In 2006, Vanguard Classics, under the aegis of its owner Artemis Classics, issued this two-disc set Louis Moreau Gottschalk: The Complete Vanguard Classics Recordings. This is a little vexing, as in 2004 the label also issued Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Works for Piano, which is exactly the same thing except that it has an uglier front cover derived from an LP design that was better off forgotten. In its time, pianist
Eugene List's 1956 Vanguard recording of the piano music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk touched off a revolution. No twentieth century pianist did more for Gottschalk's cause than
List, who approached this music with respect, care, and a scholarly understanding of it, which was still highly unusual in the '50s. However, in the twenty first century it is clear that a better interpretive mousetrap for some Gottschalk pieces has been built, and curiously classical music critics, particularly those in America, have resisted the bait, continuing to bolster the reputation of these old Vanguard recordings at the expense of others who might try.
Cecile Licad's recording on Naxos, although excoriated without reservation by the American Record Guide's Donald Vroon, is still the best single-disc recording of Gottschalk's piano music in recent times; she alone gets the stylistic connection between Gottschalk and
Chopin and interprets the music accordingly. The multi-disc series on Hyperion is also quite good for the Gottschalk specialist, as it brings us many things we wouldn't have otherwise. By comparison, the second disc in this set is an antique -- no one who has heard A Night in the Tropics in its reconstituted original orchestration performed by
Richard Rosenberg and the Hot Springs Music Festival is going to take much satisfaction in the quaint and underpowered incarnation presented here. Moreover, the version of L'Union for piano four-hands (actually played by six) is a train wreck.
That leaves the first disc with
List alone, which is still excellent in its way and well worth one's time. Nevertheless, one has to wonder, with all of the excellent tapes remaining in the Vanguard vault that Artemis Classics has never touched, why this is coming around again. Consumers not wanting Louis Moreau Gottschalk: The Complete Vanguard Classics Recordings with a dark brown cover and an ugly painting on the front are encouraged to seek out the earlier issue. Nevertheless, rest assured that the earlier Louis Moreau Gottschalk: Works for Piano is every bit as "complete" as this one, and there is no need to own both.