2CDs
COMPACT DISC 1 (77.39) Electrola recordings
1. HANDEL Suite No 4 in E minor HWV429 recorded in November 1940
6. BACH/BUSONI Chaconne from Partita No 2 in D minor, BWV1004 recorded on 24 August 1938
7. BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No 28 in A major Op 101 recorded in February 1939
11. SCHUMANN Piano Sonata No 2 in G minor Op 22 recorded in September 1939
15. CHOPIN Nocturne in B major Op 62 No 1 recorded in autumn 1940
16. REGER Silhouetten Op 53 Nos 2 & 6 recorded in February 1939
COMPACT DISC 2 (76.52)
1. BEETHOVEN Bagatelles Op 33 Nos 1 & 4 recorded on 27 June 1942, Telefunken
3. REGER Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Georg Philipp Telemann Op 134 recorded on 5, 6 & 8 December 1951, DGG
5. REGER Piano Concerto in F minor Op 114 STEREO recording HANS ROSBAUD / SÜDWESTFUNK-ORCHESTER BADEN-BADEN recorded on 29 & 30 April 1958, Electrola
Erik Then-Bergh (1916-1982) is almost forgotten today, content as he was to conï¬ne his career, the last twenty years of which were devoted to teaching, to Germany. But to hear this favourite of Furtwängler in his early recordings is to hear playing of the highest order – his combination of superlative technique at the service of deeply profound interpretation can only be compared with the very greatest of artists. We present here his almost complete 78rpm recordings (only a Schumann Kinderszenen on Telefunken is missing) which were mostly made in Germany during the war and hence had little international circulation. Then-Bergh was renowned as a Reger player and in this centenary year of Reger's death, which is also the centenary of Then Bergh's birth, we include his stereo LP recording of the Reger Piano Concerto from 1958 which completes his Reger recordings. Perhaps this quote from 'The Record Book' (USA 1948) reviewing Beethoven's Op101 still sums up Then-Bergh's 78 recordings today: "The performance by a pianist of whom we know nothing, Erik Then-Bergh, is spectacularly fine, and is backed by some of the best reproduction of piano tone we have ever heard".
APR6021 Available on Compact Disc, as a Digital Download and to Stream