Nojima Plays Liszt (2 LP)

Nojima Plays Liszt is one of the reference recordings bestsellers. The recording from 1986 is considered one of the best piano recordings of all time. The analog recording was produced by "Prof." Keith Johnson, who received the award "Best Recording of the Month" from the "Stereo Review" when it was first published.

Minoru Nojima is one of the most internationally known pianists from Japan. The 45 double LP appears on 180g vinyl in a gatefold cover and, in addition to the music of the original album, receives a title from the album Nojima Plays Ravel .

180-gram or 200-gram pressing - a question that is not that easy.

For identical titles from Reference Recordings, there are covers labeled 180 g containing LPs that weigh around 200 g, and vice versa. This is due to the fact that the commissioned pressing plants QRT and RTI in the USA specify a 10 percent tolerance for weight on the one hand and then occasionally simply get the orders mixed up. In terms of sound, the pressings do not differ.

With a brilliant and tonally extremely dynamic approach, Nojima proves on the one hand his origins from Lev Oborin's Russian piano school, who was his teacher in the 60s, on the other hand there is also an American-factual tone when it comes to clarifying the ramifications within the tonal Building the sonata goes. [...] To top off the original, Reference Recordings decided on a 45 double vinyl in half-speed mastering, which Paul Stubblebine prepared for sound using every trick in the book, and at Quality Records Pressings on wonderfully flat and Noise-free vinyl was pressed. In 1988, as in 2016, it was a must for the audiophile piano fanatic. - Roland Schmenner, FIDELITY, March/April 2017 edition

The real main reason for the legend about this record is the sound quality. And even if one or the other well-produced classic record has been added in the thirty years since the recording: the legend is true. You have seldom heard a large concert grand piano sounding so big and at the same time absolutely homogeneous. Everything is just right here: the balance between attack and decay, between strings and body of the instrument. The microphone position, everything. The only minus point: the one-part sonata had to be distributed over two sides of the 45-cut record due to its length. [...] The new edition of Reference Recordings corresponds in every respect to the original, which was already an audiophile production. - Thomas Schmidt, LP, edition 3/2017

Track-list:

Side A

1. Mephisto Waltz # 1

2. La Campanella

Side B

3. Feux follets

4. Harmonies du soir

Side C

5. Sonata in B minor - beginning

Side D

6. Sonata in B minor - conclusion

7. Ravel: Alborada del gracioso