Philippe Entremont

Philippe Entremont - the Complete Piano Solo Recordings on Columbia Masterwork

It was in 1958 that a fabulously talented 23-year-old French pianist made his name in the musical world with the release of his debut concerto recording for Columbia Masterworks. That coupling of the Grieg A minor and Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, was the first of many best-selling albums that Philippe Entremont would record for Columbia over the next two decades. In 2014, Sony Classical issued a CD box containing all of his concerto recordings. Now, to mark Entremont's 85th birthday in 2019, Sony is pleased to announce the release of his complete solo recordings in a clamshell box set of 34 CDs. It's the first ever release of Philippe Entremont's complete Columbia recordings for solo piano, released 1956 to 1997, in a single 34 CD edition. 21 LPs appearing for the first time on CD, remastered from the original analog masters using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology.

The new box, which contains many recordings never before issued on CD, ranges from Entremont's 1956 Chopin recital originally released on CBS's Epic label to a recital of keyboard favourites he recorded in Vienna in 1985. There is Entremont's Debussy, played "with bold splashes of color...and tremendous warmth" (High Fidelity) and his Liszt - "When biting rhythmic zeal, sharp chiaroscuro of fingerwork are called for, he supplies them in splendid degree. He imparts a grand sweep to Un Sospiro, and compels admiration for his impulsively angular, individualistic performance of the Valse oubliée" (High Fidelity).

The many other recitals discs in this capacious, newly remastered reissue showcase composers ranging from Rameau, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Kuhlau, Clementi, Beethoven, Chopin (the complete Ballades, Scherzos and Polonaises), Schumann and Mendelssohn to Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. There is Spanish music by Granados, Albeniz and Falla: "[Entremont's] Ritual Fire Dance has gusto and ringing attack. It is a headlong dazzling account of the music" (High Fidelity). And, naturally, there is an abundance of French music - works by Fauré, Ravel, Satie, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns (including the chamber version of Carnival of the Animals with second pianist Gaby Casadesus and cellist Yo-Yo Ma).

Two very special albums recorded in 1979 deserve separate mention: a coupling of Dohnányi "Nursery Song" Variations, the Strauss Burleske and the Litolff Scherzo, with Okko Kamu conducting the National Philharmonic, and the delectable recital from Paris in which Philippe Entremont accompanies the great soprano Régine Crespin in mélodies by Ravel and Satie.