So, while Rifkin is the place to start, his collection is not a “complete” recording of the Joplin rags. For complete sets the listener can look to Richard Zimmerman’s Laser Light collection, a mainstay since its release in the early 1970s, providing perfectly serviceable Joplin. There is also John Arpin’s fine set on the budget label Classical Heritage for the early 1960’s and Guido Nielsen’s more recent (2004) imported set on Basta Records. Scott Kirby’s Greener Pasture series (currently unavailable) from the mid-1990s are exceptional in their freshness and courage while his later Viridiana Productions series have been stuck at Volumes 1 and 2, are decidedly more orthodox, but equally compelling.
Listening broadly across many different performances lends the listener an appreciation of just how differently Joplin is viewed from one pianist to the next. Secondly, listening to the “Complete” corpus of Joplin, leads to an appreciation of the breadth and depth of the Joplin “Classical Rag” artistically and historically. With the new series being spawned by the Naxos label, a new focus on Joplin is certainly warranted if not needed.
* Index p. 325, Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works, New York Public Library, 1981.
Article comments