Search - Dussek, Schumann, Grunschlag :: Dussek: Concerto for 2 Pianos; Schumann: Andante & Variations

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael J. Klementovich | Bethlehem PA | 06/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes MUSIC LOVER you are correct...a portion of this CD is noisy because of the limitations of the recording and the equipment available when they made the recording in Austria.....BUT .......music listeners...i have almost $300,000.00 worth of audio equipment......... some of the finest audio equipment available in the world and this CD is still a work of performing art. MUSIC LOVER misses the point...this is about two of the best pianists in the world passing on to us some of the most wonderful dual piano ever recorded. Buy it and don't worry about the noise on some of the disc...IT WON'T BITE.

This performance is so good you won't even notice it after a couple of plays!!!!!!!!!"

So Long, Beethoven!

R. Pullen | texas | 11/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own the first copy of this recording (on LP) ever distributed in Texas. It was ordered and later bought at the old Record Town Store on Fort Worth's University Drive near TCU. (I have severn copies of this LP record.) Ever since I first heard this piece (in the winter of 1968) almost every other piece of Dussek's closest and more famous rival, the "Wigster", Ludie van Beethoven, pales into insignificance. Very soon, I will be ordering several copies of this CD

Dussek is closer to Mozart and Schubert and Weber in purity of melody. He is closer to Rossini and Verdi in orchestration techniques. In this piece, Dussek "blows away" the Beethoven myth: that lots of notes in endless confusion and a precious few banal themes, equals the genius of Beethoven.

Dussek's themes are sublime. His orchestrations (for the two pianos)are ehereally beautiful, and equal in every way to the very best of W.A. Mozart.



Clue: If you don't like Mozart, don't bother with Dussek.



Before you screw up your ears one more time with some of Beethoven's "banal" creations, hear real genius in sound: Johann Ladislav Dussek, through his marvelous interpreters, Toni and Rosi Grunschlag.

By the way, I absolutely love Beethoven's Symphony No.6 and his Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra. RP"

Schumann and Dussek exquisitely performed

William Paul Delp | Upper West Side, New York, NY | 02/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This cd has exquisite performances of unjustly neglected music by Schumann and Dussek. Pianists Rosi and Toni Grunschlag, conductor Paul Angerer, and the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra perform the Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) Concerto for 2 Pianos in B flat major, Op. 63 (1805-06) with conviction and passion. Their performance is beautifully balanced, richly nuanced, and powerfully compelling. This studio recording was made in Vienna in 1968 and it is finally available now on cd thanks to the admirable and adventurous recording label Centaur Records. The other piece on this exceptionally fine cd is Robert Schumann's Andante and Variations for 2 Pianos, 2 Cellos and Horn in B flat major, Op. 46. It was written in 1843 and is a rich and substantial quintet which is performed and recorded beautifully here by Rosi and Toni Grunschlag, cellists Richard Harand and Günther Weiss, and Wolfgang Tomböck on French Horn. Lovers of Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Dussek, pianos, and music will LOVE this cd!"