The Complete Vox: Turnabout and Vanguard Solo Recordings [25-35]

I was really looking forward to this set being released and it happened in short order after the Maestro's retirement tour. I suppose it is a last chance for Vox/Turnabout to milk the gravy train. I bought the set elsewhere (at less than half the price Amazon are charging) but I have to say I am very disappointed with the production values of the set. The discs come in 35 pretty dull cheap card sleeves inside an even cheaper corrugated cardboard box with minimal printing (of the sort of disposable quality you get perishable food in at the supermarket). It includes a 16 page booklet that doesn't even have an index of the works included in the set. The only way to find what is in the box is to tip out all 35 CDs (they aren't even easy to get out of the box any other way) and then look at the discs one by one. Very, very poor quality IMHO. The CD covers don't even have an edge ID so that you can't chuck the box and stand them on a shelf and see at a glance what is there. All in all it is a very cheaply produced set that shows no thought other than "hand over your cash". For comparison I recently bought the Glenn Gould Original Jacket Collection which was about the same price but included 80 CDs in fantastic quality packaging, a beautiful hardback index book of the whole set and wonderfully reproduced mini-LP covers that feel as though they look after the discs (not just cheap card sleeves). The recordings are as they were recorded - a lot of them from the 1950s. I haven't listened to them all yet but the ones I have listened too are obviously from old tape masters that have not been cleaned up in any way because in the quiet passages you can here 'future echoes' of the next few bars as the magnetic info has transferred from one part to another in the spooled tapes. Some also have a 'tired tape' feel to them. It is a shame but it it doesn't detract too much from the performances. Having said all that I loved these recordings when I was younger and bought many of them on vinyl in the 70s and mostly wore them out. These are not the current Brendel style. None of the elder statesman playing Haydn and Mozart here. This set is full of passion, virtuosity and bravura. His playing is totally engaging and you feel at times that he his pushing so hard that it practically tips of the edge. Quite brilliant Liszt and Beethoven in particular. As a record of Brendel at his youthful best (and in my opinion his most exciting) this is worth having in any CD collection. Just a shame they couldn't pay a bit more respect to one of the 20th (and 21st) century outstanding pianists. My overall rating is 4 stars because of the brilliant performances. However I would break this down as: Performance: outstanding, 5 stars Recording quality: variable, 2-4 stars Product packaging and information: rubbish, 0 stars