Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Please Say You Will
2. Picture of Her Face
3. Great Crush Collision March
4. Harmony Club Waltz
5. Combination March
6. Original Rags
7. Maple Leaf Rag
8. Swipesy (Cake Walk)
9. Sunflower Slow Drag
10. Peacherine Rag
11. Augustan Club Waltz
12. Easy Winners
13. Cleopha
14. Strenuous Life
15. I Am Thinking of My Pickanniny Days
16. Ragtime Dance
17. Breeze from Alabama
18. Elite Syncopations

Disc 2:

1. March Majestic
2. Entertainer
3. Something Doing
4. Weeping Willow
5. Little Black Baby
6. Palm Leaf Rag
7. Favorite
8. Sycamore
9. Cascades
10. Chrysanthemum
11. Rosebud March
12. Bethena
13. Leola
14. Sarah Dear
15. Bink's Waltz
16. Eugenia
17. Antoinette
18. Snoring Sampson

Disc 3:

1. Gladiolus Rag
2. Search-Light Rag
3. Nonpareil (None to Equal)
4. When Your Hair Is Like the Snow
5. Rose Leaf Rag
6. Heliotrope Bouquet
7. School of Ragtime
8. Fig Leaf Rag
9. Sugar Cane
10. Pine Apple Rag
11. Wall Street Rag
12. Solace
13. Pleasant Moments
14. Country Club
15. Paragon Rag
16. Euphonic Sounds
17. Stoptime Rag
18. Felicity Rag

Disc 4:

1. Highlights from "Treemonisha"
2. Real Slow Drag
3. Prelude to Act 3
4. Frolic of the Bears
5. Lovin' Babe
6. Scott Joplin's New Rag
7. Kismet Rag
8. Magnetic Rag
9. Reflection Rag
10. Silver Swan Rag
11. Lily Queen
12. Sensation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46897 in Music
• Released on: 1994-07-19
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

Great set
I guess this will be a rather one sided review. I have been a fan of Scott Joplin since I first learned to play a piano.

I was shocked to see that one reviewer thought it all sounded the same. How silly. All of Frank Sinatra's music sounds like Frank Sinatra. All of Led Zeppelin sounds like Led Zeppelin. So, if the songs were drastically different, I would question if the same author composed them. As it is, though, each song on this set is fantastic!!

I don't know that I have heard of Richard Zimmerman, and I was a little leary as to what I would be getting, I certainly was impressed. Without a doubt the best renditions of "Weeping Willow" and "Bethena" I have heard, and at least a dozen songs I didn't know Joplin wrote.

Without a doubt, this album is fantastic. A very good price, as well.

Zimmerman with a classic here!
I am a fan of Scott Joplin. Having played many of his works in concert around the region, I can say that some interpretations of Joplin are better than others. Richard Zimmerman has fun with the pieces he selects here. While I do not agree with some of the tempos he selected for various pieces, the mood of his interpretations is that of a dancing, swinging feel that is hard to convey in such a genre. Zimmerman does it with ease and makes it sound like he is having real fun while playing the piano. Not too heavy an interpretation, the light, flowing opening sections and the deeper, thicker (dare I say virtuosic?) sections contrast very well, providing the listener with a glimpse of how Scott Joplin might have played these rags himself. If you listen to original piano rolls with Joplin's own playing, you will hear that he himself improvises slightly over his own music. It is difficult to play ragtime effectively and Zimmerman overcomes this difficulty with many excellent performances on these five CDs.

I would have given this CD set five stars - however, some of the interpretations are lacking slightly in tempo. It's more a personal preference than anything and if I could have, this set would have received 4.5 stars. I can't, sadly, go through and give it five. But I still highly recommend this purchase to fans of classical and jazz music. Enjoy!

A classic compilation
This collection is one of my most treasured possessions. (My father gave me the original 5-album set in the 70's when it was originally released on vinyl.)

This is the definitive collection of Scott Joplin's work. Richard Zimmerman provides wonderful performances that accurately reflect Joplin's intentions. (As evidence beyond my personal opinion, I submit the recent releases of digital recordings made from Joplin's piano rolls.)

A few points to consider regarding negative comments you may encounter in other reviews:
* This is a digital recording from an analog master. Lack of quality in the recording does not imply a lackluster performance.
* This is a complete collection. Some similarity is due to Joplin re-exploring melodic themes. But some is due to the fact that these are "rags". One might as well complain that all 50's doo-wop (or all 70's disco) sounds the same.
* Many pieces of the period exhibit formal musical structures, such as the marches of John Phillips Sousa. (Both Sousa and Joplin performed at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.) Actually, Joplin is responsible for extending the formal boundaries of ragtime to concert waltzes (Bethena) and opera (A Guest of Honor, Treemonisha)
* This is probably one of the few collections which will include selections from "Treemonisha". It is my understanding that after the initial release, one of Joplin's descendants made a copyright claim that was upheld in court. (I presume the issue was that Joplin had to finance "Treemonisha" himself, and therefore the customary performance clearances did not cover those selections.)

For ragtime students and enthusiasts, this is a "must-have" collection at a very affordable price.