Byron Janis (b1928) was born in Pennsylvania to Polish-Russian Jewish parents, and is one of a remarkable group of American virtuoso pianists that include Leon Fleischer, Gary Graffman, Julius Katchen and Raymond Lewenthal. Janis’s playing was high voltage, platinum plated, and the recordings on this 4CD set illustrate clearly why he was and still is held in such high regard.

He was Horowitz’s first student, and he rocketed to fame by being the first American pianist to go to Moscow and Leningrad in 1960 at a time of high tension in the Cold War. He married the daughter of Gary Cooper (Maria Cooper was a successful artist) and so was brushed by Hollywood aristocracy. His last recording was made in 1970 for EMI and Bryce Morrison wrote in Gramophone ‘in every sense a true romantic..beneath a now frail exterior burns an inner light of an overwhelming and transcending strength’ Very much an intuitive Slavic pianist rather than a Teutonic intellectual, he epitomises Chopin’s exhortation to ‘play with all your soul’.

‘Janis certainly storms the work with all the resources of his big technique, yet at the same time the performance is by no means without style’ - Gramophone (Rachmaninov 3), 1962

‘And the performance? Given the approach, it is as outstanding as the recorded sound. Byron Janis rises to a phenomenal pitch of virtuosity, which brings to mind the shattering rapidity and precision of Horowitz; his machine-gun delivery of the battering octave passages takes one's breath away, while his flawless finger dexterity in the central - section of the slow movement flashes past at an incredible speed which leaves the ear toiling in pursuit’ - Gramophone (Tchaikovsky 1), 1962