Ignaz Friedman

[Rob H]

Grand piano are releasing a collection of Friedman works that have mostly not been previously recorded.

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=GP711.

Gunnar Johansen recorded op27, op61/4, a couple of op71 and all the Viennese dances but these are hard to obtain and the sound is dismal. Coincidentally the op61 Preludes are also on a CD soon to be released on Toccata and played by Glebov (see Levitzki, Gabrilovitsch and Friedman post of March 28th).

[Herbert Pauls]

This is very interesting and I look forward to eventually hearing it. Material that would go down well in recitals.

But it would be really nice to have the seven Johansen cassettes, which were apparently 90 minutes each, re-released, boxy sound and all. Nobody at the Johansen estate has ever gotten around to doing anything about it, even after decades. I am sure that in our era of ridiculously cheap box sets, if the price is right this and the much bigger boxes of Bach, Liszt, and Busoni, would sell a few thousand copies each. Archival sound and all. Johansen was a real legend, and many experienced listeners still know it. Does anyone (like Gordon Rumson, whose interests overlap at least somewhat with UC) at the Johansen estate read UC?  There has been a bit of activity there with a new website dating back to 2009...hasn't been on my screen for a while....