CCMusic.com

German pianist Elly Ney's posthumous reputation has, perhaps justifiably, been tarnished by her links to the Nazi regime, but 80 years on it's easier to focus on her pianism and acknowledge she was one of the finest pianists of her generation. A previous APR release (APR7311) presented her interpreting a wide range of composers, but she came to be regarded as one of the great interpreters of the Austro-German repertoire and here she tackles two of the masterworks, including a monumental performance of the Brahms Second Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the first version recorded by a woman. Brahms specialist, Max Fiedler, ostensibly conducts, though our booklet note reveals Alois Melichar as the uncredited conductor who completed the project after Fiedler's sudden death. The suite of Schubert dances which completes the release appears never to have been reissued before.