It is obviously not the sentimental aspect of Rachmaninov's music that has attracted Zoltan Kocsis to record all of the piano concertos for Philips. His view of the composer is more involved with making an impact through spine-tingling virtuosity, balanced by moments of poetic insight.

It is obviously not the sentimental aspect of Rachmaninov's music that has attracted Zoltan Kocsis to record all of the piano concertos for Philips. His view of the composer is more involved with making an impact through spine-tingling virtuosity, balanced by moments of poetic insight.

All of Rachmaninov’s music - from his earliest student compositions to his final masterpieces – has been collected together for the first time on 32 CDs, in what is definitively the most complete and comprehensive edition of Rachmaninov’s works ever released.

This is quite simply one of the most important and consistently superbly executed recording projects of all time. Bartók's piano music isn't exactly overrepresented on disc, being as it is without doubt one of the most important piano oeuvres ever composed, and in the hand of Zoltán Kocsis, doubtlessly one of the greatest pianists alive today, one should expect some superb discs where the works at long last receive the treatment they deserve. In fact, the actual result surpasses any possible expectations.

Decca presents the Complete Philips Recordings of Zoltán Kocsis on 26 CDs with the original jackets. Bringing together Kocsis' benchmark recordings of Bartók's solo piano works, acclaimed recordings of Bach's Art of Fugue, Chopin, Debussy and Dohnányi; Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Bartók concertos; a disc of piano transcriptions by Liszt and Kocsis of Wagner; and the first CD release of Greig's Sonata in E minor.

Excerpts from Wagner operas have, on countless occasions, been transcribed for piano. A fairly long list of transcribers could be made, starting with Joseph Rubinstein, the first transcriber of an extract from Parsifal, going on through Bülow to Brassin, then from Carl Tausig to August Stradal, to speak only of those who were pupils of Liszt. It is an established fact that Liszt, the greatest master of transcription and paraphrase, made very little use of Wagner’s works. In this highly-regarded recording the transcription honours are shared between Liszt and Kocsis.