The World's Favorite Piano Music

 (24 customer reviews)

I've purchase this recording three times before because I keep wearing them out! The first time I bought it on 8Track tape. I had to sit in our Volkswagen to play it, and my father was worried I'd wear down the car battery, but I couldn't help but listen over and over and over. It's truly a beautiful collection, that I'd recommend to everyone!

This is the greatest compilation of recordings ever made by the legendary pianist Van Cliburn. Although I am a cellist, I wear this cd out on a regular basis both at the office and home. I actually have an extra copy to play at the office. All of these recordings are superb in sound quality, performance and incredibly inspiring. The Schumann, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Liszt pieces are stellar and my personal favorites. I only wish there were dvd's with Cliburn's performances for those of us too young to have seen him perform live. CD is a must-have for any classical music lover's collection.

I first saw Van Cliburn perform the third movement of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto on television when I was a teenager--at the end of the piece, there was about 1/2 second delay before the audience was CHEERING!!! I recently bought this CD because it has some music that I really don't like (such as Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca", Lizt's "Liebestraum," Debussy's "Reverie," for example.) I have heard most of these compositions played by other performers (as I myself have played them all, over and over at the insistance of my teachers)--hence, the reason I didn't like them. But, that is what separates a genius like Cliburn from hackers (myself at the proverbial bottom.) His "Rondo alla turca" is so expressive that at the closing (including the sixteenth note parallel octaves) to the beautiful chords--well, Cliburn makes the piano sound like a combination of a piano, harp, and orchestral chimes!!! His performance of "Liebestraum"...Read more