Rudolf Firkusny

Complete RCA.. Rudolf Firkusny

The first ever release of Rudolf Firkusný's complete RCA and Columbia recordings from 1949 to 1993 in a single 18 CD edition. 9 LPs appearing for the first time on CD, remastered from the original analog masters using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology. Facsimiles LP-sleeves and -labels, booklet with full discographical notes

"An Aristocrat among pianists" Rudolf Firkusný's RCA and American Columbia Recordings. To mark the 25th anniversary of the renowned Czech pianist's death, Sony Classical proudly presents a comprehensive collection of the recordings made by Rudolf Firkusný for American Columbia and RCA Red Seal between 1949 and 1993.

Born in 1912 in Napajedla (Moravia), Firkusný was taught by some of the outstanding musical figures of his time: piano and composition in Brno for ten years by Janácek (who exclaimed about him: "Such talent is born once in a century"), piano by Vilém Kurz in Prague, and composition by Dvorák's son-in-law Josef Suk, also in Prague. Later - thanks to support from Tomás Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's first president - he studied piano with Alfred Cortot in Paris and with Artur Schnabel in Berlin and Italy.

During the 1930s Firkusný achieved international fame as an interpreter of the core concerto, chamber and solo repertoire. But his unique reputation today rests chiefly on his unequalled mastery in the piano music of his Czech compatriots Dvorák, Janácek and Martinu. "If you have not heard Firkusný in these works," wrote one critic in 1995, "you have not really heard them at all." He was often referred to as "the world's foremost exponent of Czech music".