Martha Argerich, Claudio Abbado - Complete Concerto Recordings (2015)

Avid collectors of pianist Martha Argerich's recordings will already own most or all of the concerto performances in this 2015 box set from Deutsche Grammophon. Her collaborations with conductor Claudio Abbado dated back to the 1967 studio recordings of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, and extended up to the 2013 live recordings at the Lucerne Easter Festival of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, and the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Between these points, they recorded the first piano concertos of Chopin, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky, Beethoven's second and third, and even a second performance of the Ravel, touching on key works in the repertoire without being comprehensive in the genre. The performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra Mozart all feature Deutsche Grammophon's exceptional sound quality, though there is some variability in volume levels from disc to disc. Fans of their musical partnership may want this set as a special keepsake, though the long availability of most of these recordings limits demand for this package.