Blöndal Bengtsson: Beethoven Complete Cello Music - Danacord (3LP box set), MINT

$

140

redgarnett Store ITEM DESCRIPTION:

This extraordinary 3LP box set – a breathtakingly fine, unplayed copy – from Danacord (DACO 231-233, Danish pressing, stereo, full-size booklet included) features Erling Blöndal Bengtsson's outstanding survey of Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano, record at Borups Hojskole, Copenhagen during 3-8 July 1984 with pianist Anker Blyme, one of the great cycles on record, one that can be spoken of in the same breath as those by Rostropovich/Richter (Philips), Fournier/Gulda (DG), Casals/Serking (Sony), and Du Pré/Barenboim (EMI). Moreover, these remarkable artists are beautifully recorded.

If there exists a finer copy anywhere, I should like to see it – this copy is truly magnificent.

Included are the following works of Beethoven:

Cello Sonata No. 1 in F Major Op. 5 No. 1

Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor Op. 5 No. 2

Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major Op. 69

Cello Sonata No. 4 in C Major Op. 102 No. 1

Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major Op. 102 No. 2

12 Variations for Cello and Piano in F Major Op. 66 on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' from Mozart's The Magic Flute

7 Variations for Cello and Piano WoO 46 on 'Bei Männern' from Mozart's The Magic Flute

12 Variations for Cello and Piano in G Major WoO 45 on a Theme from Handel's Judas Macchabée

Included is a full-size 4-page booklet with extensive notes on the music, artist biographies, and full timings for all movements. All titles/texts are provided in English.

On Danacord's superb website one can find this eloquent portrait, and appreciation of, Blöndal Bengtsson's artistry by Lotte Bichel:

"When at the age of three Erling Blöndal Bengtsson was given a violin by his father, his immediate instinct was to position it between his knees. However much his father protested, he could not be persuaded to hold it under his chin. The boy was adamant, and just six months later he gave his first public recital, on a viola with an end-pin attached to it.

"Seven years later he was allowed to make his debut with an orchestra in Copenhagen's Tivoli Concert Hall where, in the summer of 1992, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson was celebrated on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, the fiftieth anniversary of his debut, and as the greatest living Danish cellist - if not one of the finest anywhere, with his bnght, slender tone, at once elegantly nimble and glowing with concentration and pained recognition.

"'The born cellist' is no hackneyed cliche when applied to Blöndal Bengtsson. He found it all so easy that he could make do with one hour's practice a day as a child - and indeed no more was asked of him by his violinist father and exceptionally musical mother, an Icelandic woman straight out of the ancient sagas.

"In 1948, just sixteen years old, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson travelled to Philadelphia to take up studies with the pre-eminent cellist of the time, the Russianborn Gregor Piatigorsky. Just one year later he became Piatigorsky's assistant at the Curtis Institute of Music, and the year after that he had succeeded him as teacher at the Institute.

"He stayed in the United States for five years before letting himself be tempted back to a teaching job at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He was appointed professor at the age of 29, and has during the course of a career spanning almost 40 years become a role-model for a whole family of young cellists playing in Denmark and abroad, while at the same time tending his own soloist career.

"Between 1958 and 1978 he was also attached to the Swedish State Radio School of Music in Stockholm; he was a professor at the Musikhochschule in Cologne from 1978 to 1982, and continues regularly to give masterclasses at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, at Aldeburgh, Sion, and in Scandinavia.

"In 1990 he moved back to the United States to take up a professorship at one of North Amenca's leading centres of music, The University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor.

"Blöndal Bengtsson's repertoire is just as all-encompassing as his teaching activities. Much of it has been recorded; the complete Bach solo suites and the Beethoven sonatas, solo works by Reger and Ysaye, cello concertos by Boccherini, Haydn, Schumann, Dvorák, Lalo, Saint-Saens and Tchaikovsky, but also much contemporary music. His insatiable curiosity about modern music has resulted in the first performance of a number of Scandinavian cello concertos, many of which are also dedicated to him, including those of Niels Viggo Bentzon, Vagn Holmboe, Herman D. Koppel, Jan Maegaard and Jon Nordal. He has played the Danish premieres of concertos by Britten, Barber, Khatchaturian, Delius, Lutoslawski and Walton, and indeed the latter two have themselves conducted performances with Blöndal Bengtsson as soloist.

"For a number of years he has been playing 60 - 70 concerts a year, in Europe, the United States, and the former Soviet Union, and he has appeared with all the main Scandinavian orchestras and numerous foreign ones, including the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) Philharmonic, and the Salzburg Mozarteum, with conductors such as Sir Malcolm Sargent, Pierre Monteux, Nicolai Malko, Hans Schmidt-lsserstedt, Paavo Berglund, Sixten Ehrling and Yuri Temirkanov.

"And Blöndal Bengtsson's audiences value him. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and has been awarded the Danish "Discophile" prize of 1958 and the Hyam Morrison Medal for Cello in Gold in 1957, among many other prizes. He is also First Knight of the Danish Order of Dannebrog, and Commander of the Icelandic Order of Falcon."

CONDITION:

The gradations of condition I use are as follows: MINT, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.

The condition of the box is MINT.  Really, there are no flaws to speak of whatsoever and box appears AS NEW – an outstanding collector's copy.

The condition of the full-size 4-page booklet is MINT. Again, there are no flaws to speak of – the pages are bright and crisp, the binding perfect.

The condition of the 3 LPs is MINT throughout. These are new, pristine unplayed copies – absolutely ideal collector's copies.

PLEASE NOTE:
This LP has been carefully cleaned using a VPI cleaning machine. All LPs are provided with a new Nagaoka (or Nagaoka-style) inner sleeve. The images I've provided are of the actual item you are potentially bidding on - these are not stock images or images I've taken from other sites. Bid with confidence!

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