Plenty Piano

By TERRY TEACHOUT

Arthur Rubinstein's career was a gaudy parade of superlatives. After Vladimir Horowitz, he was the 20th century's most famous classical pianist as well as a world-renowned bon vivant on speaking terms with everyone from Henry James to Golda Meir. In old age he wrote two best-selling memoirs that recounted a Kennedyesque sex life. He played his last concert in 1976 at the age of 89--then left his wife for another woman.

RCA's 94-CD limited-edition The Rubinstein Collection (list price: $1,600) is perhaps the biggest box set ever devoted to a single artist. It contains 706 recordings made between 1928 and 1976, including most of the music of Chopin, three versions of the complete Beethoven piano concertos and plenty of chamber music, plus a 305-page booklet full of adoring essays by admiring colleagues, critics and relatives.

Though avid fans with cash to spare will want to spring for the full set, others interested in hearing a major artist at the peak of his powers should stand by for the release of individual volumes, starting next year. The bulk of The Rubinstein Collection is given over to later performances that too often are cautious, occasionally even bland. But the first 11 discs, recorded in the '20s and '30s and exquisitely remastered by Ward Marston, sizzle with the devil-may-care brio that made Rubinstein the best-loved pianist of his generation.

--By Terry Teachout