Richard Pennycuick wrote about the quality of Nimbus records:

>I've not had a problem with the limited number of Nimbus piano CDs I've
>heard.  I think "cavernous" suggests a piano being played in a room where
>there's too much reverberation or as someone mentioned in another thread,
>like listening to a piano trio in a large sparsely-populated hall.

I got a Nimbus disc of Cherkassky playing Schumann from my library 2 days
ago (nothing to get excited about, incidentally, although in the slower
movements he does achieve a quiet and simple inwardness that is rather
affecting, and the playing is astonishingly supple for a 76-year-old) -
and I'm afraid I have to align myself with the nay-sayers:  I'm not sure
about the word 'cavernous' either, but Richard's above illustration fits my
impression:  the timbre becomes rather hard and clangerous above a certain
dynamic level and in the upper register, as if Cherkassy were playing in
an empty hall with a low ceiling and bare wooden floor.  However, I'm more
averse than some to reverberent recordings - the acoustic spoiled the
Salomon Quartet's recordings for me, and I'm also having problems with
Brendel's Schubert sonata D.  959 recommended by Don Satz for that reason.

Felix Delbruck
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