording of all three concertos for Sony Classical, with Adam Fischer conducting the Hungarian State Orchestra, also included in the new set. During his first decade with Columbia, Sándor recorded large swaths of Bartók’s solo piano music, including the complete Mikrokosmos on three LPs. In the 1990s, the pianist, by then in his 80s, returned to Bartók’s solo works, this time recording virtually all of them except the Mikrokosmos.

 

1 Disc 1:
2 Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178
3 Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 in A-Flat Major, S. 541/3
4 Liszt: Trois Études de Concert, S. 144/2: La Leggierezza
5 Liszt: Harmonies Poétiques Et Religieuses, S173/R14: VII. Funérailles
6 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 in a Minor S. 244/15 “Rákóczy March”
7 Liszt: Années de Pèlerinage, 2E Année – Italie, S. 161: VII. Après Une Lecture de Dante (Fantasia Quasi Sonata)
8 Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514
9 Liszt: Consolations, S. 172: No. 3 in D-Flat Major
10 Liszt: Rhapsodie Espagnole, S. 254

1 Disc 2:
2 Chopin: Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49
3 Chopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-Sharp minor, Op. 66
4 Chopin: Barcarolle in F-Sharp Major, Op. 60
5 Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op. 28 “Pastorale”

1 Disc 3:
2 Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Major (SZ 119) [1946]3 Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 21 in F-Sharp minor, Op.51 (Eugene Ormandy & the Philadelphia Orchestra)

1 Disc 4:
2 Bach: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903
3 Bach: Fantasia in C minor, BWV 906
4 Bach: Partita in B minor, BWV 831 “Overture in the French Manner”

1 Disc 5:
2 Schumann: Papillions, Op. 2
3 Schumann: Waldszenen, Op. 82, No. 7: Vogel Als Prophet
4 Schumann: Toccata in C Major, Op. 7
5 Brahms: Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117
6 Brahms: Intermezzo in B minor, Op. 119, No. 1
7 Brahms: Intermezzo in a Major, Op. 118, No. 2
8 Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9

1 Disc 6:
2 Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

1 Disc 7:
2 Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11

1 Disc 8:
2 Bach, J.S.; Liszt (Transc.): Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, Transcribed for Piano, S. 463
3 Bach, J.S.; Sandor (Transc.): Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C Major, BWV 564, Transcribed for Piano
4 Bach, J.S.; Busoni (Transc.): Prelude & Fugue in D Major, BWV 532, Transcribed for Piano
5 Bach, J.S.; Sandor (Transc.): Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, Transcribed for Piano
6 Bach, J.S.; Liszt (Transc.): Prelude & Fugue in a Minor, BWV 543, Transcribed for Piano, S. 462

1 Disc 9:
2 Bartók: Allegro Barbaro (SZ 49) [1951]3 Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances (SZ 56) [1951]4 Bartók: For Children (SZ 42) Revised Edition, January 1945 [1951]5 Bartók: Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs (SZ 71) [1951]6 Bartók: Suite for Piano, Op.14 (SZ 62) [1951]

1 Disc 10:
2 Bartók: Mikrokosmos (SZ 107), Book 1-3

1 Disc 11:
2 Bartók: Mikrokosmos (SZ 107), Book 4-6

1 Disc 12:
2 Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (Piano Version)
3 Bartók: Petite Suite (SZ 105) Piano Arrangement By B. Bartók of Selections from the 44 Violin Duos (SZ 98) [1987]4 Bartók: Dance Suite (Piano Version)

1 Disc 13:
2 Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1 (SZ 83)
3 Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Major (SZ 95)
4 Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E Major (SZ 119) [1989]

1 Disc 14:
2 Bartók: For Children (SZ 42) Revised Edition, January 1945 [1993]3 Bartók: The First Term at the Piano (SZ 53) 18 Elementary Pieces

1 Disc 15:
2 Bartók: Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs (SZ 71) [1994]3 Bartók: Three Hungarian Folk Songs (SZ 35) from the County of CSÍK
4 Bartók: Three Hungarian Folk Tunes (SZ 66)
5 Bartók: Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Op.20 (SZ 74)
6 Bartók: Three Rondos on Folk Tunes (SZ 84)
7 Bartók: Romanian Christmas Carols (SZ 57)
8 Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances (SZ 56) [1994]9 Bartók: Two Romanian Dances, Op.8A (SZ 43)
10 Bartók: Suite for Piano, Op.14 (SZ 62) [1994]11 Bartók: Andante (Originally Conceived As the 2nd Movement of Suite, Op.14)

1 Disc 16:
2 Bartók: Piano Sonata (SZ 80)
3 Bartók: Sonatine (SZ 55) on Peasant Themes from Transylvania
4 Bartók: Four Dirges, Op. 9A (SZ 45)
5 Bartók: Petite Suite (SZ 105) Piano Arrangement By B. Bartók of Selections from the 44 Violin Duos (SZ 98) [1995]6 Bartók: Songs and Dances. Piano Arrangement By G. Sándor of Selections from Bartók’s 44 Violin Duos (SZ 98)
7 Bartók: Ten Easy Pieces (SZ 39)

1 Disc 17:
2 Bartók: Allegro Barbaro (SZ 49) [1995]3 Bartók: Out of Doors (SZ 81)
4 Bartók: Seven Sketches, Op. 9B (SZ 44)
5 Bartók: Two Elegies, Op. 8B (SZ 41)
6 Bartók: Three Burlesques, Op. 8C (SZ 47)
7 Bartók: Nine Little Pieces (SZ 82)
8 Bartók: Studies, Op. 18 (SZ 72)