Credits:

Abbey Simon

Description:

It is said that Api Simon (19202019), who was born in New York, could perfectly reproduce on the piano any music he heard on the radio at the age of three. He studied under Josef Hofmann and felt a strong affinity for the works of composers who were also virtuoso pianists, such as Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Despite his extraordinary technical skill, he never made a show of it; instead, his performances were characterized by a delicate, ephemeral poetic sensibility. Harold Schonberg, known as a harsh critic, praised him as a super-virtuoso. His complete recording of Rachmaninoffs piano concertos, performed with Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony, can rightly be called Simons finest legacy.The No. 2 & No. 3 (VOXNX3014CD), released previously in the Audiophile Edition series, showed significant improvements in sound quality compared to the older recordings: the piano and orchestra have lost their