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Naxos

Liszt: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 37 / Jue Wang

$19.99 Only 3 left

Details

Composer
LISZT, FRANZ
Artist
Jue Wang
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Sep 24, 2013
Catalog #
8572808
UPC
747313280872

About

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

Tracklist 14 tracks

  1. 1 Sonetto No. 47: Benedetto sia 'lgiorno 06:29
    Track
    1
    Title
    Sonetto No. 47: Benedetto sia 'lgiorno
    Duration
    06:29
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  2. 2 Sonetto No. 104: Pace non trovo 07:27
    Track
    2
    Title
    Sonetto No. 104: Pace non trovo
    Duration
    07:27
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  3. 3 Sonetto No. 123: l'vidi in terra angelici costumi 06:19
    Track
    3
    Title
    Sonetto No. 123: l'vidi in terra angelici costumi
    Duration
    06:19
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  4. 4 I. Lento 07:13
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. Lento
    Duration
    07:13
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  5. 5 II. Allegro 02:38
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Allegro
    Duration
    02:38
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  6. 6 III. Andante placido 03:47
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Andante placido
    Duration
    03:47
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  7. 7 IV. Tarantelles napolitaines 11:03
    Track
    7
    Title
    IV. Tarantelles napolitaines
    Duration
    11:03
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  8. 8 Piano Piece in A-Flat Major, S189a/R44a 01:04
    Track
    8
    Title
    Piano Piece in A-Flat Major, S189a/R44a
    Duration
    01:04
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  9. 9 Recueillement, S204/R86 03:33
    Track
    9
    Title
    Recueillement, S204/R86
    Duration
    03:33
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  10. 10 Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort, S203/R79 02:56
    Track
    10
    Title
    Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort, S203/R79
    Duration
    02:56
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  11. 11 Toccata, S197a/R60a 01:27
    Track
    11
    Title
    Toccata, S197a/R60a
    Duration
    01:27
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  12. 12 Galop de bal, S220/R42 01:04
    Track
    12
    Title
    Galop de bal, S220/R42
    Duration
    01:04
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  13. 13 Galop in A Minor, S218/R40 06:11
    Track
    13
    Title
    Galop in A Minor, S218/R40
    Duration
    06:11
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang
  14. 14 Grand galop chromatique, S219/R41 03:53
    Track
    14
    Title
    Grand galop chromatique, S219/R41
    Duration
    03:53
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Jue Wang