Historical Reissue Classical CDs, LPs, 78s,
Related Books & Ephemera
Since 1972
Truesound Transfers again . . .
Lucette Korsoff & Lilian Bryant . . .
plus Terry King's biography of Gregor Piatigorsky
Lucette Korsoff & Lilian Bryant . . .
plus Terry King's biography of Gregor Piatigorsky
"Born in Italy of Russian parents, Lucette Korsoff's father, a baritone, was the impresario of a touring opera company. He had changed the family name from Goering to Korsoff in tribute to Corsi, his voice teacher in Milan. Lucette made her début at the age 16 in Pergolesi's LA SERVA PADRONA and was granted a scholarship to study in Paris with Frédéric Boyer . A tour of Egypt with a French company followed in 1900, in which she sang Ophélie to Maurice Renaud's Hamlet. He recommended her to the Opéra-Comique, where she was first heard as Lakmé, Marie (FILLE DU RÉGIMENT), Philine (MIGNON), Micaëla (CARMEN), and Rosina (IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA). She also appeared at the New Orleans Opera, Boston Opera and Monte Carlo Opera. She was a coloratura soprano with technique to spare and a beautiful tone. For the next 20 years she appeared internationally in the major lyric-coloratura rôles, perhaps her most celebrated having been the Queen of the Night. Following her retirement in 1921 she taught first in Paris and then in Brussels, her pupils including Gina Cigna and Joseph Rogachewsky."
- Ward Marston, notes to Marston's Edison Legacy, Vol. I
"Lilian Bryant was a pianist and conductor, and was the musical director of the Pathéphone company, ltd. in London. There are numerous orchestral recordings on which she is the conductor, including several popular overtures. She is likely to be the conductor or piano accompanist on numerous British Pathé vocal recordings, often uncredited. She also recorded piano solos for Columbia (and Regal), several of which were issued in Holland, where she was known as the accompanist of violinists Alfred Indig and Boris Lensky (and is credited as such on the record labels), as well as of the legendary contralto Clara Butt. She also crops up on the unusual Chantal de Luxe label (manufactured by Crystalate), conducting for the baritone Louis Lynel. The piano solos are mainly of popular songs of the day, very much in lighter mood, though she did record some popular classical pieces as well. These include Wagner's bridal chorus, and Mendelssohn's wedding march. From 1911 to 1923 she was married to the baritone George Baker, and sometimes accompanied on his records as Mrs George Baker."
- Damian Rogan, 78rpm Collectors Community
Both Gregor Piatigorsky and Emanuel Feuermann figure prominently in our offerings of mid-May. Terry King's splended biography of Gregor Piatigorsky is finally here, accompanied by Piatigorsky's recent West Hill Radio Archives 6-CD Commemorative Set, also produced by Terry King. As remembered by William Pleeth, "Emanuel Feuermann and Gregor Piatigorsky were both Klengel pupils and they were totally different in their style of playing."
"There is hardly a cellist alive that has not read Gregor Piatigorsky's original autobiography CELLIST, published in 1965. CELLIST ended in mid-career, and now Terry King completes the story of an incredible and controversial artist in a way that only someone who was close to him could do, yet has the ability to see him critically."
- ARSC Journal, Spring, 2011
- Best Historical Research in Classical Music, ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections), Summer, 2011
"Gregor Piatigorsky was a giant who stood alone in the 30s as a classical music cellist...Terry King, now a master cellist himself, has captured his mentor's charm and generous personality in an amazing book...would be number one on New York Times Reading List About Cellists."
- HUFFINGTON POST, Dec., 2010
"I am so happy that Terry King has written this informative and often touching account of my husband's life as a cellist and great artist. He has beautifully and painstakingly given us all a treasured gift with this work. I admire the effort he has made to write this book and am deeply grateful for the contribution it makes to our family and music lovers throughout the world."
- Jacqueline Piatigorsky
"At a stroke, this munificent set doubles the available documents of Piatigorsky as a soloist. I have often remarked on how little he recorded, for a cellist of his eminence - and of course he had fearsome competition - but I now discover how much was left unissued. A number of American Columbia artefacts, perfectly acceptable in sound and often splendid in performance, are included here, presumably from 'tests'."
- Tully Potter, CLASSICAL RECORDINGS QUARTERLY, Autumn, 2010
"Overall, it would be very difficult to overstate the value of this set. Gregor Piatigorsky was unquestionably one of the great string soloists of the 20th century, and his work was documented far less than that of his contemporaries. Much of the material here has either never been issued or has long been out of print. This is not only for cellists and cello fanatics. Anyone who places a value on music-making with a real face to it will find this an essential set. What you have here is a cellist who plays with enormous technical facility, and who plays everything as if it might be the final performance of his life. This is music-making that is vital and alive at every turn-highly personal but never eccentric.
There are some 'finds' here of major importance: the Elgar concerto with Barbirolli, the Schumann with Reiner, and the Hindemith concerto with the composer on the podium surely stand out. Some of the miniatures from the 1920s demonstrate a virtuosity that astonishes (the Popper and Sarasate are two examples). These are the kinds of bon-bons that will bring a smile to your face, and might just make you gasp in amazement at Piatigorsky's brilliance."
Henry Fogel, FANFARE, Jan./Feb., 2011
"Emanuel Feuermann was one of the great cellists of the twentieth century, especially admired and appreciated by other cellists. Pablo Casals, speaking with Jose Maria Corredor in 1954, being asked about the best cellists of his day, immediately named Emanuel Feuermann. Casals remarked, 'What a great artist Feuermann was! His early death was a great loss to music'." Feuermann, likewise, had been a great admirer of Casals.
When Feuermann made his American début in 1935, the hall was packed with fellow cellists who had come to hear something truly extraordinary. Following the performance a critic wrote, 'Difficulties do not exist for Mr. Feuermann, even difficulties that would give celebrated virtuosi pause'. In 1938 an English reviewer wrote in The Strad, following a concert, 'I do not think there can any longer be doubt that Feuermann is the greatest living cellist, Casals alone excepted...In Feuermann we have a spectacular virtuosic artist of the front rank, the Wieniawski, shall I say, of the cello'. Feuermann was famous for his unbelievable facility in the upper registers of the instrument, and was said to be able to easily perform Mendelssohn's violin concerto on his cello exactly as written for the violin.
Much could be written concerning Feuermann's career and performances. There was an especially fruitful friendship with Heifetz, the great violinist, with whom he recorded the Brahms Double Concerto. Feuermann, Heifetz and Primrose performed and recorded much chamber music. When Feuermann died, Piatagorsky took his place in the trio. Heifetz appreciated Piatagorsky's talents, but let it be known that he considered Feuermann to have been the true 'Fireman'."
"William Primrose was to the viola what Heifetz was to the violin....Think of Tertis as a Rolls Royce and Primrose as a Ferrari. This nimbleness of left and right hand made him Jascha Heifetz's favorite alto-clef partner in chamber music and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante."
- Joseph Magil, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, May/June, 2006
"William Primrose was not the first viola virtuoso of the 20th Century, but he was certainly the best known. Born in Glasgow, he trained and performed as a violinist until switching instruments in 1926....His early experience as a violinist undoubtedly influenced his approach to the viola and recalls the great violinists of his generation: his sound was bright, his manner was high-strung, and he tossed off anything put before him with apparent ease and grace. What could this man not do?"
- David Radcliffe, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, Nov./Dec., 2005
"Although the works of Liszt were not a central part of Richter's repertoire, he was one of the twentieth century's important Liszt interpreters and was deeply committed to those works which he did play. In this collection we can hear his delicacy, tenderness and great lyric power in the two Liebesträume and contrasting ferocity in the Mephisto Waltz No.1. These are new digital restorations."
"In its entirety the Budapest concert disc goes immediately into the 'Richter I cannot live without' category. Risking wearisome superlatives, I have to admit that during each of many listenings to the white-hot Schubert c minor Sonata and PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION that were the recital's principal offerings, I was overcome by sheer jaw-dropped wonder. Both these works and, indeed, all the Schumann, Rachmaninov and Debussy choices exist on more than one Richter version, yet none of the others that I possess - not even the Mussorgsky from the fabled Sofia recital later the same year wholly manifests this first-note-to-last directedness of aims and means, this visionary combination of dramatic intensity and simplicity of touch and texture."
- Max Loppert, CLASSICAL RECORDINGS QUARTERLY, Autumn, 2010
"What Richter achieved were perhaps the two most perfect performances of these concertos that this chronicler ever had heard. What is more, he fired the orchestra and Dr. Munch - especially in the Brahms - to outdo themselves. The result took your breath away."
- Cyrus Durgin, Boston Globe, 2 Nov. 1960
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