William Kapell Edition, Vol. 8: Works by Copland, Chopin, Mussorgsky, Schumann, and D. Scarlatti. William Kapell, piano. (RCA Red Seal 68997)

On October 28, 1941, the brilliant young American pianist William Kapell (1922-1953) gave his Town Hall debut recital at the age of 19 as winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Competition. Kapell attended Juilliard for three years (1940-43) as a graduate fellowship student of Olga Samaroff, continuing on to a meteoric but lamentably brief career. (Jerome Lowenthal of Juilliard's current faculty was one of Kapell's few private pupils.) Returning from an overseas concert tour to begin teaching at Juilliard, Kapell died October 29, 1953, when his DC-6 crashed in fog two minutes before it was to land in San Francisco. He was just 31.

In 1998, RCA assembled all of Kapell's long-unavailable commercial recordings in a carefully remastered nine-CD set: the William Kapell Edition (RCA 68442). These discs have now been issued separately. Outstanding among them is the previously unreleased Frick Collection Recital, taped March 1, 1953, in New York City, which captures in excellent sound Kapell's dynamic Copland Piano Sonata, a poetic Chopin group (including the Polonaise-Fantaisie), and a pointillistic, staccato Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition that nearly rivals the classic live accounts by Richter (Sofia, Bulgaria) and Horowitz (Carnegie Hall).

Other highlights of the Kapell Edition are a diabolically virtuosic Liszt Mephisto Waltz (RCA 68994) and a wittily insouciant Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Reiner (RCA 68992), as well as a coruscating Prokofiev Concerto No. 3 with Dorati (RCA 68993) that has remained unequaled by all but Argerich and Terence Judd (a Tchaikovsky Competition winner who also died tragically young). The Prokofiev is paired with the flashy if shallow Khachaturian Concerto with Koussevitzky, a crowd-pleasing specialty that gained the soloist the sobriquet of "Khachaturian Kapell." Evidence of the pianist's continuing maturation are the Brahms sonata collaborations with Jascha Heifetz and William Primrose (RCA 68996).

An absorbing adjunct to the RCA edition are two volumes of Kapell broadcast performances on VAI Audio (VAIA 1027 and 1048) as well as a disc of Kapell in recital on Arbiter (108); all include repertory not offered by RCA.

Sharon Isbin's Greatest Hits

Works by Rodrigo, Bach, Vivaldi, Albéniz, Barrios Mangoré, Villa-Lobos, and Foss. Sharon Isbin, guitar; Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Lawrence Foster, conductor; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hugh Wolff, conductor. (Virgin Classics 62075; 2 CDs)

Sharon has headed Juilliard's guitar department since establishing it in 1989. This new two-CD album compiles 11 Baroque, Spanish, and contemporary American works from Isbin's prior recordings, demonstrating her stylistic versatility.

Isbin's Vivaldi Concerto in D is delectable, while her clarity of line and phrasing in two Bach lute suites reflects a decade of work with Rosalyn Tureck. Isbin gives refined and nuanced performances of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez and Fantasia para un gentilhombre. She also deftly plays five primarily Spanish solo works, as well as American Landscapes for guitar and orchestra, written for her by Lukas Foss in 1989.

Noteworthy Isbin recordings not included here are the 2002 Grammy Award-winning Concert de Gaudi by Juilliard's Christopher Rouse, coupled with a concerto by Tan Dun (Teldec 81830), the 2001 Grammy-winning Dreams of a World (Teldec 25736), the jazz-tinged Journey to the Amazon (Teldec 19899), and Wayfaring Stranger with mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer (Erato 23419).

Mention this column at the Juilliard Bookstore to receive a 5-percent discount on this month's featured recordings. (In-store purchases only.)