Liszt - Années de Pèlerinage

Started by marvinbrown, May 04, 2007, 05:58:11 AM

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Mandryka

Quote from: amw on January 14, 2019, 06:18:50 AM
I have not. (The only other versions I know well enough to comment on are Daniel Grimwood on an Erard & Chamayou & Bolet.) What's special about it?

It seems to me to make the music sound as though it's looking forward to early C20 ideas.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

PerfectWagnerite

Quote from: Todd on January 13, 2019, 06:09:57 PM
Add Ragna Schirmer for a complete set and Enrico Pace for years 1 & 2 only to those PerfectWagnerite listed, and those are the best ones to my taste.  The Gorus is regularly available on the cheap.
I just downloaded the Schirmer. Sprinkled between movements/tracks of the Années de Pèlerinage are various Madrigals? Is that what the cd version is like? Very strange.

Cato

Many thanks for all the recommendations: Gorus has two 5-star reviews on Amazon.

Daniel Trifonov has not yet recorded this work?  Many people liked his Transcendental Etudes.
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

king ubu

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on January 14, 2019, 04:23:06 PM
I just downloaded the Schirmer. Sprinkled between movements/tracks of the Années de Pèlerinage are various Madrigals? Is that what the cd version is like? Very strange.

Yes, exactly the same ... the CD comes with a big booklet though, a faux-notebook of Schirmer's with reflections on the music and a kind of travelogue, which puts the pieces in relation, i.e. the Este clan is mentioned - "Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este" - and their sponsorship of musicians like Marenzio and Gesualdo ... so it all kinda stays on the surface but still offers a bit of a perspective on the music.

Fine recording.

Not sure I am competent to list favourites, but one I like a lot is by Muza Rubackyte on Lyrinx - guess it's not too easy to find though.
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

North Star

Quote from: Cato on January 15, 2019, 08:18:05 AM
Many thanks for all the recommendations: Gorus has two 5-star reviews on Amazon.

Daniel Trifonov has not yet recorded this work?  Many people liked his Transcendental Etudes.
No, Trifonov hasn't recorded Années de Pélerinage. You can't go wrong with the Gorus recording, though.

https://www.youtube.com/v/GD-DlxklxEI  https://www.youtube.com/v/Y8FsWLCFFWQ
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Brian

Gorus' performance of the third Petrarch sonata is one of my top 10 favorite piano performances of anything, by anyone, ever. It's like Celibidache on piano, but even better, and as delicate as a dream.

staxomega

Whenever I hear Arrau play them I'm left sad that he didn't record all three suites. Muza Rubackyte remains my overall favorite for a complete set.

king ubu

Finally found the Chamayou for an affordable price ... looking foward!
Es wollt ein meydlein grasen gan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Und do die roten röslein stan:
Fick mich, lieber Peter!
Fick mich mehr, du hast dein ehr.
Kannstu nit, ich wills dich lern.
Fick mich, lieber Peter!

http://ubus-notizen.blogspot.ch/

J.A.W.

Quote from: king ubu on January 15, 2019, 08:42:43 AM
Yes, exactly the same ... the CD comes with a big booklet though, a faux-notebook of Schirmer's with reflections on the music and a kind of travelogue, which puts the pieces in relation, i.e. the Este clan is mentioned - "Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este" - and their sponsorship of musicians like Marenzio and Gesualdo ... so it all kinda stays on the surface but still offers a bit of a perspective on the music.

Fine recording.

Not sure I am competent to list favourites, but one I like a lot is by Muza Rubackyte on Lyrinx - guess it's not too easy to find though.

I recently found Mūza Rubackyté's set for a very reasonable price; same with Bertrand Chamayou's set a few months ago. Like you I can't list favourites, but I like these two sets a lot.
Hans

George

Quote from: Brian on January 16, 2019, 04:46:07 PM
Gorus' performance of the third Petrarch sonata is one of my top 10 favorite piano performances of anything, by anyone, ever. It's like Celibidache on piano, but even better, and as delicate as a dream.

Do you like the rest of his set, Brian?
"I can't live without music, because music is life." - Yvonne Lefébure

Brian


Todd





In 2017, I finally got my hands on Enrico Pace's incomplete set of the Années.  The set has some of the best Liszt playing I've heard.  Now, I belatedly got my hands of Francesco Piemontesi's recording of Suisse, and it's much the same.  Piemontesi's Liszt is sort of anti-virtuosic, like Kempff's, but Piemontesi does occasionally play with ample technical swagger.  Vallée d'Obermann is chock full of such playing.  But the same piece also has some almost ridiculously gentle and beautiful playing.  Julian Gorus pushes his pianissimo playing to Yaeko Yamane levels, and Piemontesi does, too, though when the Swiss pianist does it, it sounds sweeter.  And there's lyricism aplenty throughout.  Au lac de Wallenstadt is a lyrical dream.  So is Eglogue.  The bells in Les cloches de Genève chime gently, at least to start.  Piemontesi does indeed deliver grander playing in passages in the opening piece, in Orage, and elsewhere as appropriate, but, at least for me, it is the almost hypnotic beauty and poetry that the pianist delivers that enthralls.  I'm hoping, really hoping, that Piemontesi does the right discographical thing and records all three years.  The encore of the second Legend also indicates that he should record more Liszt, like, say, the Harmonies.

I went the high res download route rather than the physical media route here, and the sound is SOTA.

A great disc.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Todd

#92



Italie.  More anti-virtuosic, Kempffian magic occasionally displaying ample technical swagger.  The recording opens with the first Legende, and Piemontesi's delicate touch mesmerizes, though the recording deceives.  Close with added reverb, one turns up the volume without taking into account what happens when the pianist turns up the wick.  As luck would have it, the sound quality is such that, and Piemontesi's tone is such that, the listener not only doesn't mind the almost oppressive volume, but welcomes it, especially with such rich lower registers.  Piemontesi's fingers glide along the keyboard most of the time, creating an almost hypnotic effect.  And then comes the main attraction. Each of the seven pieces of the second year are almost perfectly characterized.  (Do note the number of pieces; Venezia e Napoli is not included.  <Insert sad face emoji>)  Sposalizio borders on the too magnificent, Il penseroso on the too serious.  Borders, mind you, borders.  Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa maintains nearly ridiculous levels of beauty and a dandy rhythmic sense, but not to the point where rhythm dominates.  The three Petrarch Sonnets sound lovely, and Piemontesi shows that he can go gorgeous, delicate, and nuanced as well as just about anyone, including Julian Gorus.  The relative weak link is the Dante Sonata, which does not become as super-heated as some other versions.  Of course, it does not need to, so that's not so much a knock as a statement.  Maybe it prevents the recording from being a 10.  Six nines ain't shabby.

SOTA sound for the now complete 24/96 download tracks.  (The initial release truncated the last two tracks.)

I demand the supplement and Year Three, dammit!
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Hobby

Does anyone know and rate the very recent complete recording including the supplement by Suzana Bartal and the Books one to three without the Supplement by Michele Campanella? Also a new recording of Book 1 by Steven Hough.

I agree with Todd that the final book and the supplement by Francesco Piemontesi would be most welcome as the first two books are superb. I think Steven Osborne would do a fine job on all 3 books if he was so inclined.

vers la flamme

I was listening to this work a lot a few months ago when I was reading a Haruki Murakami book called Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki & his Years of Pilgrimage, obviously inspired by Liszt's music. The recording I have is Aldo Ciccolini, and it's very fine. I just ordered the Berman/DG, the preferred recording by one of the characters in the book. Looking forward to listening to it.

Todd

#95
Quote from: Hobby on October 01, 2021, 11:15:59 AMDoes anyone know and rate the very recent complete recording including the supplement by Suzana Bartal


Decent, but lacking in either supreme virtuosity or delicate poetry.  Superb sound, though.



Quote from: Hobby on October 01, 2021, 11:15:59 AMMichele Campanella?


I bought the download at the start of the year, but I never transferred it to my main rig external drive.  Now I have something to listen to this weekend.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Hobby

I've always had a soft spot for the 3 book 2008 recording by Daniel Grimwood on an Erard. Lots of life and interesting sonorities - surprised it only got a passing mention in this thread.

Karl Henning

Quote from: Hobby on October 02, 2021, 04:58:21 AM
I've always had a soft spot for the 3 book 2008 recording by Daniel Grimwood on an Erard. Lots of life and interesting sonorities - surprised it only got a passing mention in this thread.

I like it, too!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mandryka

#98
One of the things I've learned about myself is that my taste in piano music has a good deal in common with William Barrington Coupe's. I very much enjoy the Hatto pianists.

Yesterday I listened to Jeno Jando playing Années Bk 1. I thought it was fabulous because it is so fresh sounding. Imagine my surprise to see that he played Book 1 on the Hatto.

So I investigated who played Book 2. There the story is more complicated, but one of the pianists involved was Michael Dalberto on Denon. And what do you know? It's good! Maybe not the best sound, but I can live with it for the performances.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Oh and while I'm hear let me ask a question. What is the best transfer of Kempff's Années?
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen