Classical Music

Classical Music

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

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)...."

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.

The problem with Naxos’ Liszt Edition is that it’s easy to overlook some really outstanding releases. If you’ve been following his career, Arnaldo Cohen is a first-rate virtuoso whose Liszt discs on BIS have been outstanding. This Naxos program is just as interesting. The transcription of Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre almost amounts to a new work (he adds several minutes to it) and is absolutely fascinating. It was one of Horowitz’s most impressive recordings from the 1940s. Unstern: sinistre, disastro is one of those strange, dark, late works, but unlike some of them it’s one that’s uninterruptedly gripping.

Cohen has recorded the piano and orchestra version of Totentanz very powerfully for BIS, and this solo piano version is just as exciting. You may not know that the final crashing scale at the end of the orchestral version actually comes from this arrangement; in Liszt’s original the orchestra closes the piece without the piano. The bottom line: this is a wonderful recital of some of Liszt’s darker and more death-obsessed music, and it’s a tribute to Cohen’s programming intelligence, never mind his virtuosity, that he pulls it off without a trace of monotony (having the Huguenots fantasy in the middle of the program certainly helps).

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 10: Scherzo and March, 3 Li

This is an excellent introduction to the piano music of two of the 20th century's greatest composers. Gyorgy Ligeti's stock has only risen since his death, and much of his repulation rests on his formidable ETUDES, one of the few recently composed piano works to enter the active repertory of contemporary players. Ligeti doesn't have a method and belongs to no particular movement or school; he creatively exploited the vocabulary of postwar classical music to hone a very particular voice of his own--expressive, humorous, vivid, grotesque, sometimes macabre.
Like Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen was liberated by the harmonic freedom of modern music to forge a highly personal, even eccentric path--in his case to express and celebrate the awesome presence of God in nature. (He is perhaps the most traditionally Roman Catholic of any major composer, although that is just about the only conservative thing about him.) Far from serene, his music bursts with color and dissonance, and can be violent and terrifying in nature. The piano cycle VINGT REGARDS SUR L'ENFANT-JESUS is quintessential Messaien, and the pianist Volker Banfield gives these excerpts a fluent reading with plenty of splash.

Guitar Recital: Kevin Gallagher

Guitar Recital: Franco Platino

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Haydn: Piano Sonatas Nos. 48-52

SOR: 3 Pieces de Societe, Op. 36 / 6 Petites Pieces, Op. 42

SOR: 6 Waltzes, Opp. 17 and 18 / 6 Airs, Op. 19

SOR: 6 Divertimenti, Opp. 1 and 2 / 6 Petite Pieces, Op. 5

Grieg: Piano Music, Vol. 9

Grieg: Piano Music, Vol. 8

Percy Grainger recorded these selections on Aeolian "Duo Art" piano rolls between 1915-1929, and they are reproduced on a modern piano. Gerald C. Stonehill supplied the piano rolls used for this disc.

This recording contains piano roll recordings of Ignaz Jan Paderewski reproduced on a modern piano.
Includes work(s) for piano by Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, various composers. Soloist: Ignace Jan Paderewski.

The performances on this recording are from Duo-Art piano rolls released between April 1919 and May 1930.

Granados, E.: 12 Spanish Dances

Energetic and entertaining; a must for Gottschalk groupies.

CD 1*
Réponds-moi, Danse Cubaine, Op. 50 (1859) [2:37]
Printemps d'Amour, Mazurka, Caprice de Concert, Op. 40 (1855) [4:31]
Marche de Nuit, Op. 17 (1855) [5:07]
Ses Yeux, Célèbre Polka de Concert, Op. 66 (1865) [4:32]
La Jota Aragonesa, Caprice Espagnol, Op. 14 (?1853) [4:14]
Le Bananier, Chanson nègre, Op. 5 (?1848) [3:03]
Ojos Criollos, Danse Cubaine, Caprice Brillante, Op. 37 (1859) [2:46]
Orfa, Grande Polka, Op. 71 (?1863/64) [2:39]
La Scintilla (L'Énticelle), Mazurka Sentimentale, Op. 20 (1848/53) [3:18]
Marche Funèbre, Op. 61/64 (1853/54) [5:46]
La Gallina, Danse Cubaine, Op. 53 (1859/63) [2:24]
Radieuse, Grande Valse de Concert, Op. 72 (?1863/64) [5:35]
Grande Tarantelle, Op. 67 (?1865) [5:01]
CD 2**
Souvenirs d'Andalousie, Caprice de Concert sur La Caña. Le Fandango et Le Jaleo de Jerez (1851) [4:17]
Le Banjo, Grotesque Fantasie, Caprice Américain (?1854/55) [4:03]
Grand Scherzo (1869) [4:56]
Pasquinade, Caprice (1863) [3:40]
Berceuse, Cradle Song (1861) [4:47]
Tournament Galop (?1850/51) [3:13]
Mazurk [3:47]
'Union' Paraphrase de Concert on the National Airs, The Star Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle and Hail Columbia (1852/62) [8:41]
The Last Hope, Méditation Réligeuse (1854) [6:01]
Scherzo Romantique (1851) [3:50]
Le Mancenillier, West Indian Serenade (?1849/50) [5:22]
The Dying Poet, Meditation (?1863) [6:43]

 
I count M. Louis Moreau Gottschalk among my most joyful and refreshing musical discoveries of recent years. It all started with a second-hand CD of the Irish pianist Philip Martin playing, among other things, Le Banjo, Le Bananier and the jaw-dropping Tremolo. That was followed by a Naxos recording of the orchestral music – review – and, most recently, by Martin’s set of the complete piano music ( review). In a spirit of discovery I was only too keen to hear this Nimbus collection, from two pianists who are new to me. It’s been around for a while, but what makes this set rather special is that CD 1 is devoted to four-handed versions of these showpieces; and that promises to be very entertaining indeed.
 
So it proves. The Chicago-born Alan Marks and British partner Nerine Barrett get off to a terrific start with Réponds-moi, a now sparkling, now seductive little Cuban number. Anyone who knows the two-hander will be astonished by the ebullience and invention on display here. The piano sound is clear and unfettered, making it ideal for such spontaneous writing and playing. The music-box tinkle of Printemps d’Amour is especially attractive, that quicksilver treble a real delight. What a marvellous sense of collective music-making, and how well these players get to the open, easeful heart of these works.
 
Rhythms are always impeccable, those in the early Marche de Nuit and Le Bananier superbly sprung. I’m delighted at how the oft winsome character of Gottschalk’s creations is so well caught and characterised. Dances – whether central American or central European – trip off the keyboard in a most disarming way. The imperious mien and Mediterranean warmth of that Spanish caprice are brought out in full. Occasionally, in Orfa for instance, I miss Martin’s more thoughtful, introspective playing style, in which rhythms and textures are more subtly done. Really that’s a minor caveat when Marks and Barrett’s musicianship is otherwise so polished and pleasing.
 
The first CD ends with a triple flourish. After the Cuban smokiness of La Gallina – simply breathtaking in its quick-fire delivery – and that giddy little Radieuse waltz, comes a crowning tarantella. Marks faces formidable competition in disc two which, recorded several years earlier, sounds a little brighter than the first. Make no mistake, the playing here is very assured, and Marks only yields to Martin in pieces such as Le Banjo. Here the Irishman’s control of touch and dynamics is unrivalled. The American is rather less nuanced or revealing. Then again, he just melts one’s heart with the charming Pasquinade – shades of Tremolo, surely – and the cradle song.
 
It’s an invidious task comparing these two pianists in this repertoire. I wouldn’t want to be without either of them. Just listen to Marks’s runaway rendition of the Tournament Galop and that medley of American patriotic tunes and you’ll hear what I mean. Yes, Martin has the better, fuller recording and a surer, more intuitive way with this music, but Marks certainly captures the generous, larger-than-life nature of these pieces very well indeed. In spite of some lovely touches neither pianist can save the rather maudlin Last Hope and Dying Poet; still they’re hardly dross, and both pianists’ versions are feelingly done.
 
I see from the rather skimpy liner-notes that Alan Marks died in 1995, which is a pity as I’d have liked to hear more Gottschalk from him. That said, it’s the four-handers that offer the greatest and most consistent musical rewards; the solos are somewhat intermittent in their appeal. Fine, atmospheric recordings though.
 
Energetic and entertaining; a must for Gottschalk groupies.
 
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

A phenomenal technician and colourist who made melody communicate to a unique degree and played with great stylistic differentiation, Walter Gieseking was one of the most individual and consistently inspired pianists of our time. Although his commercial recordings encompass some of the great recordings ever made, he didn't live to record under ideal circumstances even a small part of his vast repertoire. The present disc of broadcast performances is therefore of special importance not only in increasing the Gieseking legacy but in chronicling the history of great pianism. The Concerto K488 and Sonata K545 appear on CD for the first time in this collection, while the Concerto K467 and the Sonata K576 are issued here in considerably improved sound over prior editions.