Me:

>>...when I noticed yesterday that CDNow has the Ogdon volume of Great
>>Pianists (including the concerto op. 39) on sale for a mere $16 I went
>>ahead and got it.  ...  Finally to top off the whole folly I redeemed
>>my free cd credit for a Centaur disc that had Busoni's Fantasia
>>Contrappuntistica.

Deryk Barker:

>Who's playing the Busoni?

On the Centaur disc it's Christopher O'Reilly.  Gramophone Guide 97 listed
Ogdon doing the Contrappuntistica and other works on a Continuum disc, and
that was the one I wanted to supplement the Philips with, but it doesn't
seem to be around anymore.  So I had to choose between O'Reilly, or a piano
duo on Nuova Era (with a more attractive coupling, but I couldn't find any
reviews of the players), or Serkin/Schiff on an ECM duo-piano 2cd set that
was way out of my price range.  If I dig these Busoni works I'll probably
go later for the MD+G disc that was reviewed in the most recent Fanfare.

>The Ogdon recording of the Busoni is superb, but his Alkan is less fine.
>(Interestingly enough the liner note spends some time denigrating it -
>you wonder why they included it at all).

I hate that!!  The EMI Gieseking/Debussy set's notes point out a couple
of little flubs in a couple of the performances.  I never would have
fixated on them if they hadn't pointed them out, but of course they became
obsessive warts that sabotaged my enjoyment of the tracks in question for
quite some time.  Hopefully Ogdon's go at the Alkan will be enough for me
to get to know the piece by.

>For the Alkan you need to hear Hamelin (M&A).

What about the ASV 2cd where one Jack Gibbons plays the complete op. 39
sprawl? I thought if Alkan was up my alley that might be one to check out
in the future.  Have you heard it? Also, are there any good online sources
for some bio on this Alkan geezer?

Jon Lewis
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