In January, I was delighted to discover that Decca was issuing another round of "Original Masters" box sets, including ones featuring Jean Martinon, Wilhelm Backhaus and this title with Julius Katchen. It was the New Year, and I figured I'd hit the local CD shop in the coming weeks, carry over the holiday cheer, and buy myself some late Christmas presents. Nearly seven months later -- no dice. See the problem is, these OM sets have yet to come out domestically, and they didn't even show up on Amazon until May. (They also took a good month to arrive once I did order them from Amazon.) But as annoying as that is, at least the Decca sets are reasonably priced (for now), because the latest DG OM sets featuring Kubelik, Fournier and Leinsdorf, also import only, are currently $20-$30 more expensive than the Deccas even though they have the same number of discs!
All complaining aside, let's discuss the contents of this fine eight-disc set. Much of Julius Katchen's Decca output has been reissued on CD in the past, including a great deal of it in the last couple of years in "The Art of Julius Katchen" volumes (see my reviews). Fortunately much of the material here is receiving its first international release. While many of Katchen's famous stereo performances of the Brahms Sonatas and Variations have been readily available, his earlier mono recordings of the 2nd & 3rd Violin Sonatas (with Ricci), the 3rd Piano Sonata, and the Paganini and Handel Variations contained here had not. Also instead of Katchen's stereo Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 with Solti, released both in the Classic Sound series and "The Art of..." volumes, we get an earlier mono account from 1951 with Fistoulari, making its CD debut. In fact, the solo piano works covering the first five discs make up the majority of the first time on CD offerings -- Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, and various pieces by Chopin and Schumann among others.
Unfortunately, there is a bit of redundancy on the last three discs, particularly on the works showcasing piano with orchestra. The Ravel Concertos, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Britten's Diversions, and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 all appeared previously on various import volumes from "The Art of Katchen" series. Also, in an increasingly alarming trend, recordings that were licensed out to the Testament label, in this case Bartok's Pieces from Mikrokosmos and the 3rd Piano Concerto with Ansermet, are returning to the mother label and being duplicated here. Aside from a lovely subdued reading of Rorem's Piano Sonata No. 2 from 1952 and the aforementioned Rach PC 2, the content of these last three CDs already appears on other discs I own, and therefore is a complete waste as far as I'm concerned.
Overall, this collection is very good, and granted most will not have the same problem with duplication that I do, though serious collectors can surely sympathize with my frustration. My one-star demerit is given not for the music, which is fantastic, but as a result of UNI's questionable marketing decisions. Producing these "Original Masters" sets as limited editions is hard enough for us classical collectors, but please don't decide additionally that it is only worth your while to sell them in Europe and Japan.
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