I am aware that older readers may consider it to be superfluous for me to extol Rubinstein's genius as an interpreter, but I have a feeling that the younger generation may be so familiar with his name that they do not consider his discs alongside those of today's heroes. The truth is that Rubinstein, both in matters of technique and sense of style, can never be classified as an 'old-fashioned' pianist. His mannerisms were negligible. His name is inescapably linked with Chopin, and yet, as these three CDs demonstrate, his mastery of the French repertoire was stunning, and as a Schumann player he commands real admiration.
The Debussy, featured in the excerpts from various Carnegie Hall recitals, may not follow the composer's dynamics very closely, but the immense range of colour in ''Poissons d'or'' is so completely convincing as to silence criticism. The Szymanowski Mazurkas were dedicated to Rubinstein and his playing of them mixes vigour with an appreciation of their Chopinesque origin. I cannot imagine that Szymanowski himself would have made them quite so dynamic. In contrast, I find the Prokofiev a little too tonally rich and Gallicized.
Again, it is French culture that is behind Rubinstein's handling of Villa-Lobos's suite, and Debussy is never far away. After a rather slow Schumann Arabeske, Albeniz's Navarra ends the disc on a high note of bravura and extrovert swagger. This CD has wonderfully vivid sound for its date, and compares well with comparable piano discs from the 1970s. The absence of a noisy surface and the richly full-blooded piano tone make this a superb offering.
On the Schumann disc the sound is marginally less successful, and I was surprised to hear pitch distortion on the first note of ''Warum?'' from Fantasiestucke. In this work perhaps Rubinstein is a little too affectionate to do full justice to the whimsical aspects, but every phrase is communicative, without the emotional content being over-stressed. Carnaval doesn't go quite so well. It is a hazardous piece to record, and though the latter numbers are especially fine, he is concentrating as much on playing all the right notes as he is on the spiritual side of the music.
Rubinstein made a apeciality of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales and this is a classic performance. He rises to everything in the music: its elegance, its intensely picturesque atmosphere and its amazing power of hinting at orchestral colour. There is none of that bland, even-textured Ravel that is so common today. It is only in the louder passages that the piano sound is at all restricted: the quiet moments are breathtakingly real. This CD also contains music by Poulenc that is approached from a tradition more in sympathy with Faure: the combination of simplicity and sophistication takes takes a warmly expressive tone as the core of its attractiveness. But then the Chabrier ends off the recording with effervescent high spirits and a wonderfully bubbly non legato touch.'