Emanuel Ax – The Complete Rca Album Collection (23CDs, Sony)

Emanuel Ax has been classed among the master pianists ever since his victory at the inaugural Arthur Rubinstein Competition in 1974. His long association with RCA began the very next year, with a spellbinding disc of Chopin and Liszt transcriptions (quot;virtuosity of the Michelangeli or Pollini class herequot;, wrote Gramophone). Over the next 12 years he released 23 albums on the label, spanning much of the great piano literature, and the complete set of his RCA recordings is now reissued by Sony Classical for the first time. With a 19th-century focus, the collection contains five CDs of Axs famed Chopin, five more of Beethoven, several of Brahms, Schubert and Mozart, and many other classic recordings.