---
product_id: 8434108
title: "Arthur Rubinstein - Complete Album Collection"
price: "£1180.53"
currency: GBP
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/8434108-arthur-rubinstein-complete-album-collection
store_origin: GB
region: Great Britain
---

# Arthur Rubinstein - Complete Album Collection

**Price:** £1180.53
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Arthur Rubinstein - Complete Album Collection
- **How much does it cost?** £1180.53 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/8434108-arthur-rubinstein-complete-album-collection)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Description

From December on, "Arthur Rubinstein The Complete Album Collection" will be the world's biggest CD edition for a solo artist according to Guinness World Records (TM). It features all the legendary pianist's issued recordings made by RCA Victor between 1940 and 1976, and includes one LP issued on the DECCA label in 1978. The collection also includes the recordings Rubinstein made in England for the English label His Master's Voice (HMV) between 1928 and 1940, most of which were released in the United States by RCA on its Victor label. The collection includes complete studio and live performances, solo, concerto and chamber music repertoire in reproductions of original LP sleeves and labels, the earlier recordings, initially released on 78-rpm discs, appear in three sets with 14 CDs in the edition.The bonus CDs in this edition (CDs 140-142) contain recordings of his legendary 1961 cycle of ten concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall. They include four works that Rubinstein had never before committed to disc plus two others that represent brand-new additions to his RCA discography.This edition also boasts the finest sound quality ever bestowed on Arthur Rubinstein's complete recordings. The masters for the principal works in the collection come from the series of Living Stereo SACDs and Japanese XRCDs. All the other recordings are based on masters from the Rubinstein Collection of 1999, technically and sonically refurbished for this edition. In cases where the desired results could not be obtained, Sony Classical has gone back to the original analogue tapes.The 164-page full-colored hardcover book in landscape format includes new liner notes by Rubinstein biographer Harvey Sachs, photos shot or selected by Arthur Rubinstein's daughter Eva Rubinstein, an essay about the legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concerts, complete discography in alphabetical and chronological order featuring 78s, 45s and LPs and track listings with complete discographical notes, producer names and matrix nos.The two bonus DVDs are "Rubinstein Remembered", a documentary tracing the great pianist's life from his origins in ód , Poland, through his final concert there in 1975, with interviews from family and friends, newsreels, home movies, TV interviews and performance footage. Narrated by Rubinstein's son John Rubinstein and produced by Peter Rosen and the "The Benefit Recital for Israel 1976" recorded at Ambassador College, Pasadena, California on Jan 15, 1975 featuring works by Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy, Chopin and Mendelssohn.The "Arthur Rubinstein Complete Album Collection" consists almost entirely of reproductions of vinyl LPs in their original sleeves. The few exceptions that were only released on CD retain their original CD cover. Thus for the first time ever, music lovers have the opportunity of discovering every single one of Rubinstein's original albums in a single issue.

Review: Bought for music lover...piano player... and he loves it. - Searched for this for my father-in law.. He plays the piano, used to teach piano, has read Arthur Rubinstein's two books (and lost them, so they have recently been replaced by copies bought via desertcart). I came across this collection while finding copies of the books. He had an old VHS tape with Rubinstein playing, and was interested in this collection when I mentioned it had the Israel concert DVD, the documentary DVD, hard bound book, and of course the ultimate collection of his recordings. After reading reviews I was careful to have the collection sent to me so I could check the quality and completeness before giving it to him. I checked every disc to ensure there was no double ups or missing disc's. As far as I could tell, every disc is properly labelled and numbered. No discs missing. Package looks great. CD jackets are hard to read (get a magnifying glass like my father in-law) but the printing and images are stunning, so are the CD's themselves - all looking like vinyl records. The Hard bound book looks and feels good quality. I watched both DVD's to ensure they worked here in Australia. Sound and vision is fine, concert playing is great and the documentary interesting. I randomly played half a dozen discs in a portable CD player...they all worked... would have sounded better in a player with a graphic equaliser...but were still worthy of listening to. I played the same discs through my home entertainment system....turned the volume up... sounds fantastic.. I personally was very impressed.. the quality and what you get for the price is mind blowing... I can not imagine buying a Beatles, Pink Floyd or Fleetwood Mac box collection with every album and single recorded remastered, enhanced, old tracks, B-sides, every major concert recording, previously unreleased tracks, plus a concert DVD, documentary DVD, plus a quality hardbound book.. for anywhere near the cost of this collection. This collection is fantastic value for money! My father in-law took one look at the box when I gave it to him and he said "WOW!.. This really is something special.. this is a collector item..." and is wondering "...who would appreciate it the most..." meaning who should inherit it. He is keeping the Collections box in the shipping box...so as to keep it...in collector condition. He loves the quality of the book, I left him happily planning when to watch the DVDs and start listening to the CDs. He has a portable CD player and a DVD player to listen to the discs with. I told him when I delivered the collection to him.. that he might want to go out and buy a better player...
Review: Packaging Decisions Are Questionable- Performances & Sound Are Unassailable - I was thrilled to receive this massive CD box that includes an impressive hardcover book and a literal treasure trove of piano recordings. But that thrill is slightly tempered by the fact that Sony/BMG has opted for some pretty stupid packaging choices here. First, the pink color they picked for the box cover is just awful. It was obviously chosen to match the pink color of the inside cover of the enclosed book. Bad choice, especially as Sony could have opted for ANY OTHER COLOR in the PMS scale and done just fine. What's wrong with a deep red (as in Red Seal) or a deep blue or even black? Any of them would look fine on the shelf. The pink is just plain ugly. Worse, it looks cheap. Then, there's the multi-disc sleeves used to house the earliest recordings and any sets that are comprised of 3 or more CDs. Sony/BMG opted for gatefold sleeves that open up flat and accommodate up to 6 CDs. Unfortunately, rather than have spindles on which to place each CD, the gatefolds use a paper sleeve system with a slit on either side of the inner-held CDs. The problem comes in dislodging the CDs that are not positioned in the end positions on the gatefold. The inner discs are removed through a cumbersome - and potentially disastrous - process of trying to push a CD out from one side of the sleeve, getting it over the top of the sleeve next to it, then using your fingers to pull the disc out the rest of the way. If that sounds ridiculous, it is. It is THE worst design I have ever seen to house multiple CDs. I'm sure that Sony/BMG didn't come up with this on their own. Most likely they found the option at some printer and went with it. Mistake #2. The solution here is to remove the CDs ONCE from these gatefold sleeves and place them in those individual CD-R sleeves you buy at Staples. I think there's enough extra room in the box to house those and hold onto the poorly designed sleeves that do at least have the track listings on them. Another thing that I found bothersome (rather than annoying) concerns the CDs and the CD sleeves themselves. The cover art is nice - Sony has gone back and used the original LP art in most cases. But the CD labels themselves are half-assed. Sony has copied the DG "Originals" look by making the CD labels look like old LPs, complete with an old LP-style label. Unfortunately, CDs have only one playing side, whereas LPs had two playing sides. DG realizes this and prints the contents of BOTH sides of the old LP on their CD labels so you know what's on the WHOLE CD. Sony/BMG, however, prints only the info that was on Side A of the LP! That means that you have no listing on the CD for what was on the B Side of the LP. Not a big deal IF the CD holds a single piece, like the "Emperor Concerto," but quite a problem if the CD holds an LP of multiple works by multiple composers. As relayed in the accompanying book, this was a VERY conscious decision on Sony's part. The decision was made to include all of the track listing info in the hardcover book, rather than on the CDs or CD sleeves themselves. I can understand this decision, especially as the book is a model of its kind, including all kinds of info - matrix numbers, recording dates, etc - that add a great dimension to the book and to the set itself. There's more info here than has ever been made available on these recordings, and that's to be appreciated. But one can quibble with Sony's decision to list only the Side A contents of each LP on the CD label, rather than updating them to the CD-era standard, because these are - after all - CDS, and NOT LPs. Just because you decided to design the CDs to look like LPs doesn't mean you have to follow LP conventions, does it? At the end of the day, you'll need to reference the book to see the track listing for each CD. Not horrible, but a bit bothersome, as I said. The above caveats are noted because it wouldn't have cost Sony an extra dime to make the set look attractive (ie: NOT pink) or to use packaging for the multi-CD sets that made sense to the end user. The decision to include complete track listings only in the book is something I can live with as the book is so wonderful. I've spent my time knocking the packaging, because the music and the recordings themselves are pure gold. I've just listened to the stereo version of the Chopin Nocturnes and the sound is *incredible.* It sounds almost as if Rubinstein is in the room with you. And there's no distortion on the top end as there was in the brown "Complete Chopin" box RCA issued back in the early 90s! It's also nice to finally have many of Rubinstein's concerto recordings with Boston/Leinsdorf in refurbished sound, though they provide confirmation (once again!) that the recorded sound in Rubinstein's earlier "Living Stereo" recordings was more open and more realistic than these recordings made during the "Dynawarp" era. I must admit that it is nice to have all of those original LP covers adorning each CD. What a trip down memory lane! I find myself conjuring up mental images of the first time I encountered these recordings on LP back in my high school and college days (particularly the Beethoven Concerti with Leinsdorf, which I owned in an LP box set that I played to death). Even with the above caveats noted, this set is highly recommended, especially at the $107 I spent to acquire the set in December, 2013.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | B006KAWI2C |
| Customer Reviews | 4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars (82) |
| Date First Available  | December 10, 2011 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer  | No |
| Label  | RCA Victor - BMG |
| Manufacturer  | RCA Victor - BMG |
| Number of discs  | 144 |
| Original Release Date  | 2012 |
| Product Dimensions  | 9.8 x 12.3 x 6.2 inches; 15.8 Pounds |
| Run time  | 99 hours and 46 minutes |

## Images

![Arthur Rubinstein - Complete Album Collection - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ZWDOOrdeL.jpg)
![Arthur Rubinstein - Complete Album Collection - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/815zx6croNL.jpg)
![Arthur Rubinstein - Complete Album Collection - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81DucW7wSzL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Bought for music lover...piano player... and he loves it.
*by R***N on September 10, 2013*

Searched for this for my father-in law.. He plays the piano, used to teach piano, has read Arthur Rubinstein's two books (and lost them, so they have recently been replaced by copies bought via amazon). I came across this collection while finding copies of the books. He had an old VHS tape with Rubinstein playing, and was interested in this collection when I mentioned it had the Israel concert DVD, the documentary DVD, hard bound book, and of course the ultimate collection of his recordings. After reading reviews I was careful to have the collection sent to me so I could check the quality and completeness before giving it to him. I checked every disc to ensure there was no double ups or missing disc's. As far as I could tell, every disc is properly labelled and numbered. No discs missing. Package looks great. CD jackets are hard to read (get a magnifying glass like my father in-law) but the printing and images are stunning, so are the CD's themselves - all looking like vinyl records. The Hard bound book looks and feels good quality. I watched both DVD's to ensure they worked here in Australia. Sound and vision is fine, concert playing is great and the documentary interesting. I randomly played half a dozen discs in a portable CD player...they all worked... would have sounded better in a player with a graphic equaliser...but were still worthy of listening to. I played the same discs through my home entertainment system....turned the volume up... sounds fantastic.. I personally was very impressed.. the quality and what you get for the price is mind blowing... I can not imagine buying a Beatles, Pink Floyd or Fleetwood Mac box collection with every album and single recorded remastered, enhanced, old tracks, B-sides, every major concert recording, previously unreleased tracks, plus a concert DVD, documentary DVD, plus a quality hardbound book.. for anywhere near the cost of this collection. This collection is fantastic value for money! My father in-law took one look at the box when I gave it to him and he said "WOW!.. This really is something special.. this is a collector item..." and is wondering "...who would appreciate it the most..." meaning who should inherit it. He is keeping the Collections box in the shipping box...so as to keep it...in collector condition. He loves the quality of the book, I left him happily planning when to watch the DVDs and start listening to the CDs. He has a portable CD player and a DVD player to listen to the discs with. I told him when I delivered the collection to him.. that he might want to go out and buy a better player...

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Packaging Decisions Are Questionable- Performances & Sound Are Unassailable
*by M***S on January 11, 2014*

I was thrilled to receive this massive CD box that includes an impressive hardcover book and a literal treasure trove of piano recordings. But that thrill is slightly tempered by the fact that Sony/BMG has opted for some pretty stupid packaging choices here. First, the pink color they picked for the box cover is just awful. It was obviously chosen to match the pink color of the inside cover of the enclosed book. Bad choice, especially as Sony could have opted for ANY OTHER COLOR in the PMS scale and done just fine. What's wrong with a deep red (as in Red Seal) or a deep blue or even black? Any of them would look fine on the shelf. The pink is just plain ugly. Worse, it looks cheap. Then, there's the multi-disc sleeves used to house the earliest recordings and any sets that are comprised of 3 or more CDs. Sony/BMG opted for gatefold sleeves that open up flat and accommodate up to 6 CDs. Unfortunately, rather than have spindles on which to place each CD, the gatefolds use a paper sleeve system with a slit on either side of the inner-held CDs. The problem comes in dislodging the CDs that are not positioned in the end positions on the gatefold. The inner discs are removed through a cumbersome - and potentially disastrous - process of trying to push a CD out from one side of the sleeve, getting it over the top of the sleeve next to it, then using your fingers to pull the disc out the rest of the way. If that sounds ridiculous, it is. It is THE worst design I have ever seen to house multiple CDs. I'm sure that Sony/BMG didn't come up with this on their own. Most likely they found the option at some printer and went with it. Mistake #2. The solution here is to remove the CDs ONCE from these gatefold sleeves and place them in those individual CD-R sleeves you buy at Staples. I think there's enough extra room in the box to house those and hold onto the poorly designed sleeves that do at least have the track listings on them. Another thing that I found bothersome (rather than annoying) concerns the CDs and the CD sleeves themselves. The cover art is nice - Sony has gone back and used the original LP art in most cases. But the CD labels themselves are half-assed. Sony has copied the DG "Originals" look by making the CD labels look like old LPs, complete with an old LP-style label. Unfortunately, CDs have only one playing side, whereas LPs had two playing sides. DG realizes this and prints the contents of BOTH sides of the old LP on their CD labels so you know what's on the WHOLE CD. Sony/BMG, however, prints only the info that was on Side A of the LP! That means that you have no listing on the CD for what was on the B Side of the LP. Not a big deal IF the CD holds a single piece, like the "Emperor Concerto," but quite a problem if the CD holds an LP of multiple works by multiple composers. As relayed in the accompanying book, this was a VERY conscious decision on Sony's part. The decision was made to include all of the track listing info in the hardcover book, rather than on the CDs or CD sleeves themselves. I can understand this decision, especially as the book is a model of its kind, including all kinds of info - matrix numbers, recording dates, etc - that add a great dimension to the book and to the set itself. There's more info here than has ever been made available on these recordings, and that's to be appreciated. But one can quibble with Sony's decision to list only the Side A contents of each LP on the CD label, rather than updating them to the CD-era standard, because these are - after all - CDS, and NOT LPs. Just because you decided to design the CDs to look like LPs doesn't mean you have to follow LP conventions, does it? At the end of the day, you'll need to reference the book to see the track listing for each CD. Not horrible, but a bit bothersome, as I said. The above caveats are noted because it wouldn't have cost Sony an extra dime to make the set look attractive (ie: NOT pink) or to use packaging for the multi-CD sets that made sense to the end user. The decision to include complete track listings only in the book is something I can live with as the book is so wonderful. I've spent my time knocking the packaging, because the music and the recordings themselves are pure gold. I've just listened to the stereo version of the Chopin Nocturnes and the sound is *incredible.* It sounds almost as if Rubinstein is in the room with you. And there's no distortion on the top end as there was in the brown "Complete Chopin" box RCA issued back in the early 90s! It's also nice to finally have many of Rubinstein's concerto recordings with Boston/Leinsdorf in refurbished sound, though they provide confirmation (once again!) that the recorded sound in Rubinstein's earlier "Living Stereo" recordings was more open and more realistic than these recordings made during the "Dynawarp" era. I must admit that it is nice to have all of those original LP covers adorning each CD. What a trip down memory lane! I find myself conjuring up mental images of the first time I encountered these recordings on LP back in my high school and college days (particularly the Beethoven Concerti with Leinsdorf, which I owned in an LP box set that I played to death). Even with the above caveats noted, this set is highly recommended, especially at the $107 I spent to acquire the set in December, 2013.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by A***A on March 25, 2012*

Ésta es una colección imprescindible, sobre todo para quienes no pudimos adquirir la benemérita edición de 1999. Yo poseía varios volúmenes de esta edición de hace 13 años, pero el atractivo de la nueva colección, con las carátulas originales de los LP de época, aparte de poder disponer de la discografía completa en RCA, me parecían razones suficientes para la compra. A ello se suma el hecho de que, a día de hoy, Amazon.es la ofrece al precio más bajo de toda la red Amazon. Los tres discos con grabaciones en vivo del Carnegie Hall en 1961 son imprescindibles en sí mismas, pues añaden dos estudios de Chopin (colección que Rubinstein nunca grabó, por desgracia) a la discografía del pianista (op. 10 nº 12, "Revolucionario", op. 25 nº 2 y nº 3). La calidad de sonido es mucho mejor de lo que yo esperaba después de leer los comentarios los amigos de amazon.co.uk y amazon.com. Obviamente, tampoco se recogen aquí las grabaciones en vivo que comercializa la BBC, y que, por regla general, tienen claramente un sonido mucho peor que el de los tres discos que ahora ven la luz. En la colección falta solamente el concierto en vivo de Moscú de 1964, que se puede adquirir por otras vías (como CD doble suelto en la colección de 1999 y sucesivas reediciones) y que también existe en DVD. Hago notar que mi caja venía abierta, sin el embalaje original. Consideré la posibilidad de devolución, pero, tras examinar el contenido y comprobar el perfecto estado de todos los discos y del libro, decidí quedarme con lo que tenía. Sospecho que han examinado el paquete antes de enviarlo debido a que en otras páginas de amazon ha habido quejas respecto a discos que faltaban. Pero nada impedía volver a embalar el paquete, cosa que no debe de ser tan compleja.

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*Store origin: GB*
*Last updated: 2026-04-26*