One of Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s early Decca recitals, these are some of the most engaging and thrilling readings of a program of essentially concert etudes. To the Schumann, Thibaudet places the five posthumous variations as an appendix, and his reading of the Brahms Paganini is one of the most scintillating of all.
Predictably the technical challenges of Brahms’s Paganini Variations hold few fears for him. Even Horowitz once admitted that in Liszt’s Faust Waltz he’d heard Thibaudet’s fingers do things that his own couldn’t in dexterity, clarity of articulation and general command… his fingers sing as finely as they sparkle… Sound reproduction throughout is at once natural and never too forward for comfort in your own room. –GRAMOPHONE
1 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Thema (Non Troppo Presto)
2 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 1
3 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 2
4 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 3
5 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 4
6 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 5
7 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 6
8 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 7
9 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 8
10 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 9
11 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 10
12 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 11: Andante
13 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 12
14 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 13
15 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book I: Var. 14: Allegro; Presto Ma Non Troppo
16 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 1
17 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 2: Poco Animato
18 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 3
19 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 4: Poco Allegretto
20 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 5
21 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 6: Poco Piu Vivace
22 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 7
23 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 8: Allegro
24 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 9
25 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 10: Feroce, Energico
26 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 11: Vivace
27 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 12: Un Poco Andante
28 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 13: Un Poco Piu Andante
29 Paganini Variations (Op. 35) Book II: Var. 14: Presto, Ma Non Troppo
30 Arabeske in C Major, Op. 18
31 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Thema (Andante)
32 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation I: Un Poco Piu Vivo
33 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation II
34 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Etude III: Vivace
35 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation III
36 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation IV
37 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation V: Agitato
38 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation VI: Allegro Molto
39 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation VII
40 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Etude IX: Presto Possibile
41 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation VIII
42 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation IX
43 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Finale: Allegro Brillante
44 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation I
45 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation II
46 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation III
47 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation IV
48 Symphonic Etudes (Op. 13): Variation V