Bert Bailey writes concerning the Philips Great Pianists series:

>Also, would anyone recommend their favorites in this series to me?

With such a treasure of exceptional pianists, the notion of 'favorites'
is a hard one to measure.  Leaving aside the significant issue of
duplications, the two volumes from Rosalyn Tureck certainly stand out in
my mind for her Bach performances.  The same applies to the Sofronitsky
volume devoted to Chopin and Scriabin; nobody plays Scriabin better than
Sofronitsky.  But there's also Hoffman, Richter, Gilels, Hess, Haskil,
Rachmaninov, and a host of others.

For someone new to classical music, every volume in the series except
for a few such as from Schiff and Yudina would represent outstanding
acquisitions.  For my part, I've had to be rather picky because of the
duplication issue.  As an example, do I opt for the Myra Hess recording on
Naxos which has Schumann's Carnaval or her Philips Great Pianists set also
having this work? The Naxos certainly costs much less, but I then would
have to do without her performance of Schumann's Symphonic Etudes.  Another
issue is whether the Naxos or Philips Carnaval has the better transfer.
These are tough times which call for unequivocal decisions - I bought both
of them.  Whatever you do Bert, plunge right in and don't look back or in
your wallet.

Bert was also wondering why Hamelin is not included in the series.  As
Dave pointed out in his response, the licensing issue has played a major
role.  Another factor might be that Hamelin is making his reputation by
performing music of lesser-known composers.  Also, when he does offer a
'famous' composer disc, the reviews have not exactly been glowing -
Schumann and Scriabin come to mind.

Don Satz
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