To All:  Further to my letter in response to Terry Smythe's questions
about the new Philips "Great Recordings" series.

There are by actual count (I have the "sampler" booklet) 71 pianists,
who will be represented, it is true, by 200 CD's.  However, as all of
the material is contained in "two-fers" (2 CD's for the price of one),
there are actually 100 2-CD sets to be produced.  I say "to be" because
26 of the total will have two or three issues, the 2nd and 3rd items
scheduled to appear either this month, in June or in August.  One or
two have been listed, but there are as yet no issues available for them
(Cortot and Serkin; Hofmann's is announced for August, but no repertory
is given).

In general, most bases have been covered with a few puzzling issues and
a couple of glaring omissions.  Example:  the Ukrainian piano duo:
Bruk and Taimonov, (unknown to most American enthusiasts; why not
Vronsky and Babin instead...surely the most perfect "duo" in our
listening experience). Yevgeny Kissin (true, a remarkable artist, but
not yet "seasoned" enough to be considered "great".)

The most difficult-to-understand "leftouts" are Stephen Hough and
Marc-Andre Hamelin.  Both pianists are supreme artists and have dealt
at length on records with the work of many of the composers liberally
represented on reproducing piano rolls.

But it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback.  In sum, a worthy
effort, which restores some historic recordings to general
availability.

Albert M. Petrak