Franz Liszt certainly would have been very pleased with Zuzana Ferjencíková’s selection of the Aloys Mooser organ in the Fribourg Cathedral for the first release of her complete recording of his organ works. Liszt himself traveled to Fribourg with George Sand in 1836 in order to have this instrument presented to him. Inspired by this marvelous organ, he then repeatedly wrote compositions and transcriptions for performance on the organ, constantly expanding the sound panorama to keep up with the advances in organ design.

A surprise comes right at the beginning when Ferjencíková presents the famous Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H in the very rarely performed original version premiered by the Liszt pupil Alexander Winterberger at the Merseburg Cathedral in 1856. Fifteen years later Liszt smoothed out the harsh juxtaposition between massive chords and brilliant virtuosity in favor of filigree detail – one more reason to listen with special attention to the rarity recorded here.

Another heavyweight concludes this first SACD: the Introduction, Fugue, and Magnificat from the Symphony on Dante’s Divina Commedia display Liszt’s great compositional mastery. The three realms of the otherworld, which also can be interpreted as an allegory of human striving in general, are closely interrelated motivically and culminate in dazzling magnificence of sound. Ferjencíková registers the funeral song of chorale character after the opening recitative with Mooser’s famous Voix humaine, for which this master of Early Romantic organ design had a special swell box constructed.

Ferjencíková’s program selections demonstrate just how broad Liszt’s interest was in the music of his contemporaries and earlier generations. Here we find transcriptions ranging from Bach to Otto Nicolai and – as a special treat and two-for-one bonus – a Regina coeli laetare by Orlando di Lasso. It is presented twice – and the second time around on the historic Manderscheidt organ from the seventeenth century.

Vincent Larderet is a Steinway Artist who has given solo recitals at many of the world’s premier piano festivals and concert halls. The present release marks his debut on Piano Classics. His previous albums have explored the hot-house world of Impressionism and late Romanticism, making the intoxicating world of late Liszt a natural progression. Pieces on the edge of silence and tonality such as Nuages gris and Unstern! demand at least as much refined nuance of touch and color as the major cycles of Debussy and Ravel which Larderet has often performed in public. In his own booklet introduction, the pianist explains that the aim of the album is to capture the unrivalled rainbow of emotions that span Liszt’s protean oeuvre for the piano. His genius in creating the genre of programme music, almost from scratch (with help from Beethoven and Berlioz), is celebrated by the inclusion of the Dante Sonata of 1849, which condenses and transfigures the narrative arc of the entire Divine Comedy within a single 17-minute span. From four years later, the Second Ballade tells a Gothic tale of a night-ride, perhaps also the ancient Greek myth of Hero and Leander in which the hero drowns while attempting to swim across the Hellespont to visit his beloved, with the pianist called upon literally to produce wave upon wave of sound from his instrument in a masterpiece of tone-painting. The Funerailles anticipate the stern and enigmatic utterances of his very late period, condensing his rich harmonies and multi-layered voices to leave an ever-more imposing musical canvas which imbues each single note with significance and the overwhelming presence of mortality. The ‘sleepless’ vision of Schlaflos! Seems to come from another world; Larderet concludes his unique love-letter to Liszt with En rêve, which paints a more consoling dreamscape.

Three events were decisive for Paul Badura-Skonda’s beginnings: Furtwangler and Karajan hired the still unknown musician for their concerts in Vienna in 1949. By standing in for the sick Edwin Fischer at the Salzburg Festival in 1950 he became an international star. Major tours as a soloist followed. Further highlights in his career were his first tour of Japan, where he appeared in Tokyo alone 14 times, and the first, highly successful tour through the Soviet Union in 1964, which was followed by many other tours. In 1979, Paul Badura-Skoda was the first Western pianist to perform in China after the Cultural Revolution. In the Mozart jubilee year 1991, he played the cycle of all Mozart’s sonatas in Paris, Vienna Munich, Madrid, Tokyo, Hong Kong, etc. Paul describes his performance of the B minor Sonata by Franz Liszt from March 29, 1965 in the Carnegie Hall in New York as “one of the most inspired achievements of my career as a pianist.” To confront a perficious and nasty critique two weeks before in the same venue, Badura-Skoda played as unleashed, with an enormous energy, fuelled in part by internal fury. This concert recording which is to an extent owed to that heat of the moment is being published now, featuring a second interpretation of the same Sonata, a studio recording made in the Mozartsaal of the Vienna Konzerthaus six years later. This version is more controlled and, in the calmer passages, more internalized and contemplative than the New York interpretation. Let it be up to the listener to decide which of the two versions is the preferred one.

The Faust Symphony, first performed in Weimar in 1857, is one of Franz Liszt’s most significant compositions. For the recording of his transcription of this work for organ, Hansjorg Albrecht played the celebrated Klais organ in the Philharmonic Hall of the Gasteig, Munich.Hansjörg Albrecht, conductor, organist and harpsichordist, is Artistic Director of the Munich Bach Choir & Bach Orchestra (founded by the legendary Karl Richter). In addition to this role he regularly conducts the Bach Collegium Munich, the Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo Naples and the C.P.E.-Bach-Choir Hamburg. With these ensembles as well as in collaboration with guest orchestras he has developed new programmatic profiles and is regular guest at major music centres and European festivals. Concerts as organist have taken Hansjörg Albrecht to a number of great concert halls and cathedrals in Europe and Russia as well as to Japan and the USA. He also guested with renowned orchestras such as Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra New York.

Following his two acclaimed recordings featuring works by Chopin and Schumann, Bulgarian-born Pianist Martin Ivanov now takes a chance in producing an album dedicated to Franz Liszt, presenting his presumably most prominent work for piano solo, the Sonata in B minor S 178. This monumental work, which formally consists of only one movement, ever since has provided some space for speculations on whether it carries any programmatic content; many find in those three different musical thematic strains a representation of the figures of the Faust legend Faust, Gretchen and Mephisto. As a matter of fact, Liszt did in this case not append or utter any such programmatic intent. Furthermore, this release features as a brilliant opener the Two Concert Etudes S 145 (Waldesrauschen and Gnomenreigen) and as a vigorous finish the Grandes études de Paganini, S 141.

Volume 58 of the critically acclaimed Liszt Complete Piano Music edition spans Canzone napolitana and the Hungarian Folk Songs to a paraphrase of God Save the Queen. Includes numerous rarely recorded rarities. Performed by award-winning pianist Domonkos Csabay, a native of Hungary. This is his debut on Naxos. Based in the UK since 2015, Hungarian accompanist, répétiteur and chamber musician Domonkos Csabay performs a wide range of classical repertoire. Domonkos has won numerous prizes in the last two years, including first prize in the Brant (now renamed as ‘Birmingham’) International Piano Competition. He played as a pre-concert showcase performer for concerts by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and pianist Paul Lewis and made his debut on BBC Radio 3 in 2018, broadcasting the famously virtuosic Eroica variations by Beethoven.

Performed here by pianists Jenny Lin and Adam Tendler, Liszt’s rarely heard Harmonies poétiques et religieuses is a sublime example of Liszt’s early compositions. Lin and Tendler alternate movements of this monumental piano cycle. “Few performers are willing to take on not only its daunting scale but also its grueling restraint- a cohesion held together in a delicate tension of wild Romanticism and controlled transparency. Mr. Tendler and Ms. Lin aren’t typically associated with Liszt, or 19th century music at all. But, to them, that’s part of the fun. It didn’t take long for them to see just how modern Harmonies poetiques et religieuses can be.” (New York Times)

Marc-André Hamelin performs 'Rèminiscences de Norma', 'La Leggierezza', 'Un Sospiro', 'Polonaise No. 2 in E', 'Bénédiction de Dieu dans Solitude' & 'Rèminiscences de Don Juan' (after Mozart).

Born at Raiding in Hungary in 1811, the son of Adam Liszt, a steward in the service of Haydn’s former patrons, the Esterházy princes, Franz Liszt had early encouragement from members of the Hungarian nobility, allowing him in 1822 to go to Vienna, for lessons with Czerny and a famous meeting with Beethoven. From there he moved to Paris, where Cherubini refused him admission to the Conservatoire, as a foreigner. Nevertheless, he was able to impress audiences by his performance, now supported by the Erard family, piano manufacturers whose wares he was able to advertise in the concert tours on which he embarked. Liszt is perhaps best known for his invention of the symphonic poem. The works on this release are performed by Hungarian pianist Jeno Jandó.

Liszt: Annees De Pelerinage, Vol. 2

Throughout his long career Liszt’s songs – perhaps the most neglected part of his enormous output – took a radical approach to form: he eschewed convention in his search for a sincere musical response to each text. His free-spirited creativity meant that a single song would often call on a range of stylistic devices, among them bel canto vocal lines, unaccompanied recitative, orchestrally conceived piano textures and audacious harmonic procedures. This first recording of his songs by a bass voice brings out both the power and poetry of Liszt’s remarkable imagination. The American bass Jared Schwartz was born in Berne, Indiana, where he began piano lessons at the age of three, violin at seven and French horn at ten. He began a double major in pre-med and music at Bethel College, Indiana, then studied piano with Alexander Toradze and voice with Victoria Garrett, earning a graduate degree from the Eastman School of Music. For Toccata Classics he has already recorded albums of songs by Faure and Flegier.

REVIEW:

Schwartz's forte singing is most impressive, and his voice remains lustrously smooth and elegant in all registers. His vocal coloring, use of contrasting dynamics, and feeling for the text combine to make his readings thoroughly engaging. When he sings with gentleness and lyricism he weaves a magic spell, as in ‘Des Tages Laute Stimmen Schweigen’, which ends sublimely as he delivers the final line of the text (“As night embraces you with gentle silence”). It is stunning.

Mary Dibbern, who collaborated with him in his Flegier album and in preparing his Fauré album, does a superb job with Liszt’s often challenging accompaniment. She also wrote the comprehensive and informative notes for the release.

I learned to enjoy Liszt through his songs, especially his early high-flying Schiller and Petrarch settings, sung by tenors. I am now enjoying a voice that plumbs the sonic and textual depths of the songs.

-- American Record Guide

Argentine-born pianist Aquiles Delle Vigne is one of the most renowned students of the legendary Claudio Arrau, who taught him as a 17-year-old, and looks back on an extraordinary career himself. To this day, he travels tirelessly on all continents. He is particularly interested in Franz Liszt, whose Années de Pèlerinage (Pilgrimage Years) he records here on 4 albums - along with jewels such as Gondoliera / Canzone / Tarantella / Consolations and the Ballade No. 2. Aquiles Delle Vigne, born in Argentine in 1946 from Italian parents, is recognized as one of the top piano professors in the world. He was Distinguished Professor at the Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam and at the École Normale de Musique de Paris “Alfred Cortot”, Visiting Professor at the Northern College of Music in Manchester –following Vlado Perlemuter–, at the Normal University of Taipei, at the Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg for 25 years, and gave masterclasses in more than 40 countries, above all at Moscow and Saint-Petersburg Conservatories, Manhattan School (invited by Solomon Mikowski) of New York, Juilliard School (invited by Oxana Yablonskaya), Toho University of Tokyo, and Munich University.

Also available on Blu-ray

Kenneth MacMillan based his dark, intense ballet Mayerling on the tragic true story of Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Mary Vetsera, and it is celebrated as one of The Royal Ballet’s narrative masterpieces. The oppressive world of the Austro-Hungarian empire is brought to life by the whole Company, with a score drawn from the sweeping music of Franz Liszt, and with sumptuous designs by Nicholas Georgiadis. Steven McRae dances Rudolf, one of the most technically and emotionally demanding roles in the repertory for male dancers, with Sarah Lamb as Mary Vetsera, in choreography that pushes classical ballet to its limits. This release is recorded in true Surround Sound.

Volume 2 of the RIAS Jorge Bolet recordingsis dedicated to Franz Liszt, whose works helped launch the Cuban-born pianist's career; it was also his Liszt performances that shaped Bolet's later path. JorgeBolet shot to fame with the soundtrack of the Hollywood adaptation of the Liszt biography Song Without End. The RIAS recordings also show Bolet to be a Liszt authority. The piano concertos, conducted by LawrenceFoster and Edo de Waart, are concert recordings: the solo pieces were recorded in the studio. The concert paraphrase of the overture to Wagner's Tannhäuser, whose challenges are feared by most pianists, was one of Bolet's "war horses": few other twentieth century pianists would have come close to the technical and interpretational perfection with which he performed the work. The recording ofthe three Petrarch sonnets from the second volume of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage reveal Bolet to bea master of beautiful sound production and legato playing. Bolet demonstrates an unerringly clear and perfectly shaped pianism, as well as his understanding of virtuosity: it is never employed for its own sake, but always to illustrate the musical context. In contrast to the recordings in our first boxed set (audite 21.438), all recordings presented here are in stereo.

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REVIEW:

There are studio recordings of Bolet in the two concertos, both with David Zinman and an earlier one of No 1 with Robert Irving, but these Deutschlandradio recordings are live performances—and Bolet was always at his best in front of an audience. There may be flashier and speedier accounts of the E flat Concerto (recorded 1971) but few that are more powerful, magisterial and, ultimately, thrilling.

– Gramophone

On this 52nd volume of the complete Liszt edition, Wai Yin Wong presents transcriptions and variations drawn from operas by Verdi and Auber. Born in Hong Kong, Young Steinway Artist Wai Yin Wong studied at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with Gabriel Kwok, the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University with Boris Slutsky, and the Yale School of Music with Professor Boris Berman and Professor Wei Yi Yang, receiving full scholarships from both US institutions. She was awarded First Prize at the Southern Highlands International Piano Competition, Australia, Second Prize at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and the Gold Medal at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz, Ukraine.