Search - Chopin, Bolet :: Piano Recital

A good recital - but short TT, and certainly not worth the l

Discophage | France | 06/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Oh some of these original Everest "Super Bit Mapping" CD releases produced by Seymour Solomon's Omega company are offered at ludicrous prices these days. 404 $ for this one as I write!!!! Given that TT here is a frustratingly short 41:44, it is about 10 $ per minute! It sure beats downloading from Itunes. Valleycd is a vulture, don't fall his prey.



The recording was made in 1961. The early 60s saw the beginning of some public recognition of Bolet. The sound is good though not as ample as on some other Everest CD releases that have come my way, with some tape hiss and, it seemed to me, some slight pitch wobbling in the opening Polonaise (I've read that that kind of problem may arise from deterioration in the famous original "35mm magnetic film masters"). The playing is good, though not significantly better than all the Chopin luminaries that have recorded these pieces over the years. Excellent liner notes.



Omega folded when Seymour Solomon (the founder of the legendary Vanguard records with his brother Maynard in the 1950s) died in 2002, and the Everest catalog was left idle for a number of years, making some of these releases much sought-after rarity items (there have been some bootleg reissues I believe, but I wouldn't trust them). I see that the Everest recordings are now being re-released on CD under the original trademark, by whoever acquired the rights to the catalog, though shorn of some of the couplings of the Omega-Everest CDs (Vaughan Williams' Boult-conducted Job and Wasps are now without Arnold's Scottish Dances, for instance), so maybe this Bolet will be reissued. But I've read comments on the net that some of these reissues were poorly produced (like 2-second blanks in cues separating sections of the same Vaughan Williams' "Job" that should play continuously). So these original CDs are the ones to get - but not at these prices, I would think. I found mine on the famous auction website and paid 23 $ for it, shipment included.

"