Franz Liszt - A Critical Discography

[San Antone]

More etymological trivia . . . no surprise, since much of the population of the former USSR was moved around, and rather often involuntarily . . . Vlassenko is a Ukrainian name, not Georgian.

Thanks for that info.  Am I right in thinking that many Georgian names have a -svilli ending.  But I got that nationality note from Wikipedia which probably go it from some bio somewhere.  It always bothers me when Weinberg is called a Russian composer.

[Florestan]

Am I right in thinking that many Georgian names have a -svilli ending. 

Yes, you are (almost) right.

-shvili, as in Dzhugashvili

and

-adze or -idze, as in Shevardnadze, Ordzhonikidze

[Karl Henning]

Thanks for that info.  Am I right in thinking that many Georgian names have a -svilli ending.  But I got that nationality note from Wikipedia which probably go it from some bio somewhere.  It always bothers me when Weinberg is called a Russian composer.

Well, and he (Vassilenko) was likely born in Georgia.  My mom-in-law has a Ukrainian name, but was born in White Russia.  Quite apart from the involuntary Soviet-era migrations, all the historic conflicts and border-shifts have perforce resulted in a certain degree of geographical untidiness 

Vainberg/Weinberg was born in Warsaw, but of course the name is German in origin.

[San Antone]

Well, and he (Vassilenko) was likely born in Georgia.  My mom-in-law has a Ukrainian name, but was born in White Russia.  Quite apart from the involuntary Soviet-era migrations, all the historic conflicts and border-shifts have perforce resulted in a certain degree of geographical untidiness 

Vainberg/Weinberg was born in Warsaw, but of course the name is German in origin.

He didn't leave Warsaw until his twenties, IIRC.  My issue with calling Weinberg Russian, is that in Russia he suffered because he was Jewish, and from what I've read identified more with his Polish Jewish roots.  I have a good friend who manged to get out of Russia after years of struggle and says with some irony, I had to come to america to be called a Russian; in Russia I was a Jew.  In fact, he was from Ukraine.

[Karl Henning]

Your quarrel is just;  whether in the Imperial past, or in the Communist era, or in this post-Communist chaos, there may never have been any institutional, society-wide address of anti-Semitism in Russia.  It is not to say that all Russians are anti-Semites, only that (in my admittedly limited experience) the Russians who are tolerant of Jews (and what a patronizing way to have to put it) are either the equivalent of 'homeschooled' in that viewpoint, or artists/professionals.

[jlaurson]

Well, and he (Vassilenko) was likely born in Georgia.  My mom-in-law has a Ukrainian name, but was born in White Russia.  Quite apart from the involuntary Soviet-era migrations, all the historic conflicts and border-shifts have perforce resulted in a certain degree of geographical untidiness 

Vainberg/Weinberg was born in Warsaw, but of course the name is German in origin.

"Not German enough", as a (now) New Yorker friend of mine with a similar name tends to say, on such occasion.

Weinberg's father had arrived fresh from today's Moldova... so they were probably not quite integrated Polish Jews, either.

[Karl Henning]

"Not German enough", as a (now) New Yorker friend of mine with a similar name tends to say, on such occasion.

Weinberg's father had arrived fresh from today's Moldova... so they were probably not quite integrated Polish Jews, either.

Aye;  it's a sort of Musical Chairs, isn't it?

[Karl Henning]

But we have digressed; sorry, David!

Today, I am fixin' to listen to the Hungarian Rhapsodies in these sets:

[asin]B000B7VZTC[/asin]

[asin]B0040UEIAE[/asin]

[San Antone]

Two excellent accounts of these works.  IMO the nod goes to Pizarro but Cziffra is Mephistolesian which is a marvel to hear.

[San Antone]

Liszt : A Critical Discography, part 1 - Piano Collections

A much improved and edited post replaced the one quoted above, thanks to Todd for his helpful comments.

[San Antone]

Krystian Zimerman
DG 431 780-2 (1991 CD)
2005 DG collection

There have only a handful of  recordings in the last 20 years that have risen to the standard of the great performances of the past.  Martha Argerich (1971), Sviatoslav Richter (1965), and Vladimir Horowitz (1932) have reigned supreme in this work for decades.  But with Kyrstian Zimerman's account of the sonata from 1991 we arrive at a performance that can truly stand should to shoulder with the above mentioned greats.

A couple of quotes from the critics:

From the descending octaves of the sonata's opening one senses the impress of a powerful personality which, as the epic horizon looms, assumes Liszt's utterance as its own. What at first seems perhaps mannered takes on bar by bar the color of unique authority and by some indefinable, irresistible compulsion—one is spellbound. Zimerman is a phenomenon. He commands a sonorous spectrum embracing angry growls and aquarelle-tinted delicacy, ringing plangency and airy showers of scintillae, easily projected with stunning clarity. Fanfare, Adrian Corleonis, Sept/Oct 1992.

It is to be expected that an artist who has made one of the outstanding recordings of the Liszt concertos (DG, 11/88) should also give us one of the finest ever B minor Sonatas. Whether you think it is the finest ever may depend on your priorities (and on whether you think it is sensible to venture such opinions). What can surely be said is that Zimerman brings to bear a combination of ardour, forcefulness, drive and sheer technical grasp which are tremendously exciting and for which I can think of no direct rival.  Gramophone 10/1991

There is not much to add to those comments other than to point out that DG issued this recording coupled with his equally excellent recordings of the concertos in 2005.  That set would be the way to go, if you wish to hear some of the best modern performances of the great Liszt works for piano.

[San Antone]

Stephen Hough
Hyperion CDA67085

Every once in a while a recording is released which defies categorization.  Stephen Hough's recording of the Liszt Piano Sonata in B Minor is one of these recordings.

From the descending octave scales at the beginning, played with the sustain pedal held down throughout, you understand that this will be a somewhat different take on this warhorse of the piano repertory.  There are plenty of agogic hiccups throughout, but the most infuriating interpretative choice, to my ears, is his tempo with the fugue: slow.  It is a maddening moment and one which caused me to literally grit my teeth.

Other than these specific oddities, his performance is indeed enchanting.  Very poetic, very ephemeral, very gauzy.  Not wild-eyed, like Richter, not visceral like Argerich, but he does give us a unique interpretation.

David Fanning writing for Gramophone says approvingly, "All the same, there is undeniably something distinctive in the Englishman's approach – this is a Liszt that never has to compete for attention or to break into a sweat, Liszt as a more glamorous version of Mendelssohn, Liszt defended against the Lisztians."

I am a Lisztian, I suppose, because I find this approach somewhat lacking.

Peter J Rabinowich of Fanfare, who regularly reviews Liszt recordings, is more in line with my own thinking: "... his stony approach entail any lack of drama (few other performances have such imposing weight in the climaxes) or any rhythmic inflexibility (indeed. Hough has a remarkable control not only over the music's large-scale tempo transitions but over individual phrases as well). But the reading is certainly Classical in its resistance to sentiment, often relying on sharply registered accompaniment to jab at music that's traditionally sweetened; and, for all its scrupulous attention to timbrai contrasts, it's tonally dry and consequently low on sheer sensuality.  In sum, there's no attempt to compete with the cataclysmic power of Richter (much less Levy), the high-Romantic extravagance of Horowitz, or the sheer impetus of the young Argerich (listeners who wait for an explosion in the fugue are apt to be taken aback by the relative respite that it provides here). But if you want to hear this Sonata presented with a stringency that illuminates Liszt's intellectual vision rather than his emotional sensationalism, then this stands with Pollini's account among the most rigorous in the catalog.

I'm not sure if that is entirely fair to Maurizio Pollini, nevertheless, I have mixed feelings for Stephen Hough's recording.  For sure there is much to find here that is very compelling.  Yet, the moments which distract appear over and over and leaving me feeling vaguely disappointed.

You listen and let me know what you think.

[jlaurson]

I hope this gets issued on a proper label, soon, because it's a rare masterpiece. I would go so far as saying (and I have, in the past) that no other single disc of any composer has so changed my entire outlook on a composer (for the better, that is, you cads!).

It's Liszt the modern composer. Liszt the impressionist. Liszt the elegant. Liszt the seductive. Liszt the wizard of color. On an instrument of the time. Simply ear-opening!


Daniel Grimmwood
Annees de Ppelerinage
(Books 1 & 2)

There's no other Liszt album I'd so go to bat for. Not even the superlative ones of K.Zimerman and the Concertos with Nelson Freire. (Or Lenny's Boston Faust Symphony.)

[San Antone]

I hope this gets issued on a proper label, soon, because it's a rare masterpiece. I would go so far as saying (and I have, in the past) that no other single disc of any composer has so changed my entire outlook on a composer (for the better, that is, you cads!).

It's Liszt the modern composer. Liszt the impressionist. Liszt the elegant. Liszt the seductive. Liszt the wizard of color. On an instrument of the time. Simply ear-opening!


Daniel Grimmwood
Annees de Ppelerinage
(Books 1 & 2)

There's no other Liszt album I'd so go to bat for. Not even the superlative ones of K.Zimerman and the Concertos with Nelson Freire. (Or Lenny's Boston Faust Symphony.)

I need to revisit that one.  When I first listened I felt that the sound of the instrument was an issue. 

[San Antone]

Dénes Várjon
ECM New Series (2012)
Just looking at the contents of Precipitando, the 2012 ECM recording by Dénes Várjon, I am interested.  The main event is the Liszt sonata, but he proceeds it with the Berg Piano Sonata, op. 1 and Janácek's In the Mists.  I am a fan of pianists who attempt to put some context around the Liszt sonata.  Several have: Hélène Grimaud, Resonances, includes the Mozart Sonata No. 8 in A minor, the same Berg sonata, the Liszt, before ending with Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances.  Pierre-Laurent Aimard's The Liszt Project released as a double CD album pairing Liszt works , including the B Minor Sonata, with one each by Ravel, Messiaen, Wagner, Scriabin, Bartok, Berg and Mark Stroppa.  All very interesting and rewarding listening.

While the Aimard recording is a strong contender, I think Várjon gives the best account in the Liszt sonata from among the three pianists just mentioned.

Dénes Várjon's way with the Liszt sonata shares some of the same qualities found in Stephen Hough's performance, but none of the defects.  Radu A. Lelutiu writing in Fanfare put it this way, "Várjon's take on the mighty Liszt Sonata is not the most rhetorically inflected (Claudio Arrau, Sviatoslav Richter, and Garrick Ohlsson score higher on that scale), nor does it sizzle with a kind of superhuman bravura György Cziffra, Earl Wild, Martha Argerich, or Marc-André Hamelin are able to muster. But, when all is said and done, Várjon's visionary and deeply heartfelt conception is equally valid and, while it may not be the most thrilling, it is one of the most intelligent, coherent, and meaningful I have ever heard."

And Jed Distler in Gramophone, "To be sure, Várjon's Liszt Sonata holds its own in an impossibly crowded catalogue. Striking details include the pianist's phrase grouping of the exposition's celebrated octaves to emphasise harmonic motion, or the sustained calmness he conveys across the slow ascending scales in the extended quiet passage prior to the fughetta. On the other hand, Liszt's lyrical D major theme sounds rather matter-of-fact and businesslike when placed alongside Arrau or Hamelin. Similarly, the recapitulation's climactic octaves and gradual winding down elicits a stronger sense of exultation and more cogent long-lined shaping from Yundi Li, Yuja Wang, Arnaldo Cohen and George-Emmanuel Lazaridis, to name but a few recent versions."

The ECM sound is always a pleasure and listening to this recording is a very enjoyable experience.

[San Antone]

Garrick Ohlsson
Bridge Records 9337 (2010)

It seems to take Garrick Ohlsson a bit to get going with his performance of the Liszt sonata, but once he gets warmed up, the audience is in for great journey.  Ohlsson is usually known for his power, his monumental playing.  But in the Liszt sonata he holds back some, choosing instead to offer us a somewhat restrained interpretation. As Bryce Morrison writes in Gramophone, "Ohlsson's Sonata ... is relatively subdued, creating its greatest effect in the central Andante's vision and introspection, and in a conclusion where hymnal piety is clouded by glassy sighs and veiled threats."

The first moment that strikes me as Ohlsson doing something different with the music is the first statement of the Grandioso theme (ms. 105 et sec.).  His playing is transcendental and the music floats from the speakers in majestic waves. 

By contrast when that same theme returns in the middle section, Ohlsson is much more, well, grandiose and stentorian.  He builds this section nicely, each new phrase is stronger and played with more power until he brings the level down, allowing the phrases to echo and quietly takes us back to the octave scales at the very beginning of the piece just before the fugue.

Surprisingly, Ohlsson starts the fugue with some hesitation but then, tears through it at a furious pace, gathering more and more momentum which seems to be heading for the wheels coming off.  But no, he keeps a firm grip and begins to sound a lot like Richter but without so much abandon. 

Still, for the most part his playing for most of this work will not remind you of Richter or Argerich.  Peter J. Rabinowich writes in Fanfare, "If the young Martha Argerich stakes her claim to providing the most hyperkinetic and volatile reading in the catalog, Ohlsson seems intent in standing near the opposite pole. It's not a uniformly slow reading (once it gets going, the fugue races along at a blistering pace)—but taken as a whole, it's surely a patient reading that gives the grander sections a chance to soak in."

A nice alternative reading without losing any of the effect this music can or ought to have.

[Holden]

Thanks for pointing out the Hamelin B minor which is nowhere online but fortunately my library had it. This is an outstanding performance and maybe the best I've heard. Considering that I have Argerich, Richter and Cziffra this is not faint praise. I do have a particular soft spot for the Cziffra which I hear as a very deep and profound reading and one where he resists the temptation for a purely virtuosic display.

This thread has prompted me to listen to the Transcendental Etudes. Ovchinnikov is currently in my CD player and this is an outstanding performance. Cziffra's  is mind bogglingly amazing, he really lets rip as does Kemal Gekic who I also have. But pride of place for me is Claudio Arrau's version for Philips. While it doesn't lack in bravura, it goes beyond that to plumb the depths that surely Liszt intended.

[San Antone]

Thanks for pointing out the Hamelin B minor which is nowhere online but fortunately my library had it. This is an outstanding performance and maybe the best I've heard. Considering that I have Argerich, Richter and Cziffra this is not faint praise. I do have a particular soft spot for the Cziffra which I hear as a very deep and profound reading and one where he resists the temptation for a purely virtuosic display.

This thread has prompted me to listen to the Transcendental Etudes. Ovchinnikov is currently in my CD player and this is an outstanding performance. Cziffra's  is mind bogglingly amazing, he really lets rip as does Kemal Gekic who I also have. But pride of place for me is Claudio Arrau's version for Philips. While it doesn't lack in bravura, it goes beyond that to plumb the depths that surely Liszt intended.

I agree that Hamelin turns in one of the best performances of the sonata; if you get a chance, Krystian Zimerman's recording is one to hear as well.  I still have some listening to go with the sonata before moving on to the other works, but the etudes will definitely be among the major solo piano works covered.  Many thanks for your comments.

[San Antone]

Ivo Pogorelich
Deutsche Grammophon 002265002  (1992)

Coming in at 34 minutes, Ivo Pogorelich's recording of the B minor sonata is one of the longest.  As far as I know only Mikhail Pletnev plays it longer, although I seem to remember seeing a recording that was over 40 minutes, but I have never been able put my hands on it again.

Listening to Pogorelich I think I have found the source of some of Stephen Hough's more curious interpretive choices like the pedal under the octave scales (although Pogorelich only does this for the first two notes, which creates a very nice effect, as opposed to Hough who keeps the pedal down for the entire scale).  Speaking of these passages, Pogorelich is one of a handful of pianists who play these scales in a way that makes real sense.  Most players simply execute the scale disconnected from the staccato notes that surround them; Pogorelich brings out the fact that the staccato notes are the concluding notes in the scales.   Sounds simple?  Yes; but too often this detail is over looked.

Also overlooked by many pianists is how to convey the melodic content above and below the furious virtuoso filigrees that feature prominently in this work.  All too often these passages are played full out, making very little distinction between the underlying arpeggio or chromatic music and the overlaid melodic phrases, which are usually short triadic motives.  Ivo Pogorelich brings these out very nicely finding the meaning in these passages that totally saves them from becoming the kind of empty virtuosic showiness people often accuse Liszt of composing.

There are many other wonderful aspects to this albeit flawed recording.  Peter J. Rabinowitz, of Fanfare Magazine, sums it up, "In the end, there are details, particularly arbitrary rhythmic disruptions (say, in the opening measures—or in the left hand in mm. 324 ff.), that may aggravate you. Still, the technique is so flawless, the playing so often arresting—the superb balance of inner lines, the dazzling dolcissimo passagework, the chilling starkness of the octave passages, the high-strung but funereal treatment of the grandioso theme when it reappears at mm. 363 ff., the airy treatment of the beginning of the fugue—that it's hard to resist. I couldn't recommend this over, say, Argerich, Horowitz I, or Pollini—much less over Richter—as an introduction to this piece. But Lisztians will certainly find it of extraordinary interest."

There are some disappointing areas, but not enough to deter anyone from the recording. But one in particular sticks out for me, sense it spoils one of my favorite moments in the work.

In the final section, after the fugue and after the octaves and virtuoso passage leading to the last quiet statement of the themes, there is a place where many pianists create a moment of absolute dissonance by keeping the sustain pedal down during a rising arpeggio and octaves holding the last notes out.  I enjoy it when a pianist will hold this rather long, letting the volume decrease to a point where the next quiet passage seems to grow out of the dissonance.

Pogorelich does not use the sustain pedal, and consequently does not produce the dissonance, and merely lets the passage end in silence before the quiet passage.  Okay, it's one way to do it, and undoubtedly he wanted to avoid the effect I just described.  But for me he misses one of the great moments in this piece.

I have to say Pogorelich's way with the sonata is very compelling; very enjoyable despite what might appear as an excess of length.  I never got the impression that he artificially elongated the music excessively.

Pogorelich's is a unique recording and one which I thin has been somewhat overlooked with the passage of time which be a consequence of his later recitals in which all of the above became exaggerated and grotesque.  However, with this recording Pogorelich captured his performance in a balanced and rewarding document.

[Mandryka]

One interesting thing about the Liszt sonata is the ending

Cortot used to own the Liszt manuscript with the original ending. It's owned now by Robert Owens Lehman, who left it on deposit at the Morgan Library.

Claudio Arrau wrote about the original manuscript:

"Even from the outward appearance of the manuscript, the artistic seriousness with which the composer approached this work may readily be seen. Apart from corrected shorter passages which follow immediately upon crossed-out sections, there are numerous pages with extensive revisions which Liszt probably made only when much of that which followed had already been written down. In those cases he pasted newly drafted half-pages or more over the original text. Page 21 was completely deleted. Liszt replaced it with a new enlarged section, which comprises both pages 21 and 21 Bis. The sheet of paper containing these newly written pages (21 and 21 Bis) now seamlessly adjoins the preceding part. Of special interest is the conclusion of the work. Here Liszt made a revision which was not merely technical but changed completely the expressive content of the section. An originally planned imposing conclusion of 25 measures rising to a threefold forte was replaced by an ending 32 measures longer which gradually fades away to PPP."

Gregor Benko gave Nyiregyhazi a facsimile of the manuscript. He recorded the Liszt sonata San Francisco, but I don't know if he recorded the original ending.

Is the Nyiregyhazi recording available? Has anyone recorded the original ending? Why did Liszt change the ending?