From a landmark Janáček album to a previously unpublished Schubert/Mozart recording, this collection presents the Deutsche Grammophon, British and American Decca, and Westminster legacy of Rudolf Firkušný (1912-1994), acclaimed by Stereo Review as "the outstanding champion of Czech piano music on the international circuit".

30 years after his death (on 19 July 1994), there are still works in the piano repertoire that have become indelibly associated with the artistry of Rudolf Firkušný: most of all, the piano works of Leoš Janáček, whom Firkušný knew as a young student in Prague. The pianist went on to make his US debut in 1941, when he played not a repertoire warhorse but the neglected Piano Concerto by Dvořák, under Sir Thomas Beecham. Firkušný made six recordings of the Concerto across the course of a long career; the Westminster version newly remastered here was made in 1963 and conducted by László Somogyi, and has often since been placed at the head of the work's discography along with the version recorded Sviatoslav Richter and Carlos Kleiber.

Firkušný's 1960 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition also attracted favourable comparison with Richter for its plain-spoken virtuosity. It seemed to listeners at the time that the pianist's patrician technique and finely-wrought musicality had been rounded out by a new passion to his playing in what became the middle of his career. Although record labels tended to pigeonhole Firkušný in Czech repertoire, his sympathies were wide, as the span of this set suggests. His 1973 recording of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto on Decca (with the New Philharmonia under Uri Segal) has been forgotten, though reviewers at the time thought it was finer than the more familiar Capitol recording with William Steinberg.

A 1974 album of sonatas further underlines his Beethovenian credentials, though he had already established them on Decca in a partnership with the violinist Erica Morini which yielded four albums. This Eloquence set demonstrates the truth of Tully Potter's verdict: "Of all the notable 20th-century Czech pianists, Firkušný was surely the greatest".

Perhaps most valuable of all is the inclusion of previously unreleased recordings of Mozart's Dupont Variations and Schubert's final Piano Sonata in B flat, D960. These were made in January 1963 for the American branch of Decca, but then shelved for reasons unknown. They present Firkušný at the peak of his powers, his phrasing typically natural and unostentatious. An essay by Jed Distler surveys Firkušný's life and career in the context of the albums newly remastered within this Original Jackets collection.

"Firkusny is a sensitive, intellectual pianist, and his refined musical playing falls very pleasantly on the ear. He plays [Pictures] remarkably well ... The Ravel pieces are beautifully done too, and as the recording quality is quite outstandingly good, this would seem to be a disc to recommend unreservedly." - Gramophone, August 1961 (Mussorgsky, Ravel)

"This rendering of the Pictures is conceived on a large canvas, broad and unhurried throughout ... And while the dimensions of Firkusny's reading are unquestionably large throughout, he brings a certain salon-like lucidity to bear on the writing ... The Jeux d'eau and Miroirs excerpt are lucid and shimmering." - High Fidelity, September 1961 (Mussorgsky, Ravel)

"Erica Morini and Rudolf Firkusny make an ideal sonata team, and the combination of their strong individual personalities results in music making of the highest order." - Stereo Review, November 1961 (Mozart & Franck: Violin Sonatas)

"Firkusny plays Janacek's music as if it were his own. One is seldom even aware of him as an interpreter, so naturally does everything flow under his incredibly precise fingers ... It is strong, idiomatic playing, affectionate but never sentimental, sturdy but not rough, expressive but not mannered." - High Fidelity, June 1972 (Janáček)

"Rudolf Firkusny ... produces seamless legato lines, hammerless tone and rapt atmosphere" - Penguin Guide

"This intense and alert performance, remarkable not only for energy and drive but for jewelled clarity of finger-work ... Uri Segal, developing rapidly as a sensitive concerto conductor is plainly the most sympathetic of accompanists." - Gramophone, June 1974 (Beethoven: Concerto no.5)