Deutsche Grammophon’s original-image-bit-processing renders this material in more impactive, detailed sound than previous CD issues. Granted, we glean more subtlties of color, touch, and pedaling from this pianist’s prodigious palette, but the sonic revelations do not alter my long-held notions about the performances: positive, negative, or mixed. As I pointed out in my review of the second Michelangeli compilation in Philips’ “Great Pianists” series, Michelangeli’s “mad scientist” approach to Beethoven’s E-flat Sonata Op. 7 probes each phrase with a microscope, dissects it, than pickles it in formaldehyde. By contrast, the pianist projects Brahms’ Op. 10 Ballades at his concentrated best, bringing out their stark, poetic qualities with a brand of pianistic refinement that in this case truly matches what the music is saying. Don’t look for surface charm in Michelangeli’s large-scaled, rather unsmiling Schubert A minor Sonata (D. 537, also known as Op. posth. 164); nevertheless, it’s an astonishing performance in terms of its even fingerwork and frighteningly calibrated voicing. If you’ve wanted these controversial recordings, this is the edition to have.
