Complete recordings of Liszt’s organ works, containing both original works and organ arrangements, performed by Hungarian organist István Ella, who received the Liszt Award in 1999.

The eighteen ‘Ungarischer Romanzero’ are transcriptions of popular Hungarian melodies made partially in collaboration with violinist Ede Remenyi. The manuscripts are not always complete, with space for performers to add their own elaborations, or to follow Liszt’s own hints on his own performances of pieces that give valuable insights into his Hungarian influences in their rawest form. The ‘Hungarian National Melodies’ provide opportunities for amateur players, while the hugely popular Rakoczi March became the unofficial national anthem of Hungary, also being used by Berlioz and other composers. Pianist Warren Lee made his televised debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of six and was the first prize winner of the 1995 Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition and the Grand Prix Ivo Pogorelich. His discography includes many acclaimed albums of solo and chamber music repertoire. The ‘American Record Guide’ called him a “first-rate artist” while Fanfare noted that he is “a pianist to watch out, whether as a soloist or chamber musician.”

Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 9: Sacred Music Transcripti

REVIEWS:
BBC Music (6/98, p.63) - Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5) - "...[Jando's] account in the burgeoning Naxos Liszt cycle is deeply satisfying on all counts: passion, fantasy and keyboard wizardry are all there, and the effect is always profuoundly musical..."

Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 7: Rossini Transcriptions

Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 5: Schubert Song Transcript

REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, p.150) - "...[Philip Thomson] plays to the music's virtuosic elements, albeit with great flair and gusto; he exploits the brilliance of passagework at every available opportunity....He brings great eloquence to both the `Consolations'...and to a disturbing piece for left hand alone, `Ungarns Gott: Magyarok Istene' (God of the Magyars)...."

This release is the 49th volume in the Naxos series of the complete works of Franz Liszt. Volume 49 features a wide-ranging selection of dance pieces. The Valses oubliées reveal a compound of wistful nostalgia and advanced harmonies while the remarkable Csárdás macabre, a characteristic Hungarian folk-dance, is full of innovative features. The effervescent Mazurka brillante is a very rare example of Liszt making original use of this Polish form, whilst simultaneously transforming it. The Grand Galop cromatique, heard here in two versions, is a bravura encore piece that the young Liszt often played in his virtuoso recitals. The works are presented on this release by Goran Filipec, recent laureate of the Granc Prix du Disque of the Ferenc Liszt Society of Budapest.

Reflecting the life of Christ from the nativity to the Passion and Resurrection, Liszt’s oratorio Christus was premiered in 1873 and enjoyed considerable success. The movements he transcribed for piano are dynamic and virtuosic but also pastoral and meditative, including marches and passages of transfiguring beauty. The transcriptions of movements from the oratorio The Legend of St Elisabeth contains music of stirring power: plainsong, a hymn, a march and a Hungarian folk-song. This is the forty-seventh volume in Naxos's celebrated complete Liszt piano music series, and features prolific pianist Henry Kramer.

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month!

There seem to be an increasing amount of young pianists these days who are willing to record Liszt’s most demanding works. I had not previously heard of Goran Filipec but it turns out this Croatian pianist has won various piano competitions in Europe and has received awards for his recordings of music by Ivo Ma?ek from the sister label to Naxos, Grand Piano. When I first found out about this recording, I thought “great, another person is going to play the horrendously challenging Six Etudes d'execution transcendante d'apres Paganini” as I always think it is better to have more than one recording of each work. It is certainly interesting to compare it to the only other complete Paganini etudes recording, that by the incomparable Leslie Howard on Hyperion. A quick comparison of the timings for both pianists reveal that Filipec is actually faster in almost all cases than Howard. This was rather a surprise as, having studied the scores, these works really do push the pianist to their limits. The later, simpler (if this is the right word) versions have been recorded many times by many different pianists and the third of these, “La Campanella” remains a very popular showpiece. There is also a lot of confusion over which is the correct Searle (“S”) number for these – many “La Campanella” recordings claim to be S140 no.3 (the earlier harder version) and are, in actual fact, the later one! Anyway, that isn’t a problem here as we have both versions as well as various other iterations including the hybrid Liszt/Schumann version of S140 no.1 and the alternative notation for nos. 4 and 5 from S140.

The disc starts with the later and less complex version of the Paganini Etudes, dating from 1851. The first of the set is mostly based on Paganini’s caprice no.6 and is basically a study in tremolos. This is a very hard piece to bring off as the tremolos have to be kept constant and not interrupted or disturbed by the tune in the right (and sometimes the left) hand. This is not a problem here and the playing around 3 minutes is very delicate and well done, as it should be, according to my score. The second of the etudes is based on Paganini’s 17th caprice and contains numerous technical problems mostly involving octaves and rapid semiquaver runs. Again, this is brilliantly played – the rapid runs are very clear and bright. As I had expected, he makes a superb job of no.3 – “La Campanella”; the playing around 2:40 is incredibly delicate – it’s worth remembering that the only FF (fortissimo) indication in the whole piece is on the final page and this is something that pianists often forget at the expense of showing off. This does not happen here. No.4 is dispatched very cleanly and rapidly – after all it is marked “vivo”. I can detect a small amount of audible pedalling here and elsewhere but it doesn’t detract from the quality of the playing. The fifth of the etudes is subtitled “La Chasse” after Paganini’s 9th caprice which it is based. Here, the first theme is supposed to be played ‘imitando il Flauto’ (like a flute) but here it doesn’t quite sound quite flute like enough to my ears. Nevertheless, this is a great performance. The sixth and final etude is the one with the theme also used by Brahms, Rachmaninov and Lutoslawski. Here all the variations are well defined with the theme being made very clear and so it is easy to pick out. Special mention is the lovely trills at about 3:40, they are ethereal sounding and very gentle. Marvellous! I have several complete recordings of this version of these etudes and I have to say that this is probably now my new favorite, displacing Georges-Emmanuel Lazaridis on Linn.

Next follows the earlier and thornier versions of these works. The differences vary from etude to etude but in the first one, they are relatively slight being only a few additional huge stretches, big chords in the base and some additional tremolo work (especially about 3 minutes). As before, this is played extremely well and it is interesting to compare to the later version. Track 8 is another version of the first etude but this is a hybrid of Schumann’s Op.10 no.2 and the introduction from Liszt’s version making a piece which avoids the tremolos. Clara Schumann thought Liszt was mocking Robert by doing this because of the lack of notes in comparison with his (Liszt’s) version but this is not the case. Liszt was merely trying to popularize Schumann’s etude for the same reason that he transcribed so many other composers’ works: to increase their familiarity with the public at large. Nonetheless, this makes for an interesting comparison with Liszt’s solution of tremolos. The second etude in this set is vastly different to the later version in that the leaps are moved to the left hand and most of the runs are now in thirds. Not so you would notice here as all the additional complications are made to sound easy by this pianist. Then follows the horribly complex version of the 3rd etude, “La Campanella” which contains a wonderfully mad bit which comes from Paganini’s 1st Violin Concerto which has to be heard to be believed! It’s worth sitting down with the score to follow it to figure out how on earth someone is able to play music of this complexity. I’d hope sometime in the future someone writes a book about the links between Liszt’s various works which include the main theme from “La Campanella” as it occurs in the early “La Clochette” fantasy (S420), the two versions (according to Dr. Howard) of the Variations on a theme by Paganini (S700a and S700ii) as well as both versions of the Paganini Etudes. There is also some cross linking with the theme “Le Carnival de Venise” in some of these works! The forth etude features a whole slew of alternative texts so can be played in two ways, which is what happens here. This is infinitely more taxing than the later version (which is awkward enough!) with both hands joining in the wide leaps and jumps and mirroring each other. The alternative version includes some interesting chordal writing in the base clef not found elsewhere as well as more judicious use of chords in thirds. Both versions are brilliantly played here. A similar situation occurs with the 5th etude “La Chasse” in that there are alternative texts so the piece can be played in 2 ways. These make for a fascinating comparison so it is well worth having them one after the other to compare. The sixth and final etude in A minor subtitled “Theme and Variations” contains some striking differences to the later version, some of which are quite a surprise as personally I think the later version more closely conforms to Paganini’s original text.

As a post script, the disc ends with the early Variations on “Le Carnival de Venise” (S700) dating from 1845 and published by the Cornetto edition. This starts peacefully enough before becoming more and more involved. Variation 3 (about 1 and a half minutes) is particularly interesting with the glissandi descending to the notes which make up the tune. There are some weird key changes around 3 minutes which sound really odd! This again is wonderfully played and is interesting as it is so rarely recorded.

The playing throughout these very difficult pieces is top notch; I cannot fault Mr. Filipec’s virtuosity or musical feeling at any point. The playing is superb in every respect and I urge anyone interested in Liszt and Paganini to buy this very reasonably priced disc. The recorded sound is clear and bright and the cover notes, while rather short, are interesting and provide useful information about the alternative versions and iterations of these fascinating studies. I have listened to this disc many times and I have to say that Goran Filipec is a superb artist and I look forward to hearing more of his recordings in the near future. He is clearly a pianist to listen (or possibly Liszten!) out for.

– MusicWeb International (Jonathan Welsh)

REVIEWS:
American Record Guide (11-12/97, pp.149-50) - "...[Philip Thomson] plays to the music's virtuosic elements, albeit with great flair and gusto; he exploits the brilliance of passagework at every available opportunity....He brings great eloquence to...`Les Morts'..."

Naxos’ ongoing complete Liszt piano music cycle reaches Volume 37 with the rarely heard first versions of three Petrarca Sonnets and Venezia e Napoli. The latter’s original incarnation included four rather than three movements. The opening movement features material that Liszt later recycled for his symphonic poem Tasso, with a middle section packed with scintillating arpeggios and rapid unison passages. It is followed by a brief declamatory movement, and then an Andante placido that would grow more elaborate, decorative, fluid, and imaginative as Gondoliera in the revised suite. Similarly, the later Tarantella is tighter and more dramatically cogent than its more diffuse yet no less demanding earlier counterpart. Among the three earlier Petrarca pieces, Sonetto No. 104’s differences particularly stand out from its later, more familiar revision, notably in a long, brooding introduction that Liszt replaced with the terser, agitated short phrases we know today.

Making his Naxos label debut, pianist Jue Wang plays best when his hands are fully occupied, as in the Tarantella’s bravura climaxes and long stretches of repeated notes, although Leslie Howard shapes the slower, rhetorical passagework with a stronger sense of the music’s declamatory nature and dynamic contrasts. While Wang captures the unquiet undercurrents of Schlaflos Frage und Antwort, his relatively heavy touch and general loudness take a back seat to Alfred Brendel’s faster and texturally clearer account on his Philips recording.

However, Wang’s light and supple Toccata points up the work’s foreshadowing similar textures and harmonic ambiguities of Debussy and Bartók. He tosses off the brief, flashy Galop de bal and the more substantial A minor Galop with tremendous character and technical finish, and serves up an ebullient Grand Galop chromatique that takes Liszt’s tempos and accentuations more seriously than the deliciously wacky Cziffra, whose galloping horse is closer to a souped-up bumper car. Keith Anderson’s annotations are up to his usual high standards.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Recording information: Bösendorfer Hall, Vienna, Austria (06/09/2008-06/11/2008).

The 12 Transcendental Etudes are the ultimate test of quasi-orchestral virtuosity and of the capacity to achieve nobility and true eloquence. Jand� perhaps lacks diabolic frisson in the more ferocious numbers but his performances, overall, aren't disfigured by willful, sensational attributes or hysteria. No-1 is an impressive, dramatically pointed, curtain-raiser, and he can hell-raise with assurance in 'Mazeppa'. His 'Feux follets' hardly sparks with the brilliance of, say, some of the full-blooded accounts of certain Russian artists, but even when it hardly modulates from study to tone-poem it's still more than capable (higher praise than you might think where such intricacy is concerned). He flashes an impressive rapier at the start of 'Eroica' and there's plenty of swagger and facility in the so-called 'Appassionata' �tude. 'Chasse-neige', too, proceeds with a fine sense of it's menacing start to a howling, elemental uproar before returning to distant thunder. Jand� is less assured in introspection, yet it has to be said that all-encompassing versions of the Transcendental Etudes are hard to come by. Jand� is impressively recorded.

LISZT Les préludes. Orpheus. Mazeppa. Die Ideale • Tami Kanazawa (pn); Yuval Admony (pn) • NAXOS 8.570736 (65:49)


Here are three surefire pieces and perhaps the biggest clinker ever to escape Liszt’s pen. Kanazawa and Admony are consistently brilliant, virtuosic, and spankingly paced—qualities magnified by a very close, detailed capture presented at an elevated dynamic level to pack an undeniable visceral wallop. They roll out the big tunes with gusto but transitions are deadpan and the narrative thrust of Les préludes and Orpheus sags, in comparison with the integrated seamlessness, more deftly varied pianism, and even greater élan of the Mangos sisters, whose three volumes of the symphonic poems snagged enthusiastic appreciations from Peter J. Rabinowitz (Çedille 14, Fanfare 17:2; Çedille 24, Fanfare 19:4; Çedille 31, Fanfare 20: 6). Consistently climactic throughout, Mazeppa complements Kanazawa/Admony’s strengths, though even here one notes that the Mangos sisters bring it off with finesse and escalating trajectory that keep one riveted where Kanazawa and Admony triumph through glaring forcefulness.


Die Ideale is at least twice too long and a fretful mixture of captivating ideas and banal oddments, worked with clamorous repetitiousness, to devolve in bombastic rodomontade. Kanazawa and Admony, without slacking, take over 24 minutes to cut through it, the Mangos 22:32. Even with the considerable art and stupendous resourcefulness the Mangos lavish on it, Die Ideale remains something of an ordeal. Chez Kanazawa/Admony, the ordeal is distended into the realm of the episodically penitential. But the Çedille albums are no longer available, while these performances, even after slighting comparisons, remain impressive. And on those terms this is recommended.

FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis