Eugene d'Albert: Discography

The tortuous d'Albert discography was finally made straight in 2006 with the release of Arbiter 147, a two-CD set containing d'Albert's complete studio recordings - some never before reissued, and others never reissued on CD. The sound is excellent (for d'Albert, that is) and his exciting playing can finally be appreciated in all its flawed greatness. (The Symposium CDs are still the only source for d'Albert's amazing - and amazingly sloppy - "Emperor" first movement.)

Though there's a great deal of doubt exactly when d'Albert's recording sessions took place, his records' consecutive matrix numbers suggest that he recorded infrequently. There appears to have been:

• one solo Odeon session (matrices xxB 5725 through 5734);
• one or two early Gramophon sessions (1120m through 1126m and 19057L though 19060L - judging from the performances' durations, the difference in these two groups of matrices may simply be 12-inch versus 10-inch sides);
• one later Gramophon session (matrices 461az through 470az);
• one Vox session (matrices 1465 through 1470);
• one Odeon session with Andreas Weissgerber on October 13, 1923 (matrices 6884 and 6885);
• one Parlophone session as conductor; and
• the Deutsches Rundfunk recording of the "Emperor" first movement on December 1, 1930

In addition to his records as pianist, d'Albert made two recordings as conductor: "Zwischenspiel" and "Schau her, das ist ein" from his opera, "Tiefland." Both are included on the Arbiter and Symposium CDs.

(1) IPAM 1206, an essential disk for historical piano fans, is available only through the University of Maryland. Click here for more information from U of M's website. Back

(2) While it's common for a record company to issue a particular recording repeatedly (just think of RCA's myriad repackagings of Horowitz), it may be unprecedented that the reissues are as similar as Symposium 1046 and Symposium 1146. Their first 17 tracks are identical, even down to the order on the CD. The liner notes are also identical, though they've been retyped, and originate not with either CD but with Symposium's two earlier LP reissues of d'Albert, which is why they contain discussions of several performances that aren't on either CD.

The chief difference between the two CDs is the pitch, though it's not always better on the later CD: For instance, while Brahms' Capriccio in B minor is correct - almost - on 1146 but a half-step sharp on 1046, Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" is in E flat on 1146 and correctly pitched in D flat on 1046. The Schubert-Tausig "Marche Militaire" is wrong on both CDs, a half-step sharp on 1046 (D instead of D-flat), and a whole-step sharp on 1146. What transforms this issue from niggling to substantive isn't pitch but tempo: Those items that are pitched sharp are also considerably faster than d'Albert actually played them, giving the performances a more frantic character than they in fact possess. Since d'Albert has a reputation for being somewhat wild, it's not hard to imagine that Symposium's engineers, not knowing the speed of the original recording or the music's key, chose the higher pitch/faster tempo because it seemed more in character with d'Albert's reputation. This would be a case of unintentionally altering the facts to fit the theory.

Nevertheless, die-hard Lisztians will want one of the Symposium CDs, since they're the only source for his "Emperor" concerto first movement. The signal is slightly hotter on 1146, but otherwise the concerto is identical on both CDs. Back

Maintained by Mark Arnest / last revised April 2006

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