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Brilliant Classics

Liszt: Music for Two Pianos / Howard, Ometto

$18.99

Details

Composer
Franz Liszt
Artist
Mattia Ometto, Leslie Howard
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Jun 07, 2024
Catalog #
BRI95749
UPC
5028421957494

About

The pre-eminent Lisztian of our day returns to Brilliant Classics for a symphonic sequel of transcriptions. In 2018, Brilliant Classics issued Leslie Howard and Mattia Ometta playing the 12 symphonic poems of Liszt in the composer's own transcriptions for piano duo (95748). The set won glowing reviews: 'Not only do Leslie Howard and Mattia Ometto navigate Liszt's technical challenges with fluency and ease,' wrote Jed Distler for Classics Today, 'but they also treat the scores seriously... Howard's excellent annotations and Brilliant Classics' budget price further clinch my recommendation for collectors.' As before, Leslie Howard supplies his own, invaluable insights to accompany this trio of symphonies in Liszt's transcriptions for piano duo. As with the symphonic poems, Liszt remains utterly faithful to the originals, preserving the spirit and sound of the orchestral scores without compromising the texts and, in the case of Beethoven's Ninth, being scrupulously attentive to his hero's great masterpiece. Howard and Ometta observe all of Beethoven's (and Liszt's) repeat markings in the Scherzo, presenting the fullest and most authentic text available. The Faust Symphony has long been recognised as Liszt's greatest orchestral work, and it ranks with the B minor Piano Sonata and the oratorio Christus as the noblest of his musical achievements. The two-piano version reached it's final form by 1863, before Liszt added a short, ethereal passage to the coda of the second movement in 1880, and these bars are added in the present performance. By it's side, the Dante Symphony has often been overlooked and unjustly disparaged. Yet few compossers have depicted hell and damnation as vividly as Liszt (despite the composer's own deep and optimistic Christian faith) in the opening Inferno movement, and it's companion portrait of Purgatory is a wholly original musical conception whose harmonies prefigure many things later familiar from Wagner's Parsifal or the symphonies of Bruckner. Rather less familiar is Liszt's transcription of his Rakoczy March for two pianos and eight hands, for which Howard and Ometta are joined by Leonora Armellini and Igor Roma. Unlike his solopiano transcription of Beethoven's Ninth, this piano duo version incorporates all the vocal parts within the instrumental texture.

Tracklist 13 tracks

  1. 1 I. Faust 25:55
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Faust
    Duration
    25:55
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  2. 2 II. Gretchen 16:50
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Gretchen
    Duration
    16:50
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  3. 3 III. Mephistopheles 22:02
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Mephistopheles
    Duration
    22:02
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  4. 4 IV. Zweiter Schluß 00:59
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Zweiter Schluß
    Duration
    00:59
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  5. 5 I. Inferno 19:21
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Inferno
    Duration
    19:21
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  6. 6 II. Purgatorio 14:18
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Purgatorio
    Duration
    14:18
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  7. 7 II. Magnificat 05:24
    Track
    7
    Title
    II. Magnificat
    Duration
    05:24
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  8. 8 III. Zweiter Schluß 00:48
    Track
    8
    Title
    III. Zweiter Schluß
    Duration
    00:48
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  9. 9 Rákóczi-Marsch (1st version, 1839/40) 10:44
    Track
    9
    Title
    Rákóczi-Marsch (1st version, 1839/40)
    Duration
    10:44
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto, Leonora Armellini, Igor Roma
  10. 10 I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso 17:52
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
    Duration
    17:52
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  11. 11 II. Molto vivace 17:11
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Molto vivace
    Duration
    17:11
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  12. 12 III. Adagio molto e cantabile - Andante moderato 15:15
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Adagio molto e cantabile - Andante moderato
    Duration
    15:15
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto
  13. 13 IV. Finale: Presto 25:04
    Track
    13
    Title
    IV. Finale: Presto
    Duration
    25:04
    Composer
    Franz Liszt
    Performer
    Leslie Howard, Mattia Ometto