This is the best -- the noblest, the grandest, the most tragic -- Ballade in G minor ever recorded. This is the best -- the most virtuostic, the most colorful, the most imaginative -- set of Book I Preludes ever recorded. This is the best -- the most Romantic, the most heartfelt, the funniest -- Carnaval ever recorded. This is the best -- the most elegant, the most witty, the most athletic -- recording of
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 ever recorded. This is the best -- the most brooding, the most violent, the most consoling -- set of
Brahms Ballades ever recorded. This is the best -- the most loving, the most awe-inspiring, the most transcendent -- "Emperor" Concerto ever recorded. This is the best -- the subtlest, the most sorrowful, the most sublime -- set of
Chopin mazurkas ever recorded. And on and on and on. While there are some performances here that are not the best ever recorded, this box of recordings by
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli from 1957 through 1990 is arguably the greatest single set of piano recordings ever released. And while there have been a few better recordings than
Michelangeli's of the four
Mozart piano concertos,
Michelangeli's are at such an extraordinarily high level, so beautifully toned and so ethereally interpreted, that they are still among the best ever recorded. And while there have been more passionate recordings of
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3,
Michelangeli's is so brilliantly played that passion would only be an untoward intrusion in
Michelangeli's ideal world. But as for the rest, these are simply the best piano performances of the works ever recorded. And the remastered sound is the best any of them have ever had. This is absolutely essential for every man, woman, and child.