Franz Liszt - A Critical Discography

[Holden]

Those are all on the 5CD set, I think - the info on the 4CD set suggests only 12 and 15 are from earlier. However, I like all of it a lot. I might not have my ears attuned to such detail yet ...

IIRC the big Cziffra box covers both the Hungaroton and EMI HRs  but Im not 100% sure as I have a separate CD with the Hungaroton HRs on it. The Hungaroton definitely wins out!

[Todd]

https://www.youtube.com/v/lrZ9cswKfi0



Not on disc to my knowledge, but well worth a listen.  The Complete Columbia Recordings box also has a studio version.

[San Antone]

https://www.youtube.com/v/lrZ9cswKfi0



Not on disc to my knowledge, but well worth a listen.  The Complete Columbia Recordings box also has a studio version.

Thanks for posting this; I had looked to see if the sonata was on his recent Liszt disc, but it was not.

[San Antone]

Another off the beaten track B Minor Sonata performance, this one by Margarita Hohenrieter

[asin]B00442M14I[/asin]

Bruce Surtees
The WholeNote, March 2011
Margarita Höhenrieder came to our attention playing the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with Fabio Luisi and the Dresden Staatskapelle on a Medici Arts DVD (2057718). Here, for the first time in my experience we have a pianist who displays in her demeanour and playing unalloyed joie de vivre. A must–have DVD for Beethoven lovers. A new CD from Solo Musica contains the Chopin Third Sonata Opus 58, recorded in 2010, and a well deserved reissue of Höhenrieder's extraordinary 1986 traversal of the Liszt Sonata in B minor. Her playing exhibits an amazing transparency and flawless articulation in performances that maintain high electricity and momentum. Her palette of textures and nuances in both works was respected by producer and engineer who recorded her performances faithfully. The Liszt sonata is not played as if it were the hundred metre dash, instead Höhenrieder reveals both the poetry and power of Liszt the Romantic; serene, contemplative episodes contrasting with dynamic passages of great power and authority. A unique interpretation, I believe, and certainly memorable.

[Mandryka]

Another off the beaten track B Minor Sonata performance, this one by Margarita Hohenrieter

[asin]B00442M14I[/asin]

Bruce Surtees
The WholeNote, March 2011
Margarita Höhenrieder came to our attention playing the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with Fabio Luisi and the Dresden Staatskapelle on a Medici Arts DVD (2057718). Here, for the first time in my experience we have a pianist who displays in her demeanour and playing unalloyed joie de vivre. A must–have DVD for Beethoven lovers. A new CD from Solo Musica contains the Chopin Third Sonata Opus 58, recorded in 2010, and a well deserved reissue of Höhenrieder's extraordinary 1986 traversal of the Liszt Sonata in B minor. Her playing exhibits an amazing transparency and flawless articulation in performances that maintain high electricity and momentum. Her palette of textures and nuances in both works was respected by producer and engineer who recorded her performances faithfully. The Liszt sonata is not played as if it were the hundred metre dash, instead Höhenrieder reveals both the poetry and power of Liszt the Romantic; serene, contemplative episodes contrasting with dynamic passages of great power and authority. A unique interpretation, I believe, and certainly memorable.

I can imagine she'd be good in early Beethoven. I heard the Chopin sonata, I noticed the impetuousness of it, the hard tone, and the generally life affirming approach. She reminds me in some ways of Samson François and Alexis Weissenberg, both because of the steely fingers and because of the movement forward and energy.

I haven't heard the Liszt yet.

[San Antone]

Yundi Li highly praised by Adrian Corleonis (Fanfare)

[asin]B00008GQTQ[/asin]

Twenty-one-year-old Yundi Li is that rarity among prizewinners—a complete artist with nothing to prove and everything to tell. And telling it is! Let it be said at once that this young man has not a trace of technique. His command of the keyboard is so preternaturally embracing—including, when he wishes, a veritable peacock's tail of piquant color—that one experiences his playing as an extension of his imagination. And his imagination is that of a supremely gifted actor, realizing Liszt's rhetoric with such fluent transports, such superbly controlled volatility, such renewing poetry that one is held spellbound from first note to last throughout this astounding recital. In passage after passage through the sonata, for instance, one awaits the crashing octave salvos, the buzz-saw passage work, the Faith and Love themes strutted like the proverbial whore in church, the archly demonic fugue, etc., only to hear instead effortless power hand-in-hand with beguiling gossamer, melody rife—again—with enchantment, and a narrative arch arcing in candid whelming grandeur. La campanella is exquisitely shaped, returning one to the exhilaration of its first idea. The Schumann transcription affords a welling access of pure sentiment, miraculously managed with absolute clarity. "The" Liebestraum is rendered with a plummy gorgeousness that almost leaves its banality behind. The Tarantella is less a Liszt piece than the essence of the tarantella, a Platonic fountainhead of the tarantella, warmed by Italian sun, inspirited by Italian melody. And, to cap it all, the Rigoletto Paraphrase seems a living copy of Busoni's piano roll—not an imitation but a realization of glowing, dreamlike vivacity. Sound is captured at the optimum point as it flares, detail-rippled, into spaciousness. Raving? I am—as you will be when you hear this.

[Karl Henning]

[asin]B00008GQTQ[/asin]

Caption:  "F— it, let's go bowling."

[San Antone]

 

[Leo K.]

Caption:  "F— it, let's go bowling."

LOL!

[San Antone]

Pascal Amoyel : Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses

[asin]B005KLN0HY[/asin]

With this richly comprehensive two-CD album Pascal Amoyel finds his truest métier, playing with an extraordinary richness and intensity of expression. By his own confession, this former student of György Cziffra is attracted to music of a spiritual and mystical nature and his way with the Harmonies poétiques et réligieuses subtly and boldly conveys, whether in austerity or elaboration, the full complexity of Liszt's religious life, his alternative exultation and despair. How he warms to the colossal quasi-orchestral grandeur of "Invocations", and any initial impression that he could achieve a greater sense of serenity and mounting ecstasy in the "Bénédiction" by simpler means is countered by an urgency and commitment that make other more fleet and elegant recordings sound superficial by comparison.

Finely recorded, this is an invaluable album.

(Gramophone, 3/2008)

[San Antone]

Claire Chevallier : Harmonies poétiques et religieuses: Andante lagrimoso; Funérailles. Mephisto Waltz No. 1. La lugubre Gondola No. 2. Saint-François d'Assise, La Prédication aux oiseaux. Saint-François de Paule marchant sur les flots. Wiegenlied

[asin]B005LL4TQY[/asin]

Given that Liszt's vast oeuvre naturally reflects the instruments he constantly played, it is surprising that so few recordings issued during last year's bicentennial used historical pianos. Back in 2008, the British pianist Daniel Grimwood recorded the three books of the Années on an 1851 London Érard. Among the few historical instrument releases during the Liszt Year, Tomas Dratva's of the Swiss Année (on Wagner's 1876 Steinway in Bayreuth) and Michele Campanella's of a group of late works (on Liszt's 1860 Bechstein, now in Siena) are noteworthy. All the more welcome then is this new release by the gifted French pianist Claire Chevallier (now resident in Brussels, where she teaches at the conservatory), who plays an 1876 Paris Érard.

The curtain-raiser for her intelligent program is the poignant Andante lagrimoso from the Harmonies. Its gentle pace and straightforward textures showcase the instrument perfectly, allowing the ear to adjust to the special richness of the Érard's sonorities and relatively quick decay. However, it is in the more orchestrally conceived pieces—the First Mephisto Waltz and the two St. Francis Legends (all three of which exist in orchestral versions), as well as Funérailles—that the extraordinary qualities of the piano are heard to most striking advantage. One factor is the individual character of the various registers, which, even in a piano of this late vintage, has not yet entirely disappeared. Another is the rapid decay of each note, allowing even densely textured, high-speed passages to speak with extraordinary harmonic clarity; the same passages on a modern instrument can sound thick when taken at tempo. Moreover, the Érard's sustaining pedal can be used to create an ethereal aura without obscuring harmonies, as it would inevitably on a modern instrument with its higher string tension and thickly felted hammers. All this to say that Chevallier knew precisely what she was doing in following the Andante lagrimoso with this Mephisto Waltz in a performance so robust and vivid, so drenched in kaleidoscopic colors that I don't know of an orchestral performance to equal it. Her imaginative conception and resourceful execution create an overall effect nothing short of magic. If, like me, you're a listener who has secretly yearned for a shelving of the Mephisto Waltz for a good 20 years, so that it might be pulled down again and heard with fresh ears, this performance is likely to change your mind. (Fanfare, Sept/Oct 2012)

[San Antone]

Haiou Zhang : Liszt Piano Works



Playing a Bechstein, model D 282, Zhang is nothing short of phenomenal. Compared to Pogorelich and Pletnev, Zhang's reading of the sonata is fast, 31:56, though not nearly as fast as Pollini at 29:08. But the notes fly from Zhang's fingers as sparks from flint. There is a steel-like strength in his playing that not merely surmounts every technical obstacle but makes of it an effortless lope. And yet, wherever Liszt pauses to paint musical portraits of romantic dalliances past and present, and dreams of passions yet to come Zhang's tone turns pliant, plaintive, and tender.

With no less care, flair, and finesse does Zhang approach the other Liszt items in his recital. Horowitz, I'm sure, would smile approvingly at Zhang's bell-ringing tintinnabulations in his arrangement of the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and rarely have I heard the birds sermonized with such sweet-tongued tweeting as here in Zhang's St. Francis preaching to his feathered flock.

All of this is aided and abetted by a recording of such crystalline clarity as to dispel any sense that an electronic reproduction stands between you and Zhang's piano. (Fanfare, July/Aug 2011)

[San Antone]

With nearly 175 recordings of Liszt's Sonata currently available, and countless others doubtless in the pipeline for release during the bicentennial next year, the odds of placing a personal stamp on territory so thoroughly explored are slim indeed.

Yet that is precisely what Sun does in these fresh and original readings. His technical equipment is extraordinary, yet it is his calm, lyrical music-making, rhythmically secure and drawing on a rich color palette, that is most striking in these performances. Sun's tempos are well within the established norm and his fluently natural delivery steers clear of high drama. On the other hand, his sensitivity to Liszt's idiosyncratic rhetorical gestures is extraordinarily acute. He makes cunning use of rubato, though always within the bounds of taste, and is particularly adept at the juxtaposition of foreground, middle ground, and background to differentiate the musical topography. Throughout the Sonata, Sun's precise voicing of chordal textures showcases Liszt's richly unconventional harmonic thinking. While not deliriously passionate, the Petrarch Sonnets are nothing if not lyrical outpourings of extraordinary beauty. St Francis of Assisi's Sermon to the Birds brims with all the coloristic nuance and delicacy appropriate to this proto-Impressionist score, its mystical rapture unfolding in a chaste, almost transfixed tranquility.

Patrick Rucker, Issue 34:4 (Mar/Apr 2011) of Fanfare Magazine.

[San Antone]

Cziffra's recording of the Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor is a phenomenal performance of this difficult work.  His embarace of the large formal aspects is convincing and his technical mastery is obvious.  It is certainly on the short list of the very best recordings available, almost at the level of Vladimir Horowitz (1932), Martha Argerich (1971), and Sviatoslav Richter (1965).  I say almost, since I feel he gives short shrift to some details in places and his concentration seems to flag at times.

[San Antone]

Two fairly recent recordings of the B Minor Sonata: Boris Berezovsky offers one of, if not the, fastest performances on record, Marc-Andre Hamelin present an Apollonian interpretation that scales the mountain of this work with conviction and class.

While Hamelin takes almost 32 minutes Berevosky gets the work finished in under 25.  Argerich played this work almost as fast, but she played the work with a fierce tenacity and concentrated power that left us one of the three best recordings of the work ever. Berevsky's version is disappointingly underplayed.  Too often he seems to be just getting through it, granted at a fast clip.  I find this disappointing since his playing is usually very exciting and convincing, but in this recording not so much.

By contrast, Hamelin's recording is one of a handful of recordings since the bicentennial year, 2011, which can stand alongside Argerich.  Hamelin's fillers are also exceptional not only because of his playing but because of which works he chose.  The B-A-C-H work is rarely done because of its length, and also when done often marred by pianists overly concerned with its origin as a work for organ.  Hamelin plays this in an monumental performance, unmatched by any other I've heard.

Hamelin: run to buy; Berezovsky: unfortunately, pass.

[San Antone]

If a metaphor for the Liszt sonata is a mountain, say the Everest of the piano literature, Martha Argerich scales it in exciting fashion.  Imagine a steep narrow ledge going up the mountain and Martha is a gymnast somersaulting and pinwheeling up, teasing the audience as she appears to come very close to losing her balance and falling over the edge, only to effortlessly catch herself and demonstrate that she had control all the time.

There was a time when this work was judged practically unplayable for most pianists, however, these days (and for some time) any serious piano student, teenagers even, can manage the technical demands of the work.  But this works calls for much more than merely managing the technical demands.  If a pianist is to fully embrace this work they must at the very minimum possess the skill that not only manages the technical demands but have them so under their fingers that they can play the work with controlled abandon.

Most often, even with masterful pianists, the problem of the notes is solved but the musical problem of the form and architecture of the work is not.  Passages of chromatic or arppegiated figures, often in octaves, are left to speak for themselves and then when they end up with a new section everything comes to a stop while the pianist gathers their wits before proceeding.  This is not how it should be done, but it is extremely hard to avoid this outcome.  Many times the melodic content hidden among the filigree is lost or not sufficiently emphasized.  The pianist is so intent on managing the fast (transitional) passages, missing the main point of the section, they end up presenting the music as nothing but virtuosity.  However, that is most definitely not what Liszt was doing, but often all that a pianist can manage. 

These passages are really meant to underscore a larger theme, these "virtuosic" passages ideally should be accomplished in an effortless manner, often softly and smoothly as the main theme rings out over the top providing a hazy under-texture that both supports and pushed the music forward.  Done correctly, this music bristles with excitement and will have the audience on the edge of their seats.

Argerich not only avoids this kind of playing but presents us with a performance that so far exceeds this problem that one feels they are hearing the work for the first time. 

If Argerich is that gymnast confidently leaping up the mountain side, Sviatoslav Richter is marching up with both feet solidly on the ground, and a resolute expression of uncompromising discipline on his face, secure in the knowledge that nothing will stop his ascent to the top.

Both pianists perform this work at the highest level, but I vastly prefer Argerich's recording.

[Karl Henning]

Greatly enjoyed reading this, thanks.  (Also, your impressions of the Hamelin.)

[San Antone]

Schumann, Liszt: Piano Works
Pedro Burmester

Surprisingly good performance by a pianist I've not listened to before.  James Leonard at the AllMusic Guide wrote this:

You know how old-timers always insist that Schumann's three-movement Fantasie in C major is one of the Great Romantic Masterpieces, but how because they also invariably affirm that Sviatoslav Richter's 1961 recording of the Fantasie was the last Great Romantic Performance, they also inevitably assert that nobody else since then has really understood the work much less been able to give it the kind of bravura performance it requires, so ineluctably every recording since Richter's has pretty much stunk on ice?

Well, old-timers, the wait for the next Richter is over -- Pedro Burmester's 2006 recording of the work is here. Not that Burmester is the next Richter. Burmester is his own man and his interpretation is entirely his own. But Burmester is the first pianist since the Soviet titan to give Schumann's Fantasie the kind of recklessly virtuosic, emotionally incandescent, utterly individualist performance for which Richter was revered. Burmester doesn't just play the notes -- he infuses them with unbearable energy and overwhelming intensity, making the most of every jot and tittle in the score. Better yet, Burmester goes behind, below, and above the score, and like the greatest Romantic pianists, re-creates the score as a totally compelling musical and emotional experience. For listeners looking for a clean and lucid performance of the Fantasie, check out Pollini. But for listeners looking to be ravished, try Burmester.

All the above could as well have been written about Burmester's coupling of Liszt's Sonata in B minor. Like the Fantasie, it is indubitably one of the Great Romantic Masterpieces. Like the Fantasie, the last Great Romantic Performances of the work were recorded by Richter back in the '60s. And like Richter in his recording of the sonata, Burmester gave the work a performance of staggering sensitivity, stunning power, and, of course, shattering virtuosity. Anyone who loves either work or just great piano playing owes it to him/herself to hear this disc, especially in Avanti Classic's vivid and vibrant sound.

I don't agree with Leonard in his fulsome praise, overlooking as he does many other great performances since Richter.  But this is a very good one and one that has been generally overlooked.  Programming these two works is always a good choice.

[San Antone]

Liszt : A Critical Discography, part 1 - Piano Collections

Humphrey Searle compiled a catalog of works written by Franz Liszt in 1966.  He numbered over 700 compositions, dividing them into original works (S.1-S.350) and fantasias, transcriptions and other derivative works (S.351-S.768). There are several box sets that attempt to survey Liszt's solo piano oeuvre, but only three attempt to do this completely.

Leslie Howard recorded the complete works for piano on Hyperion Records in a box set of 99 CDs, priced reasonably at about $2.50 per disc depending upon the exchange rate for dollars : pounds.  Howard's playing is generally very good, but when performing this much music, and keep in mind he was trying to finish the set in time for the bicentennial in 2011, it is hard to believe that everything was performed at the same high level.  Nevertheless, any serious Liszt collector should probably find room in his budget for this box.  It won't be around forever, either, although loss-less downloads will continue to be available on the Hyperion site.

Naxos Records, has issued all of the piano music by Liszt performed by a group of pianists.   These recordings have generally has been praised, Jando's Hungarian Rhapsodies in particular.  If variety of interpretation is your preference, the Naxos set is the way to go; however, Leslie Howard is no slouch and often times his performances are arguably better than any in the Naxos collection.  Sold separately, the Naxos collection is significantly more expensive than Howard's.  Naxos may eventually box them up, but I doubt they will ever be priced as reasonably as the Hyperion set, which is more complete in any event.

Gunnar Johansen has also recorded nearly all the published music in 50 volumes, but these must be bought at $10/disc from the website devoted to his recordings.  His performances are considered some of the very best, but sound quality is an issue, and of course the expense.

Peter J. Rabinowitz, writing for Fanfare Magazine, had this to say about these recordings:

Liszt's music needs to be spectacular rather than merely showy, diabolic rather than merely dissonant, self-absorbed rather than merely inward; and any attempt to minimize these qualities undercuts the music's essence.

Johansen, fortunately, takes the fundamental Lisztian arrogance into account: these performances are explosive, rather than refined, and they don't avert their glance from Liszt's demonic side. True, Johansen's technique, while fairly good, is not of the superhuman variety that we find in such pianists as Berman and Bloch. But in the end, that only adds to the power of the performances. For Johansen never takes the easy path: he never slows down for the difficult passages, and he never loses sight of the underlying curve of a phrase in an attempt to get all the particular notes under his fingers. By the standards of Arrau's fluent and civilized account of the Transcendental Etudes (Philips 6747 412), for instance, these performances could be called sloppy—although not outrageously so; but I would prefer to consider them precipitous, in the best sense. There is an adventurous virtuosity here, an attempt to transcend human limits. The performances are often lacking in polish, but they rarely lack for sheer momentum. There are few performers who have a better intuitive sense of the overall shape of these pieces: Johansen is less concerned with where he is than with where he's headed, and for this reason he's one of the few Lisztians around who can consistently convey the music's striving, imploring quality.

Aside from these sets, there are four multi-disc sets available which make no attempt at completeness but will attempt to include a variety of important works: Claudio Arrau, Jorge Bolet, Sergio Fiorentino and Georges Cziffra.

These boxes include some mix of the following works:

Piano Sonata in B Minor
Hungarian Rhapsodies
Transcendental Etudes
Significant portions of Années de pèlerinage
Transcriptions and paraphrases
Ballades, Polonaises, and selections from the huge collection of single movement works
Some include the concertos.

RTRH

[Todd]

There's also France Clidat's 14 disc box of all final versions of Liszt's non-transcription solo works (or so it is claimed).  It is not worth the money.  She also recorded all the works for piano and orchestra.

Other pianists who have recorded a big chunk of Liszt include Jerome Rose (a Liszt specialist), Aldo Ciccolini, and Idil Biret.