Lisztomania!

[Todd]

   


 



Liszt just doesn't seem to get as much love as some other romantics, but in this Liszt year I decided to splurge a bit a sample a nice array of recordings, with a focus on piano music, of course.  I mean, it's Liszt, come on.

Gabriela Imreh is a name new to me, and the Soirees de Vienne are, I think, new to me.  There's certainly some brilliant piano writing in these Schubert transcriptions.  That's not at all surprising.  (The fourth has a nice riff on LvB's 31/3 opening, too.)  It's best to listen to only a few works at a time.  Also not surprising.  But perhaps some of that has to do with the playing.  Ms Imreh has chops, to be sure.  She can play loud.  Real loud.  But, at least in this recording, subtlety and tone color are not her strong suits.  Rarely is there anything delicate in the playing, and she likes to bang away in the loudest passages.  Her playing reminds me a bit of Weissenberg and Kovacevich mixed together, without the former's awesome command and the latter's unyielding seriousness.  Perhaps part of the problem is the recording, which is bright, metallic, and hard.  But then, maybe the recording is quite faithful.  Anyway, for me, a not particularly distinguished recital.  I want more from Liszt, and more lyrical playing where Schubert is the focus of the transcriptions.

Jean Yves Thibaudet's recording of Liszt's piano concertos, Totentanz, and Hungarian Dance for piano is much more to my liking.  While Thibaudet's playing isn't as intense or fiery or powerful as some, his effortless playing of even the knottiest passages is just plain fun to listen to.  He offers dazzling performances, and Charles Dutoit and his orchestra offer beefy, warm support, and the balances are closer to realistic than normal – Thibaudet isn't playing a 30 foot grand here.  No, this doesn't quite match up to Richter or Janis, but it's an excellent disc.

Khatia Buniatishvili is a young newcomer who has apparently already garnered devoted some fans, and I can hear why, though I think there may be room for improvement.  Her all-Liszt recital includes the famous Liebestraum, the Sonata, the first Mephitso Waltz, La lugubre gondola, and the A minor Prelude and Fugue in A minor after Bach.  The first thing one notices is that Ms Buniatishvili has serious chops.  Nothing seems difficult to her, and she can play as fast, as loud, as quiet, or as any anything as she wants to.  That makes fast passages thrilling, and quieter passages riveting.  But something else that was hard to miss was how she sacrifices the long line for the moment.  This is especially true in the sonata, where the playing becomes episodic and somewhat disconnected feeling.  Sure, at any time the playing is wonderful, but to what end?  Her talent and youth make me want to hear if she may mature into something more, and perhaps she just shines better with other music.  Schumann, say.  Sound is superb.  I think I'll pass on the concept film DVD that comes with the disc, at least for now.

Next up is Lilya Zilberstein's mod-1990s recital on DG, all repackaged by Universal Australia a few years back.  Ms Zilberstein is in many ways an ideal Lisztian.  Her technique is superb, with even the most difficult passages seeming easy, and she plays both firmly and beautifully.  The Two Legends are superb, with the preaching to the birds wonderfully dextrous.  The Consolations are quite good, too, though perhaps they lack a bit in terms of tonal finesse.  The other works are all masterfully played, and this disc is a treat to listen to.  Of course, there is a lot of overlap between this recital and Nelson Freire's new-ish Liszt disc, and he proves to be better in every instance.  In any event, it can't hurt to have more Liszt in one's collection.

The last set offers a nice mix of Liszt – the recent, and apparently hasty, reissue of Daniel Barenboim's Lizt recordings for Erato and Teldec.  (I say hasty since new photos are not used and there are no liner notes.)  The first two discs are given over to orchestral works and the last to solo piano works.  The set opens with a rather enjoyable recording of the Faust symphony.  It's nicely paced, very well played, and sounds a whole lot like Wagner.  The harmonic sound world  is very close to Wagner, and the overall feel is "forward looking" and large scaled.  But who influenced whom?  Did Liszt offer a way forward for Wagner, or vice versa?  (Of course, this may just be a result of Barenboim's conducting; Leonard Bernstein offers an even more expansive reading that has hints of Mahler.)  Singer, band, and sound are all quite fine.  The Dante symphony is better yet.  This is my first version of the work, and it is clear that I need to sample some more.  It is magnificent, again Wagnerian sounding, and grand in scope while more compact in terms of time.  Apparently Barenboim takes his time at about 50 minutes, but some of the music seems to beg to be drawn out further, perhaps even to Celibidachean length, so sumptuous and opulent is it.  Sound is again superb.  It's the highlight of the set.  The Second Hungarian Rhapsody is a nice, light, purposely crowd pleasing performance taken from a music festival, complete with chirping birds and squealing children.  The last disc, alas, is not successful.  This is my first encounter with Barenboim's Liszt on the piano, and I would have thought he would be good at such an indulgent romantic's music.  Some of it is good or at least acceptable, namely the three Verdi paraphrases, but the two big works, at least for me, are a miss.  The Dante Sonata from the second Annees sounds strained and perhaps too opulent.  Yes, Barenboim plays with his customary rich sound, but he just can't offer the thrills and strength of other pianists.  I listened to Arcadi Volodos' version a couple days later, and he simply outclasses Barenboim in every way, most notably technical command.  Lazar Berman and Jorge Bolet are likewise far more commanding.  The Sonata suffers a similar fate, but here his tonal finesse is even challenged, and like Buniatishvili, he plays the piece in an episodic fashion, but he cannot match her in the more challenging parts, or in delectable quieter passages.  I was surprisingly dissatisfied with the whole disc, though the set is quite good overall.

Anyway, thanks for the good music Ferenc.