It was in Paris in 1924 that Alexander Brailowsky first presented a series of six concerts he devised containing all 169 solo piano works by Chopin, using the composer’s own piano for part of the recital. He repeated this program in Brussels, Zürich, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and established a reputation as a Chopin specialist, even though his wide repertoire ranged from Bach to Bartok.

Between 1928 and 1934 he recording extensively for Polydor in Germany, and it is only fitting that the works of Chopin featured more often than those of any other composer. Here Mark Obert-Thorn has brought together all of those Polydor Chopin sides in fabulous new transfers for Pristine.

The first disc features the Piano Concerto No. 1 and Second Sonata, whilst the rest of this two disc set offers a cornucopia of waltzes, preludes, etudes and other shorter works. Take a listen to our online sample, the Ballade No. 1, to hear just how good Brailowsky's Chopin can sound - it really is tremendous!

"This record originates from the early 1950s and held its own in the catalogue for many years. It still strikes me as a performance of great warmth and has more spontaneity, I think, than Horenstein's recent version with the LSO, admirable though that is in so many respects... I must confess that despite the poor recording I have derived more pleasure from listening to this warm-hearted and well-judged reading than I have from many of the more recent versions." - The Gramophone, 1971

So, a great performance - as you'd expect from Horenstein's Mahler - but in less than stellar sound? Not any longer, thanks to this new XR remastering for Pristine by Andrew Rose. Misha Horenstein, who has contributed sleevenotes, had this to say when he first heard this new remaster:

"Excellent, more resonance in the low frequencies, less strident and harsh in the upper ones, with clear mid-range definition and an alluring spaciousness and immediacy that wasn't there before. This was always a problematic recording because of its boxy, congested sound, so your restoration is a real spring clean, like clearing out years of accumulated grime."

"A rousing performance ... Mr. Stokowski led a dramatic performance that had special drive and crispness in the scherzo and that built up into a series of big climaxes in the last movement." - New York Times, 1941

Never previously issued, and with only the final movement broadcast by NBC in 1941, this fabulous performance of Beethoven's Ninth 'Choral' Symphony - itself something of a rarity in Stokowski's recorded output - has only ever been heard by those who attended the concert at New York's Cosmopolitan Opera House on Armistice Day in 1941, exactly one month before the USA entered the Second World War.

Now for the first time Pristine has brought together that broadcast recording with an in-house line recording of the first three movements, captured in stunning sound quality, to present only the fourth Beethoven Ninth in Stokowski's commercially available output - astonishing for a prolific studio career which stretched from 1917 to 1977. It's a very special recording: ""he chose a solemn day in a momentous time to set forth once more Beethoven’s affirmation of the brotherhood of man." (NY Times)