Josef Hofmann is considered by many of his peers to be the greatest pianist of his time. This 2-disc set, with notes by Harold Schonberg, chronicles Hofmann's career later in life containing material never before heard on CD.

The culmination of over a decade of releases, Marston is issuing the final volume of the complete Josef Hofmann recordings. Hofmann combined unparalleled virtuosity with emotion, understanding, and spontaneity to create some of the finest piano playing ever recorded. This set begins with newly mastered transfers of the three wax cylinders from 1896, originally released on our three-CD set The Dawn of Recording. Using new pitch stabilization technology, we have been able to improve, albeit slightly, the sonic reproduction of the cylinders recorded in Russia by the twenty year-old Hofmann, shortly following the death of his teacher, Anton Rubinstein. Included on this final volume are several alternative takes of Columbia and Brunswick recordings not offered on earlier volumes, the soundtrack of the film produced by the Bell Telephone Company that was shown in movie theaters to promote their radio program, “The Telephone Hour”, as well as a recently discovered, superior-sounding, source for the Cadillac Hour program from 1936, in which Hofmann gives a spectacular performance of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”. We issued this broadcast on volume six, but we want to make sure that Hofmann enthusiasts have the opportunity to own this better-sounding source. We have waited several years to produce this set, hoping to be able to discover further broadcast recordings of Hofmann in the interim (notes for the set will include a listing of Hofmann broadcasts which we know were recorded). As none of the eagerly-sought recordings have appeared, we are going ahead with some non-musical recordings concerning Hofmann. Half of the set will feature a collection of recorded interviews, conducted mostly by Gregor Benko. In these, which date back to the 1970s, we hear fascinating commentary by Rudolph Ganz, Jorge Bolet, Charles Rosen, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Glenn Gould, Constance Keene, Nella Rubinstein, Ruth Steinway, and Hofmann’s son, Anton, speaking candidly about  Hofmann the pianist and Hofmann the man. One interview, with a minor pianist whose name will be unfamiliar to most, Thadeus Sadlowski, is both fascinating and funny (while most of them are anything but funny.) Choosing these interviews from the large number that Gregor Benko collected and recorded, then editing them for content, has taken hundreds of hours of intense work, and we feel that they make a fitting finale to the complete Josef Hofmann CD series. We will never cease our search for additional Hofmann recordings, which if discovered, we will make every effort to publish.

Josef Hofmann is arguably this century's greatest pianist. His memory was infallible, his repertoire was almost limitless and his technique was flawless. Hofmann is a legend and his final Casimir Hall Recital on 7 April 1938 is the pinnacle of a remarkable career. It is no wonder that this is one of the most anticipated piano recordings to debut on CD. Also included on this, the sixth in a series of nine volumes of the complete works of Josef Hofmann, is a 1936 broadcast of Beethoven's “Moonlight” Sonata which has never before been issued and an unforgettable 1941 performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, op. 58. With great pride, I present one of the most important CD sets that we have produced. --Ward Marston

Josef Hofmann was arguably the 20th Century’s greatest pianist. Hofmann combined unparalleled virtuosity with emotion, understanding, and spontaneity to create some of the finest piano playing ever recorded. This two-CD set, the seventh edition of the Complete Josef Hofmann series, contains long-awaited and legendary performances: a Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulous, a Beethoven “Emperor” concerto conducted by Hans Lange, and other concerto-movement excerpts from the Ford and Bell Telephone broadcasts. This set is a necessary addition to any piano-lover’s CD collection, and demonstrates the genius that is Hofmann.

Josef Hofmann combined unparalleled virtuosity with emotion, understanding, and spontaneity to create some of the finest piano playing ever recorded. This set contains Hofmann's first extant broadcast of Beethoven's 4th conducted by Eugene Ormandy, and Anton Rubinstein's 3rd and 4th Concerti with Artur Rodzinski and Karl Krueger conducting. This two-CD set is the penultimate release of the complete Josef Hofmann.

Starting in 1889, what is now recognized as one of the earliest dates to record music, Julius Block recorded some of the most important artists and personalities of his time on cylinder. His cylinders range in date from 1889 to 1927, and were recorded in Russia, Germany, and Switzerland. Our three-CD set includes artists who have previously remained “silent” and will change the conception of many artists whose discography up until now were thought to be complete. These are the only known recordings of Anton Arensky, Paul Pabst, Sergei Taneyev, Leo Conus, Jules Conus, Anna Essipova, Jan Hrimaly, Anatoly Brandukov, Elizaveta Lavrovskaya, and Paul Juon. These are also the earliest surviving recordings of Josef Hofmann, Nikolai Figner, Eddy Brown, and Egon Petri. There are also recordings of the 11-year-old Heifetz one week after his sensational debut with Arthur Nikisch and the Berlin Philharmonic, which adds four pieces to Heifetz's discography. And, they include the first recorded performances of Bach, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, and Arensky.

Among all of the great performances of Wagner’s final opera, this performance of Parsifal from the stage of the Met has been for years one of the holy grails for Wagner enthusiasts, for until now, this broadcast had never been issued in its complete form. It represents the only time that Parsifal with the great Wagnerian duo, Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior, was broadcast and preserved. It has none of the customary cuts that afflict other Wagner performances from this era with all cast members in excellent voice. The transfers were made from original discs recorded off the air by a New York recording studio, and we are proud to present this important performance for the first time. The two other principals are Friedrich Schorr and Emanuel List. During this time, the Metropolitan’s Wagner opera performances were conducted by Austrian conductor, Artur Bodanzky. But on this Good Friday, because of ill health, his doctors insisted that he conduct only the first and third acts; Act 2 is ably conducted by his then assistant, Erich Leinsdorf.

Josef Lhevinne studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Vasily Safonov, made his public debut at fourteen in a performance conducted by Anton Rubinstein, and graduated top of a class that included both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin. Lhevinne is often included as one of the greatest golden-era pianists, and yet, his recorded legacy is approximately fifty minutes of repertoire for Pathé and Victor, albeit treasured and admired. And not unlike a star whose light went out too soon, the public created a mythos based on a small output and clamors for more examples of his playing to further justify his reputation. The wait is now over.

In addition to the Pathé and Victor recordings, this release includes a 1943 New York broadcast of Brahms's Op. 25 Piano Quartet with Lhevinne and the Perolé String Quartet, which is the cornerstone of this release. Also included will be several studio broadcasts from the 1930s. Among these broadcasts will be the second and third movements of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 from an NBC studio broadcast of 1933, which has been in the hands of collectors for many years. However, we now have a nearly complete performance of this work: Josef Lhevinne featured in this concerto during a Worcester Festival concert in 1936. It should be noted that for unknown reasons the first four minutes of the concerto were not recorded and despite recording flaws, this recording does give us a sense of Lhevinne's unique brilliance. This set will be a must for anyone collecting recordings of pianists of the golden age.