In my case, the irony of Van Cliburn's passing is heightened by my receiving today these two RCA "Living Stereo" SACD's, Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 [Hybrid SACD] Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ Cliburn.  I'd ordered them from Amazon last week for a very reasonable price.  Stuart, these SACD's DO combine two "albums" on each CD, so if you hadn't already bought the box set, these might have been perfect for you, although you might have only played the stereo layer if you don't have a 5.1 or 7.1 discrete audio setup/player.  I'm looking forward to paying homage to Mr. Cliburn as I play them in my studio/den.  They cost me approximately $5.20 per concerto, since there are two concertos on each disk plus free shipping with the third SACD of Richard Strauss: Symphonia Domestica [Hybrid SACD]. I also already have his Rachmanioff #3 on a reel to reel tape, but that recording
 lacks the clarity and sound field of his other RCA's; it's very close miked and off balance to the right. So, I was surprised when I found that people were asking about $60 for the remastered version, although it does include the Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 which I imagine is probably quite different, sonically. I'm listening to the Tchaikovsky as I type this, and it is truly wonderful, so I'm very pleased to honor his memory tonight; he was/is an amazing part of our musical history, and thanks to the remasterings, still with us in more than spirit! To paraphrase Stewart, The sets are a fitting farewell to a great artist and American.

DrG

--- On Wed, 2/27/13, Stewart Gooderman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Stewart Gooderman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Van Cliburn dies
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 10:48 AM

I just received the Cliburn boxed set about a week ago. Listening to about 60% of it so far, the sound is amazingly good, especially the earliest issues and the later solo piano recordings.

The idea was to replicate the Lp's and this they have done very well, even mimicking the labels on the CDs. However, some of these recordings are very short and I think I would have liked some of the albums to have been combined on one CD, making the set take up less room.

The set is a fitting farewell to a great artist and American.

DrG

DrG


On Feb 27, 2013, at 9:52 AM, Cary Ginell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/02/27/van-cliburn-american-classical-pianist-dies/1951217/
> Cary Ginell