Franz Liszt
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Liszt: Excerpts from Années de pèlerinage deuxième année: It
Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Liszt: Rivages / Mossakowski
| “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. |
Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 32: Album d'un voyageur, Bo
Liszt: Complete Organ Works, Vol. 1 / Ferjencikova
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.
Insights
Liszt - Between Heaven & Hell / Moog
On his new Onyx album, ‘From Heaven To Hell,’ Moog programmes works that traverse a wide range of emotions, from the divine and heavenly to the demonic.
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REVIEW:
Moog has one of those techniques that most pianists only dream about. His passagework fairly shimmers with prodigious effortlessness and his octaves are nothing short of dazzling. His fortissimo is mighty, his pianissimo hushed yet resonant. If the elucidation of the Sonata’s deeper musical value eludes his grasp, on a purely technical level, Moog’s interpretation is bound to amaze.
– Gramophone
Light & Darkness: Works by Franz Liszt / Filjak
Franz Liszt: The Complete Symphonic Poems, Vol. Four / Risto-Matti Marin
Although Liszt’s thirteen symphonic poems exist in two-piano transcriptions prepared by the composer himself, it was his Czech student August Stradal (1860–1930) who transcribed twelve of them for solo piano – versions which demand almost superhuman virtuosity. Stradal died before he could tackle the last of the symphonic poems, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe; Risto-Matti Marin has made good that lacuna with his own virtuoso transcription, and adds six of Stradal’s transcriptions of Liszt songs for good measure. The Finnish pianist, Risto-Matti Marin, began his piano lessons at the Kuopio Conservatoire as a pupil of Jouni Räty and continued with professional studies there under Jaakko Untamala. In 1998 he transferred to the Sibelius Academy to study with Erik T. Tawaststjerna, and from 2002 onwards also studied with Teppo Koivisto. He gained a Master´s degree in music in 2004. Since 2005 he has studied at the Sibelius Academy DocMus department. Winner of the first prize in the Kuopio Piano Competition in 1996 and the Helmi Vesa Piano Competition in 1999, Marin was awarded the third prize in the Weimar International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in 2003.
Liszt: B-a-c-h Variations, Piano Sonata / Markus Groh
R E V I E W S
No easy listening here. Groh offers a monumental reading of the Sonata hewn from stone, with dark colors, generally measured tempos, and a crushing weight. In his curious program note (it’s framed as a letter to Liszt, but it tells the composer mostly things he already knows), Groh not only points to the Faust legend, but also suggests that the sonata has “parallels with the story of the Creation in the Bible.” His lengthy analysis, though, pretty much drops the analogy once it’s gotten past the opening measures—and rightly so. For the progress of the Liszt Sonata has nothing in common with Genesis; and what little light and Edenic joy the music might contain is blocked out by the almost unrelievedly grim intensity of the interpretation. Not even the fugue (played with exceptional clarity) has much spark or impetuosity.
In the end, then, Groh’s reading brings the music closer in spirit to Byron’s Manfred (with its self-lacerating guilt) than to either Faust or the Bible—but the music certainly supports that interpretation, and Groh the performer (as opposed to Groh the writer) makes a persuasive advocate. The careful shading of the opening measures holds out the promise of a performance of great expressive depth, taking nothing for granted—a promise that’s fulfilled in the artful shaping of the recitatives, the inevitable growth of the crescendos, the assurance of the phrasing, and the staggering conviction of the climaxes. I’m not quite ready to admit this CD to the inner circle with Argerich, Horowitz (the early recording), Ernst Levy, Hough, Pollini, Richter, and a handful of others; but it’s certainly close, and readers with several recordings on their shelves already should find this a gripping alternative view.
The Fantasy and Fugue responds well to the same epic approach—but I’m marginally less convinced by Totentanz. No complaints about his technique: in that regard, this is as stunning a performance as its companions. But Groh gives us a remarkably unironic reading of a piece that’s fueled by sardonic wit—and for all the detail, for all the striking contrasts, it seems to be a bit too monolithic. Still and all, this is a significant contribution to the Liszt catalog—and I’m eager to hear more from this remarkably talented musician.
FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz
Liszt & Wagner: Piano Works / Cooper
After a highly successful recordings of works by Brahms, the Schumanns, and Chopin, Imogen Cooper plunges into the world of another great romantic, Franz Liszt, and places him alongside that other giant, Richard Wagner. This is an evocative programme of original compositions and intimate transcriptions, ranging from poetic movements from the Années de Pèlerinage: Italie to dark and deeply elegiac pieces, including Liszt's La lugubre gondola I and Wagner's Elegie. It also features a transcription by Zoltán Kocsis of the intensely passionate prelude to Tristan und Isolde. The famous pianist and conductor died prematurely in November, 2016. It was his work that inspired this recording to begin with, and Imogen Cooper dedicates the album to his memory. Breathtaking music in unique interpretations: romanticism without melodrama, virtuosity without fuss.
Liszt, F.: Symphonic Poems, Vol. 3 - Mazeppa / Heroide Fun
Liszt: Les années de pèlerinage / Delle-Vigne
| 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. |
Liszt: Songs for Bass Voice and Piano / Schwartz, Dibbern
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
Liszt: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 47 / Kramer
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.
Rafael Orozco - The Philips Legacy
LIMITED EDITION. SINGLE PRESSING ONLY.
'Fire-eating virtuoso' is how Stereo Review described the finales of the Rachmaninoff concertos recorded by pianist Rafael Orozco (1946-1996) with Edo de Waart. Collected here are the complete Philips recordings of one of Spain's piano aristocracy, winner of the 1966 Leeds Piano Competition. There is passion and poetry in equal measure, and an instinctive feeling for the ebb and flow of a phrase in these recordings of works by Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff. Barnstorming virtuosity from a distinguished member of Spain's piano aristocracy: the complete Philips albums of Rafael Orozco include several recordings new to CD.
At age 20, Rafael Orozco came to the world's attention at the 1966 Leeds Piano Competition. The fire and poetry of his Chopin, Liszt, and Albéniz won him first prize, and then a contract with HMV/EMI which led to several acclaimed albums such as the Chopin Préludes. However, Orozco entered his full artistic maturity around the time of his recordings for Philips, made between 1972 and 1975.
A solo album of Rachmaninoff is one of the newly remastered treasures which have been forgotten over time, but it confirms the depth of Orozco's touch at the keyboard and his instinctive feeling for the ebb and flow of a phrase. Orozco projects the volatile mood-swings of Schumann's Kreisleriana while holding close control over details of line and texture.
In his booklet appreciation of Orozco, Jed Distler compares the album of Chopin's Scherzos to meeting an old friend after a long absence: 'I had forgotten the nuanced scintillation in the first Scherzo's demonic outer sections, not to mention the uncommon precision and centeredness of the triplets in No. 2's famous main theme.' He points out the coruscating impact but also strong architectural feeling of the Liszt Sonata recording which stands out among the solo repertoire on the set.
Orozco also found a meeting of minds with the young Dutch conductor Edo de Waart. Aided by transparent Philips engineering, they explored all the refinements of dialogue in concertos by Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff. His playing of them strikes a rare balance between refinement, passion and a sense of abandon. However, his Philips catalogue has rarely been reissued on CD, making this first-ever collection of his recordings for the label a valuable reminder of Orozco's place in the pantheon of Spanish pianists, alongside the likes of Alicia de Larrocha and Esteban Sánchez.
Musical Journey: Rome - Music Of Liszt
The Places
Starting from the Pantheon and the Colosseum, our tour takes us to the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan, the Arch of Constantine and the Capitol, with the later city represented by the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, and the great piazza before St Peter's in Vatican City.
The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Rome is by Franz Liszt, who divided the last 25 years of his life between Rome, Hungary and Weimar, after an early career as a travelling virtuoso, one of the greatest pianists of his time, and a period settled in Weimar as Director of Music Extraordinary to the Grand Duchy. In Rome he took minor orders and developed further his interest in the music of the Church.
Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 59 mins
No. of DVDs: 1
Liszt: Wagner Transcriptions
Franz Liszt
Liszt: Années De Pèlerinage - Légende 1 / Piemontosi
If the legend of the ‘sermon to the birds’ constitutes a magnificent example of narrative art on the piano, for this way of expressing extra-musical ideas solely with notes the three series of Années de Pèlerinage would seem to be a salient cycle in Liszt’s oeuvre. These ‘years of pilgrimage’ contain a total of 26 character pieces, forming a kind of musical diary for Liszt’s years of travelling. After the very successful release of Volume 1 ("Svizzerland") the young and talented italian pianist Francesco Piemontesi takes care of the second part, "Italy". Again, an impressive movie accompany the pianist on his trip through Italy, on the traces of Franz Liszt. This release shows not only the beauty of the landscape but also interesting statements of Francesco Piemontesi about his actual recording.
Liszt: Symphonic Poems / Michael Halász, New Zealand So
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne also goes very well. The natural sonics capture the atmospheric opening (with its then-novel bass drum rolls) very effectively. If you know your Sibelius, you will recognize these first few minutes as the conceptual forebear of the Finnish composer's En Saga. Yes, the work's various sections tend to lie side by side rather than flow inevitably into one another, but it's a lovely piece that doesn't deserve its current neglect in the concert hall. Hunnenschlacht is just plain fun: a noisy battle followed by an organ-led apotheosis. Once again Halász and company deliver the goods, with fine playing and a vivid sense of drama. Also, to their credit, they don't linger over the less-interesting music representing the "good guys". In short, these are intelligent and effective performances that deliver maximum bang for your buck. Give them a shot.
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Liszt: 6 Hungarian Rhapsodies for Piano 4-Hands / Mangos Duo
Liszt: Etudes d'execution transcendante/ Giltburg
Liszt’s Etudes d’execution transcendante enshrine the spirit of High Romanticism, embodying extremes of expressive drama and technical virtuosity. His encyclopedic approach to technique is shown at its most dazzling in this cycle, heard here in the 1852 revision which Liszt himself declared ‘the only authentic one.’ Integration of musical and technical elements is absolute, and the music’s narratives are supported by dramatic physicality, an orchestral richness of sonority, and an exceptional coloristic quality. The young Moscow-born Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling musician. Born in 1984 in Moscow, he moved to Tel Aviv at an early age, studying with his mother and then with Arie Vardi. He went on to win numerous awards, most recently the Second Prize at the Rubinstein Competition in 2011, and in 2013 he won First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, catapulting his career to a new level.
REVIEW:
Boris Giltburg is a phenomenon. The music seems to ooze from every pore of his being, and he makes us think anew about what we are listening to. I renewed acquaintance with favored recordings from my collection (Ashkenazy, Berezovsky, Berman, Gekic, Kempf, Kultyshev, Strelchenko, Trifonov), but this one stands out for its ability to challenge the mind when thinking about Liszt’s magnificent opus.
– American Record Guide
Liszt: Complete Piano Music Vol 20 - Etudes / Wolfram
Bach, Busoni, Schumann: At the Heart of the Piano / Schliessmann
| A special triple album of great Romantic works by one of the world’s most accomplished pianist specializing in works of that era. These stunning performances of Busoni’s Chaconne (after J S Bach) and Berg’s Sonata are receiving their first release; the other tracks were previously issued by Bayer and have been newly remastered. Schliessmann is a unique interpreter, never afraid to find a new expression and always searching for the heart of the music and the composer’s inspiration. On their initial release these recordings attracted great accolades: American Record Guide said: “The best pianist I know at entering the world and expressing the awareness of the German romantics. There is something personal and unique about Schliessmann's Schumann. It does not sound like anyone else's. He is better than any other pianist I have heard.” High Performance Review said of his Scriabin: “This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet - on the level of Richter, Michelangeli, Wild, Gould - the highest order of artistry.” |
Liszt Recital / Polina Leschenko
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
