Scott Joplin Music

This guy is light on his fingers. I don't think I have ever heard Maple-leaf rag played so quickly and well. After you have heard this, it makes most other Joplin CDs boring.

After watching "The Sting" in 1973 it was over with.... no, it was just beginning. A foray into the record store was immediately followed by purchasing this album. I now happily own the cd, and Rifkin's playing still sounds fresh even though Joplin wrote it a hundred years ago.

I bought the original on vinyl 30+ years ago. I loved it so much I bought a half dozen copies for friends and relatives. I wore it out and bought another album a year later. I had occasion to listen to it for the first time in years so bought the CD. What beautiful music!

I have had Joshua Rifkin's Scott Joplin Piano Rags for more than 20 years and listened to them very often. Later when I bought SCott Joplin's pianola version I liked it much less. Joplin's music is superb and Rifkin's piano version brings its beauty up where it should be. The reason I bought it on the CD is to put it on my ipod! A marvellous record.

I was really surprised to find this recording in CD form. I went through somewhat of a classical music phase back in the '70's ,and i had all three of Rifkin's Scott joplin Albums.
This cd is a compilation of all three albums in one cd,featuring most of Vol. one and hiughligts of Vol.2 and Vol.3 ,but I wish all the works of Joshua Rifkins interpretations were released on CD. I miss his version of Sugar Cane Rag,Leola and Eugenia or The Chrysanthemum
I have my fingers crossed that they'll release a second CD with all those Piano rags that were left off this CD and some new interpretations as well!

Rifkin performs these pieces to perfection- too perfect for my taste. Music (and rags in particular) is not about technical perfection, but that intangible something that resonates within us and moves us. The life, enthusiasm, emotion, soul - whatever you want to call it- just isn't there on this CD. To hear Joplin's great artistry sterilized like this is a real disappointment.

I hate to say that Nielsen's playing is, while precise and clean, almost strangely unexpressive and unnuanced. He lacks a feel for the certain "catch" in syncopated rhythm that makes players like Max Morath and Dick Hyman such a joy to listen to. His versions are basically demonstrations of what is on the page played by a thoroughly competent pianist who nevertheless does not really "feel" this music, rather as if it were 1904 and he was a pianist at a music store on hand to play through anything you asked for so you could hear how it sounded.

To rip through SUGAR CANE as if it were CAROLINA SHOUT, for example, is to miss what Joplin meant with this piece. And overall, Nielsen seems to render what should be crisp staccato closing notes for phrases as full ones, which especially blunts the snap of stop-time sections in pieces like THE RAGTIME DANCE. Nielsen plays the same way on his Scott and Lamb recordings -- all of these sets are of reference value only.

But Galen Wilkes and Edward Berlin's liner notes are some of the best ever written anywhere for any recording. The text is scholarly in its richness of information, the photographs are invaluable, and Chris Ware's artwork is splendid. This set is worth it for the liner notes alone, including penetrating capsule treatments of each and every piece Joplin wrote and new news on his life and work from research over the past several years. I consider myself to have basically spent the money on a great BOOK, with accompanying CDs as a kind of demonstration bonus.

i saw people writing her that mr nielsen doesnt has the feeling or doesnt play as max morath... well then i see buy the sheet music and look what is written... mr nielsen exactly plays what is written.. except in the ragtime dance and stoptime rag where he dont use stop time....

i can hear in his playing that he is a very talented and gifted piano player who earned his 9,5 on his exam on the conservatory in Utrecht.

if i listen to max morath or joshua rifkin i hear to slow music with out expression, ok mr nielsen plays some pieces to fast... way to fast like peacherine rag.. the sheet music says "not fast" not "not too fast" or march tempo mr nielsen plays it more presto. and some more pieces are like this but overall he plays in a very good talend style.

if you want to chose between nielsen, morath, arpin or rifkin... i say nielsen.

THE ultimate Scott Joplin performances! Forget about the rest: clear, correct AND very musically played rags, marches, songs and waltzes. They're miked very close (like the Lamb and Scott recordings by the same pianist on the same label), which makes even Mr. Nielsen's (sober but efficiënt) pedalings audible. This is the standard, people, by all means!

Wow! The only words that can truly describe this set are exclamations. Mr. Guido Nielsen has done it again. The music is played as written, in a style that is accurate, fresh, and lively. The performances are excellent, although classics like 'Gladiolus Rag' and 'Magnetic Rag' could be played somewhat slower. The cover design is exquisite and the discs themselves are simply beautiful. The two 24-page booklets are crammed with color and black-and-white photographs, not to mention notes of the highest quality. Be sure to read the entertaining advertisements on the last page of the second booklet. I highly recommend this set to anyone interested in ragtime and the music of Scott Joplin. Purchase this set as soon as possible, and if you have not done so already, pick up the Joseph Lamb and James Scott sets produced by the same team. Happy listening!

I've always liked Ragtime music, usually heard only as brief movie background sound clips. That all changed around 1973 when I saw the blockbuster movie, The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. All the movie's music was Scott Joplin Ragtime Music played by Marvin Hamlisch.

I became then, and still am, a Ragtime Music devotee. For me, Ragtime can be uplifting, joyful, satisfying, and just fun to listen to. It may help fight Depression. I bought the Dover Publication Book of Joplin's Piano Music. And I learned to play a number of the best known pieces: The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag, Cascades, Sugar Cane, Elite Syncopations, and others. I don't claim to be anything other than a serious amateur, playing for my own enjoyment, and for house guests.

The movie soundtrack from The Sting, made Joplin's music widely known, and temporarily popular. Pianist Joshua Rifkin recorded three LP 33 1/3 records under the Nonesuch label of Joplin's music. Each of the CD's had 8 tracks totaling about 30 minutes of music. Sadly, these LP's and the corresponding CD's are out of print - no longer available. However, Nonesuch released a Joplin CD 7559-79159-2, with pianist Rifkin, 17 tracks, total time 71:15. This CD is currently available.

I bought Guido Nielsen's recordings of the Ragtime Piano Music of Joseph Lamb, and James Scott. I greatly enjoy these recordings. I obtained the sheet music for a number of the songs that I liked and I've had some success in actually playing the music. Nielsen is certainly a superb pianist.

To finally "get to the point" of all this. I bought the Joplin set of 4 CD's, performed by Nielsen, and I'm disappointed. It seems that Nielsen plays much of the music as if it's a "chore." I don't hear passion, enthusiasm, vitality. Perhaps he simply doesn't like Joplin's music. I'm sorry that I bought the set.

With all due respect to marvelous pianist Nielsen, I challenge anyone who takes issue with my comments to listen, really LISTEN, to Joplin's music as performed by Marvin Hamlisch and Joshua Rifkin. Then listen to Nielsen's recordings and form your own opinion.