Track Listings

Disc: 1

1	I. Allegro
2	II. Andante
3	III. Allegretto
4	I. Allegro
5	II. Romance
6	III. Rondo. Allegro assai
7	I. Allegro maestoso

Disc: 2

1	II. Andante
2	III. Allegro vivace assai
3	I. Allegro
4	II. Andante
5	III. Presto
6	I. Allegro
7	II. Larghetto
8	III. Allegretto

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's a shame Rubinstein didn't record more of Mozart's music, for his obvious affinity for the composer shines through these 1958-1960 stereo recordings of five concertos. Rubinstein's Mozart is forthright--he refuses to sentimentalize by swooning over the music's beauties or to indulge in larger-than-life playing that would rupture its classical framework. Even in the famous Andante of the 21st Concerto, his melting legato traces the curve of the melody without excess. Moderation was his byword, so while there are times one could wish for over-the-top risk taking--a more unbuttoned Allegro of the K. 453, a tad more melodrama in the first movement of the K. 466, some extra sizzle in the outer movements of K. 488--what we have is built to last for the long term. These are performances you can't get tired of. There's a general sense of rightness about tempo choices, and everything, from the singing tone to the exquisite phrasing to the perfectly managed transitions, reflects a master pianist playing music he feels deeply. The accompaniments are fine and the transfers significantly improved over past issues. --Dan Davis

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.62 x 4.92 x 0.33 inches; 4 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Sony Classical
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 2025866
Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2001
Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 30 minutes
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ January 8, 2007
Label ‏ : ‎ Sony Classical
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000031WC1
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2

Best Sellers Rank: #298,511 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #5,803 in Classical Concertos
- #11,028 in Symphonies (CDs & Vinyl)

Customer Reviews:
4.9 21 ratings

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4.9 out of 5

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Alec Sachs

One downside

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2023

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I love these Piano Concertos! However, the only downside is that the rest of the 21st Conerto is on the second CD.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 25, 2019

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We already have many newer recordings of these great works, such as those by Perahia and Uchida, so why bother with Rubinstein's from the 1960s, you wonder. These are actually very well played in a style which suites the music almost as well as many of the newer ones we are familiar with. Listen to the C Minor first (one of the two or three greatest piano concertos ever written), and you will hear why Rubinstein still has something to say about this music, particularly since he is backed with such excellent playing and conducting in excellent remastered sound. This is probably the best performance in this set, but all the others are well worth your listening time.

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Amazon Customer

very high qualiy transfer from LP to disc format

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 10, 2019

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These are beautiful transfers from LP to disc formant. Glowing, pure, rich, clean tone. At long last, I have this great artist in my collection on disc. I kept one LP I bought years ago in stereo of a Mozart con. that sounds fresh and new. Was lucky enough to hear Arthur Rubinstein in person at the music center in Los Angeles in the mid 70s. He remains at the top for his quality piano playing. Sincerely, PD Amazon.com

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Jack Atherton

Classical as in Winckelmann

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 19, 2022

Those seeking operatic Mozart, ranging from giggles to ghosts, will find Rubinstein as boring as do many piano mavens who dismiss his Chopin. (Yes, they do, in favor of more “characterful” greats like Ignaz Friedman or Josef Hofmann). But with his German training and modern restraint, Rubinstein gives a different but I think no less valid Mozart: Apollonian, serene, wonderfully natural and balanced, the classicism of Johann Winckelmann, who wrote before we discovered that the Greeks painted their statues. That kind of classicism may seem lacking to modern ears, but wasn’t it closer to 18th century sensibility? In any event, Rubinstein isn’t boring. He is a special kind of Olympian. And though he and his band are also dismissed, Alfred Wallenstein was esteemed by Toscanini, who urged the cellist to take up conducting. You’ll hear why. Enjoy.

One person found this helpful

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Daniel Schmit

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2016

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Best Mozart collection ever.

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Cody Robert at Spokane

MATURE MASTER, NEW REPERTOIRE

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 22, 2016

It should amaze modern listeners that these five concerti, laid down in Rubinstein's eighth decade, constitute almost his entire Mozart discography, apart from the two Piano Quartets he recorded in 1971 with the Guarneri Quartet and the two very isolated early takes (1931, 1949) of his favored K.488. The simple facts are that Rubinstein the younger bon vivant was not inclined to intensive practice sessions--requisite in these works--and his technique, such as it was, was not yet ready for the pianistic demands Mozart deceptively writes into the concerti. The PR notion that Rubinstein "came crawling," humbly, after age 70 to Mozart should be taken with a grain of salt. Recall that Rubinstein, born in 1887 (when Brahms was still alive), entered a world where Mozart's "antiquated" music (yes, even the operas and symphonies and certainly the piano works) had fallen into general disfavor with audiences and executants alike. Wagner and Brahms had all but eclipsed the penetrating clarity of Mozart, and his music was not yet poised for revival during Rubinstein's callow youth.

Rubinstein lived and performed long enough to see the pendulum swing drastically back in Mozart's favor, but it remains intriguing that Mozart played so limited a role in Rubinstein's playlists. The complete absence of the Piano Sonatas--where Rubinstein might have been as brilliant as he was in Beethoven--is frustrating, and we may conclude that Rubinstein's programming and practicing priorities (always well in order where lucrative concerts and recordings were concerned) rather marginalized the boy genius of Salzburg. (So too with the marginalized Franz Liszt, a composer for whom Rubinstein had little temperamental affinity, much less technical affinity.)

That these perfectly marvelous five concerti exist permanently in the Rubinstein Collection is a small miracle, since they were instigated not by the pianist but by his longtime producer Max Wilcox. There had been abandoned Mozart concerto sessions conducted by Josef Krips where Rubinstein himself declared his technique inadequate, and those sessions were scrapped, according to John Culshaw's autobiography. Thus Krips conducts only the final concerto, and Rubinstein collaborates more congenially with his Hollywood cellist/conductor pal Alfred Wallenstein on the four earlier works. Certainly Rubinstein was most comfortable remaking K.488, but I'm even fonder of his aristocratically poised takes on K.453 and 466. In any case the rapt slow movements--which not accidentally anticipate Chopin--are special Rubinstein highlights, and the careful digital remastering for the Rubinstein Collection makes these venerable recordings sound fresh and vital.

8 people found this helpful

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Celia J. Berveiler

Forget Musicological Correctness--Buy These CDs for Warmth and Color

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 10, 2011

All the concerti in this set are played with great warmth and impeccable taste, but the recording of the G Major concerto is my favorite. Most pianists "pop off" the repeated notes of the main theme. Rubinstein uses a longer staccato, which I find more lyrical and less jarring. If musicological correctness demands adding more ornaments to the melody, I'm glad Rubinstein confined himself to Mozart's. His rendition of slow movements will show you what goosebumps are. Josef Hofmann once said that most musicians do far less than what is printed on the page. Therefore, it makes sense to put first things first. This means understanding the ink already spilled before risking new embellishments that might be tasteless.

Rubinstein uses more pedal than most pianists, but I do not believe that he overpedals. He never blurs harmonies. Instead, he uses the pedal for color. Surely an opera composer of Mozart's stature would not have objected to this.

The liner notes ask why Rubinstein did not include more Mozart in his recitals and recordings. Rubinstein himself admitted to great laziness in his youth. In a mid-1970s television program he demonstrated his facility with pedal tricks. After he played a romantic-era piece, he announced that the left hand did not depress even one correct key. Rubinstein was NEVER a fool. He knew as well as anyone that Mozart won't let you get by with that. This may answer the question as to why Mozart figured so little in his performances. The answer is NOT that Rubinstein lacked understanding of classical style. Piano students would do well to listen to these recordings and incorporate what they hear into their work to the best of their ability.

10 people found this helpful

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Mélomaniac

Affinités sélectives

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on July 6, 2008

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Bien qu'il disait adorer Mozart et qu'il en joua une Sonate dans sa ville natale de Lódz dès l'âge de sept ans lors d'une de ses premières apparitions publiques, Arthur Rubinstein enregistra cependant fort peu la musique du compositeur salzbourgeois.

Les deux CDs rassemblent ici la quasi totalité des six Concertos qu'il confia aux micros au cours de sa longue carrière.

Les 17°, 20°, 21° et 23° furent réalisés en trois jours de mars-avril 1961, l'orchestre étant agilement et vigoureusement dirigé par Alfred Wallenstein : écoutez le finale du K. 466 !
Capté le 12 avril 1958, le 24° profite de la baguette éminemment mozartienne de Joseph Krips, ce maestro viennois s'étant fixé aux Etats-Unis quatre ans auparavant pour prendre la direction de l'orchestre de Buffalo.

On prêtera une oreille particulière au 23° Concerto, une oeuvre fétiche pour Rubinstein qui l'avait déjà triomphalement jouée en 1900 lors de son premier concert berlinois, et qu'il avait déjà antérieurement gravée deux fois avant 1961 : en janvier 1931 avec le London Philharmonic mené par John Barbirolli, et en novembre 1949 avec le Symphonique de Saint Louis mené par Vladimir Golschmann (ces deux versions sont respectivement reparues dans les volumes 9 Oeuvres pour piano et 19 Concerto pour piano n° 23 en la majeur, K 488 / Concerto pour piano en la mineur, op 54 de la même collection).

On remarquera aussi que le pianiste polonais joue ses propres cadenzas dans le K. 467.

Ramenés à l'aune de la discographie de ces cinq opus, ces témoignages se mesurent certes aux géniales contributions de Rudolf Serkin, Robert Casadesus, Clara Haskil, Clifford Curzon ou Wilhelm Kempff, pour s'en tenir aux grands classiques de la même époque.

Accompagné d'une notice signée du biographe de Rubinstein et bénéficiant d'excellentes prises de son, le présent album se goûte nonobstant avec plaisir et intérêt, attestant de la sincère mais hélas parcimonieuse dilection d'un artiste envers un répertoire pour lequel il cultivait d'incontestables affinités.

8 people found this helpful

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Ginette Dupont

Mozart et Rubinstein

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on October 24, 2019

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J'ai commandé ce CD en connaissance de cause. Je connaissais l'interprétation de Rubinstein (captée sur enregistreur à l'époque) depuis de nombreuses années (1968 exactement) et je l'avais toujours trouvée remarquable: un très grand interprète pour un compositeur génial, le romantique du siècle des lumières. Je désirais vraiment retrouver cette interprétation. La transposition sur CD est excellente.
Pour la partie livraison du CD, aucune critique: arrivé dans un état impeccable, plus rapidement qu'annoncé.

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MHR

Rubinstein, an inspired Mozartian

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 26, 2012

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Rubinstein is often associated with Chopin's music as his numerous excellent recordings testify, although I feel that he occasionally shows slight mannerisms. But, here in the present recordings of Mozart's favourite concertos (Nos. 17, 20, 21, 23 and 24), he proves to be an inspired Mozartian, playing with upmost delicacy. Crystal clear articulation is a joy to listen to. The middle movements of Nos. 21, 23 and 24 all have singing quality and are most beautifully played.

The orchestral accompaniment by RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Wallenstein and Krips (No. 24 only) is very good indeed. The recordings have been digitally re-mastered, and sound natural. This 2-CD set is well worth acquiring by those who enjoy listening to Mozart's masterpieces.

5 people found this helpful

e.k.j.pauwels

a welcome surprise: he is

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on September 18, 2019

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Here we have a 'young' Artur Rubinstein, the master of Chopin. But....his Mozart is also excellent, poetical and robust when necessary, warm sound and a light touch. How could you play it otherwise ?What else should I say. This is one of my most beloved recordings, beautifully mastered for CD.

parky

Supreme Mozart Recordings

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

Artur Rubinstein recorded 5 Mozart Piano Concertos and here they are on 2 cd's.
They are Mozart's best loved concertos played by Maestro Rubinstein, the singing quality of these recordings is to be perfectly candid sublime. When it is time to meet my maker I shall be taking these recordings along with me for the ride. Any serious lover of Mozart CANNOT be without these historical masterpieces by a man who plays the piano as a piano would beg to be played.

One person found this helpful

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Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 61: Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17, 20 21 23 24

Remastered

Track Listings

Disc: 1

Disc: 2

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Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 61: Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17, 20 21 23 24

Remastered

Track Listings

Disc: 1

Disc: 2

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Product details

Videos

Important information

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