Byron Janis Mercury Collection (9 CD + Blu Ray)

The legendary American pianist Byron Janis, who turns 95 in March 2023, was the first pupil of another iconic pianist – Vladimir Horowitz. Horowitz famously told Janis “I don’t want you to be a ‘second Horowitz’ I want you to be a ‘first Janis’.” Janis certainly established himself on the world stage when he made his Carnegie Hall debut recital in October 1948, garnering a rave review from the New York Times’s Olin Downes who praised him as a distinctive artist in his own right destined for a major career.

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Between 1960 and 1964 Janis made a set of remarkable recordings for the Mercury Living Presence label. The Janis-Mercury partnership proved to be a good fit with Mercury’s uniquely detailed and exciting sound quality, using three microphones for an entire symphony orchestra and piano. Janis welcomed the opportunity to expand his recorded repertoire with Mercury. These recordings have been lovingly restored from the original master tapes and remastered at 24bit 192kHz by mastering engineer Tom Fine and presented in original sleeves.

Included as a bonus CD in this edition is a concert recital from Leningrad (St Petersburg) from a historic 1960 visit to Soviet Union, recorded secretly by his Soviet hosts. Janis was the first American pianist to be sent to the Soviet Union to open the first formal cultural exchange – he would later be hailed as “an ambassador in breaking down ‘cold war’ barriers."

TRACK LIST

CD1
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No.2. Preludes, Op.23 No.6 & Op.3 No.2
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra/Antal Doráti

CD2
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No.1
London Symphony Orchestra/Herbert Menges

CD3
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No.3
London Symphony Orchestra/Antal Doráti

CD4
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.3
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.1
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill Kondrashin

CD5
ENCORES – works by Liszt, Schumann, De Falla, Prokofiev, Chopin, Mendelssohn etc.

CD6
LISZT Piano Concerto No.1
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill Kondrashin
Piano Concerto No.2
Moscow Radio [Tchaikovsky] Symphony Orchestra/Gennady Rozhdestvensky

CD7
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto; Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor, Op.14; Arabeske in C, Op.18
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra/Stanisław Skrowaczewski

CD8
MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition

CD9
LIVE IN LENINGRAD – 1960 Soviet Union recital recording. Includes works by Mozart, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Copland and De Falla

BLU-RAY DISC
Byron Janis – The Mercury Recordings in 24bit 192kHz (CDs 1-8)