The album SZINERGIA celebrates the interconnectedness of composers who, despite leading different lives, found common ground in the dance rhythms and folk traditions that inspired their music. At the heart of this album is Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Kammerkonzert for clarinet, string quartet, and string orchestra, a poignant homage to Zoltán Kodály. Hartmann's work epitomizes the synergy of musical ideas, blending the spirit of Hungarian folk music with a modern, introspective voice. Zoltán Kodály's Kálló Double Dance and Epigrams Nos. 3 & 6 showcase his profound connection to Hungarian traditions. These pieces, reimagined through contemporary arrangements, reveal the timeless nature and the vibrant energy of his melodies. Léo Weiner's Divertimento No. 1 "Old Hungarian Dances" adds a nostalgic yet lively dimension to the album. The expert arrangements by Lajos Sárközy and István Várdai breathe new life into these classic dances, highlighting the enduring appeal of Hungarian folk music. Paco de Lucía's Callejón del Muro brings a touch of Andalusian passion to the collection. Pablo Barragán's arrangement seamlessly integrates the fiery flamenco rhythms into the album's narrative, illustrating the universal language of dance that transcends cultural boundaries. Béla Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances, arranged for clarinet, cimbalom, and strings by Jonas Dominique in dedication to Swedish clarinetist Martin Fröst, further enriches the album's tapestry. Bartók's dedication to preserving folk music traditions shines through in these lively, evocative dances, demonstrating his deep connection to the musical heritage of Eastern Europe. Performed by clarinetist Pablo Barragán, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra under the musical direction of István Várdai, and the Sárközy Trio, SZINERGIA presents a rich, multifaceted soundscape. Each piece highlights the unique voice of it's composer while uncovering the profound connections that link them. SZINERGIA is a celebration of the unity found in diversity. Through the lively rhythms and evocative melodies, listeners are invited to experience the harmonious dance of parallel lives, bound together by the shared threads of musical inspiration.
Sigismond Thalberg was a virtuoso pianist whose training included studies with Mozart’s pupil Johann Hummel, and whose rivalry with Franz Liszt became the talk of Paris in the 1830s. Thalberg excelled in the fashionable solo piano genre of operatic paraphrase but, while drawing on themes by the ever-popular Rossini, Les Soirées de Pausilippe avoids ostentatious excess. Instead Thalberg preferred an elegant simplicity in which the piano is allowed to sing in emulation of the operatic originals. With rhythmic dances, expressive arias and more, this is a collection that embraces moods that range from Mendelssohnian charm to Chopinesque pianism.
“Can the devil play the organ?” asked Jules Verne. What a question! Listen to the incomparable crackling of the Mephisto Waltz, the fugue sparking like the flames of inferno. Then the nightmare miraculously yields to the angelic tones of the Suite francaise, followed by the down-to-earth Variations serieuses. What magic enables Karol Mossakowski to glide so swiftly from one realm to another? A few minutes of improvisation… For his first album, the talented Karol Mossakowski (artist in residence at Radio France for the 2020/22 seasons, following Thomas Ospital), recorded on the organ Gerhard Grenzing of the Auditorium of Radio France his transcriptions of the works of four great composers: Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Liszt. To enrich this contrasting program, Karol Mossakowski was inspired by pianists of the 19th century and improvised a few bars to move from one shore to another where another key, another atmosphere will reign.
Dorati: Piano Concerto; Seiber: Orchestral Suite from "The I
Haenssler Classic
CD
$20.99Oct 04, 2024
There were various reasons why we decided to combine works by Antal Dorati with those of Matyas Seiber on the present CD. Both attended Zoltan Kodaly's composition class at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, both were highly regarded by their illustrious teacher. Kodaly passed on to his students a love of folk music and a particular appreciation of tradition through successive eras of music history. (Oliver Triendl)
Urspruch: Das Unmoglichste von Allem / Yinon, Broberg, Maier, Fendl, Wieben
Naxos
CD
$35.99Sep 24, 2013
Anton Urspruch was Franz Liszt’s favourite pupil and saw himself as a ‘progressive modernist’. His music, whilst influenced by his teacher, and by Wagner, diverged from the paths taken by contemporaries such as Reger and Richard Strauss. His masterpiece, the comic opera Das Unmöglichste von Allem, is constructed on a symphonic scale with a series of amusing plot lines powered by tuneful and inventive writing. Although the opera was well received early on by both critics and musicians, after Urspruch’s death it fell into oblivion until triumphantly revived by the forces on this live recording, the first performance of the original, uncut version of the opera.
Roffredo Caetani (1871-1961) was born into a noble family in Italy. His godfather was nobody less than Franz Liszt, who first recognized his musical talent, and who entrusted him to the care of his own pupil Sgambati. Caetani’s first string quartet was written when he was eighteen years old, modeled on the middle quartets by Beethoven. Twenty years later he wrote his second string quartet, an homage to his great inspiration Franz List. The work is in one continuous movement using the Hungarian scale, lending a unity to the melodic material. The Alauda Quartet was founded in 2011 by students at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since then they have performed in such venues as the Purcell Room of the Queen Elisabeth Hall and the church of St. Martin In The Fields.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (200th Anniversary, transcribed by
Idil Biret Archive
Vinyl
$74.99Jan 03, 2025
During the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, in 2024, IBA is releasing a commemorative limited edition on LP, Idil Biret's performance of the symphony as transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt, originally recorded for EMI and published in a box set of 6LPs with all nine symphonies in 1986. The Choral Fantasy for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus, considered a precursor to the 9th Symphony, is also included in the set.
What might Franz Liszt possibly have in common with Erik Satie? The brilliant virtuoso and magician of pianistic opulence with the minimalistic ascetic of sound? Steffen Schleiermacher has discovered astonishing parallels between the former's late oeuvre and the latter's early oeuvre, which was taking shape at just about the same time. Together with the Gewandhaus concertmaster Andreas Seidel he is now presenting his astonishing new findings to the listening public - surprises are guaranteed. Now and again reminiscences of past times are heard, for example, in the ''Romance oubilee,'' before this forgotten romance unravels into ethereal nothingness. Moreover, Richard Wagner makes his presence felt again and again. Liszt's very mixed feelings about his son-in-law, whose death in Venice he foresaw like a visionary, is reflected in the two ''Sad Gondolas'' - and after Wagner actually had died in the heartrending and overwhelming ''R.W. - Venezia.'' Erik Satie, the house composer of the Wagner devotee Sar Peladan and his Rosicrucians, did precisely the opposite of what was expected of him. Statis sounds and sequences of unresolved chords without development hold his music in a permanent state of suspended animation managing without a beginning or an end. The door he opened for later generations of composers was one through which Franz Liszt delightfully would have gone if he had been somewhat younger.
The winner of the International Bruges Musica Antiqua Competition, Naruhiko Kawaguchi has made a name for himself thanks to his sensitive and nuanced interpretations and his expressive style of fortepiano playing. In this album, the young artist has put together a programme devoted to Schubert and performed on a period instrument. You will (re)discover such works as the Ungarische Melodie D817, the Adagio D612, the Wanderer-Fantasie, D760 and the Four Impromptus D899, as well as Franz Liszt’s solo piano arrangements of some of his lieder – Trockne Blumen, Der Mu¨ller und der Bach and Meeresstille. Always keen to get involved with talented young musicians, Outhere Music has been a partner of the MAFestival for several years now and offers one of its winners the chance to make a recording – which will be released this year on the Fuga Libera label. Naruhiko Kawaguchi is a new example of Outhere’s wish to promote promising young artists and aid their career development.
Ritter, Müller-Hartung, Jadassohn, Sulze, Töpfer: Liszt the Friend & Paragon / Baltrusch
Audite Musikproduktion
CD
$20.99Sep 16, 2022
Weimar in the middle of the 19th century, in Franz Liszt's artistic circle: after years as a traveling piano virtuoso, he now devoted himself to composing and conducting. When the city was only feeding off its past greatness under Goethe and Schiller, Liszt re-established Weimar as a musical center of European stature; in the process, he met eminent organ virtuosos who introduced him to the multi-faceted instrument. His large-scale organ works were composed here. In a two-part series of publications, Anna-Victoria Baltrusch first presents compositions from the pens of those organists who reflected Liszt's musical innovations. She will then turn to the master himself in the second part, next month's release.
While the music world is getting ready for next year’s 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, this year’s bicentennial of the birth of the Polish national composer Stanislaw Moniuszko has gone practically unnoticed outside Poland. For this reason, this new recording of his two string quartets is all the more welcome. The composer who would become the celebrated master of the operas Halka and The Haunted Manor wrote these quartets during or shortly after his Berlin study years and in a style continuing to draw on the vocabulary of classical models. At the same time, the twenty-year-old student displays a sense of humor, melodicism, and chamber finesse that not only make for a genuinely rewarding listening experience but also are worth hearing again and again. A “late” creation by Moniuszko’s young fellow Pole Juliusz Zarebski is being presented here together with the quartets. At the end of his life this favorite pupil and confidant of Franz Liszt wrote an absolutely “avant-garde” piano quintet that might have launched a bold and daring oeuvre but ended up serving as a farewell: when this virtuoso pianist and composer delighting in experiment died in 1885, he was a mere thirty-one years old.
4 RHAPSODIES from critically-acclaimed pianist Kristina Marinova and Navona Records is a collection of vibrant, dynamic, and technically demanding works for solo piano. The album’s titular piece, Four Rhapsodies op. 11 by early 20th-Century composer Ernst von Dohnanyi is rarely performed in concert given the level of musicianship it requires of pianists. Now, its combination of stark drama and dazzling virtuosic passages may be enjoyed by listeners everywhere. This impressive piece, along with works by the likes of Astor Piazzolla, Franz Liszt, and George Gershwin, makes for a varied collection of masterworks performed by the gifted hands of Kristina Marinova.
A veritable musical metaphor for the suicide of Europe that was the Great War, both apotheosis and apocalypse. We also hear evocations of Schubert, Liszt, Mahler and Kreisler, all imbued with a kind of nostalgia that belongs only to this mythical city. - Aurélien Pontier
Dedicated to the last years of Imperial Vienna, which gave rise to an artistic effervescence unique in European history. The program opens with a piano transcription of Strauss's Die Fledermaus and ends with Ravel's La Valse.
While the invention of the symphonic poem is credited to Franz Liszt, French composer Camille Saint-Saens truly took the genre to a new level. The symphonic poem became popular in France in the early 1870s, supported by the newly founded Societe Nationale and its promotion of young French composers. Camille Saint-Saens composed his Le rouet d’Omphale in 1872, with three more soon following. The most famous was his Danse macabre. In all of these works he experiments with orchestration and thematic transformation. In this new release, the Orchestre National de Lille does a service to their fellow countryman, with Jun Markl as their faithful leader at the helm.
Any new recording of Charles-Valentin Alkan is an event, which hopes to widen the public appreciation of this still unknown genius of the French Romantic period. After his unsuccessful efforts at a brilliant concert career, Alkan went into reclusion, concentrating on teaching and composing his totally unique oeuvre mainly written for piano solo. One of the greatest virtuosos of his time (even Franz Liszt was nervous to play in his presence) he wrote piano music of the most colossal proportions, scope and difficulty. This new recording by the young and extraordinarily gifted young Italian Vincenzo Maltempo brings together two of Alkan masterworks: The Grande Sonata "Les Quatre Ages" (in which Alkan musically describes the stages of a man's life, from exuberant youth to tragic old age), and the Symphonie pour piano solo, a dramatic four movement work in Classical/Romantic style. As an encore the fiendishly difficult Etude for two hands unisono, a pianistic tour de force.
The Toccata Classics survey of the music of the Hungarian composer Ferenc Farkas (1905-2000) continues with this fifth album of his orchestral music. Earlier releases have presented the lighter side of his music, with its quasi-Baroque textures and buoyant good humor, but this one shows Farkas working on a larger scale and in generally darker mood. Here he uses the full resources of the symphony orchestra in a number of powerful and dramatic works, including two movements from a symphony that he later withdrew and an orchestration of Liszt’s Funerailles. A lighter bonne bouche-the Dances from the Matra, rather like Kodaly’s Dances from Galanta- rounds things off. Gabor Farkas (no relation to the composer) graduated from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in 2005, finishing his doctoral studies there in 2014 at his alma mater under the mentorship of Zoltan Kocsis. In March 2012 he won the Franz Liszt Award ( the highest Hungarian state award for artists).
Fratres is the new album of and first artistical cooperation by reclaimed pianist Kai Schumacher and cellist Benedict Kloeckner. The artists embark on a search for the mystical and minimalist in the current music scene and thus also encounter the pioneers of this musical style. The album contains works Arvo Part ("Fratres"), Olivier Messiaen ("Louange"), Gavin Bryars ("The South Downs"), Christopher Cerrone ("The Pleasure at Being the Cause"), Valentin Silvestrov ("Postludium"), Sophia Jani ("Sororibus" - World Premiere Recording) as well as by Kai Schumacher, J.S. Bach, Philip Glass, Georges Gurdjieff, and Franz Liszt.
Rhapsody / Matsuev, Jansons, Bavarian Radio Symphony
BR Klassik
CD
$19.99Aug 12, 2016
This newest release from BR KLASSIK explores the genre of the 19th and 20th century Rhapsody, featuring works from masterful composers Emmanuel Chabrier, George Gershwin, George Enesecu, Maurice Ravel, and Franz Liszt. The concert-like atmosphere of this recording makes this a truly unique release, as these works were recorded live in Munich as recently as October 2015. The five rhapsodies featured here come from different regions and the composers’ unique styles can be heard in each of their works. Chabrier’s “Espana” is centered around Iberian and folk music which was very popular at the time. Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” contrasts this work with its use of Hungarian folk melodies. The ever-popular “Rhapsody in Blue” from George Gershwin throws Americana into the mix with its blues roots. Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks never fails to please with their brilliant interpretations and performance quality. World-renowned Russian pianist Denis Matusev is brilliant as the “Rhapsody in Blue” soloist.
Music developed and modernized unstoppably in the tense environment of the 19th century. Parallel to the industrial and technical revolution of the era, many composers broke away from the firmly chiseled rules of music theory and took ever greater liberties. Singer Pur traces this arc of tension here. The composers of the selected pieces were likely very different in their attitudes toward faith and spirituality. Anton Bruckner, who is said to have had an almost childishly pure faith, probably struggled less with his attitude toward God than Franz Liszt or Max Reger, for example.
