Liszt's Piano Music

[Thropplenoggin]

I thought I'd start a thread on this given the coverage of new Liszt recordings on this week's Record Review. I have been listening to various interpretations of his piano pieces over the summer, especially the Années de pèlerinage, and would be curious to know of any other recommendations from forum users. Liszt's piano music was a difficult nut to crack - I was put off by the bombastic side of his personality - but I have found the interpretation to be crucial. When played well, one can hear Chopin and even Debussy in the lyrical pieces and sound-painting of water, especially in the musical sketches of the Années. You see how far his influence stretched. My personal favourite interpreter is Wilhelm Kempff, whose smattering of Années de pèlerinage are exquisite, always so lyrical, and include one of my favourite of all piano compositions, Au lac de Wallenstadt (the first piece here):

I have his famous DG recording of most of the Second Années from his later years, and a few rare recordings on Decca Eloquence and elsewhere from the 1940s.


For a complete recording of the Années de pèlerinage, there's a fantasic recording by a Lithuanian pianist Muza Rubackyté, who seems to get the tempi just right.


In the piano sonata, I have an early recording by Horowitz and Arrau's classic Philip's release which comes with some excellent pieces by Liszt.

Of the new discs mentioned on Saturday, the Russo recording on Brilliant of sacred piano music is very good - better than it was made out to be by Sarah Walker! It's available on Qobuz. I'll be curious to here more of the always-interesting Trifonov when his disc of Transcendental Etudes is released in October.

[silvestrione]

I agree with you about Kempff, particularly those earlier Decca recordings.

On the Annees de Pelerinage, I have always loved Brendel's first recording of the second book, and I also love his follow-up Phillips disc of the Benediction de Dieu..., Pensee des Morts, and Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.

On the Sonata, I go for Arrau also: there are some good live versions available, as well as the two studio versions.

Richter has some great Liszt performances, of the Sonata, the Mephisto Waltz no. 1, and Feux Follets.
Arrau is also magnificent in Vallee d'Obermannn.

Two unmissable great Liszt performances in my view are Rachmaninov in Gnomenreigen (also fine in Arrau's version), and Horowitz's live version of Sonetto 104 del Petrarca.

I have the Russo and agree that it may have been undersold on the programme. I'm really looking forward to exploring the Trifonov.

[Richard Tarleton]

Throppers, Liszt has his detractors on the forum , but I love him dearly.

I was put off by the bombastic side of his personality

The deeper one delves into Liszt's life and music, the further this hoary old label recedes into the distance - I've just finished a re-read of Alan Walker's mighty three-volume biography, which I can't recommend enough, which compels a re-think of all the old cliches about this complex, profound and, yes, lovable man. Characteristics such as his generosity (to other composers, pupils, his native Hungary) and sprituality are easily overlooked. The years as a travelling virtuoso - from which much of the "bombastic" reputation stems - occupied a brief (11-year) part of his long life, indeed he gave it up at a mere 36 to settle in Weimar.

It doesnt help that of all the great composers Liszt has been (until recently) singularly ill-served by his biographers. This is a huge topic - the first book on Liszt I read was Ernest Newman's The Man Liszt, which is a mendacious hatchet job, and even a friendly biog like that of Sacheverell Sitwell is riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods.

Starting with Années de pèlerinage, several versions here - my favourite for many years has been Jorge Bolet's - a great Liszt pianist, combining the virtuosity and lyricism required. I'd also recommend his other Decca discs - I seem to have 7 - concert studies, Schubert transcriptions, etc. And his mighty "Live at Carnegie Hall" double CD on the Philips Great Pianists series contains barnstorming performances of two of his operatic transcriptions, the Tannhauser overture and Lucia di Lammermoor paraphrase.

I've also got the Decca double set of the Années in which Brendel plays Years l-ll and Zoltan Kocsis Year lll. The Sonata - some very different versions on my shelves - Argerich, Brendel, Barenboim, Paul Lewis....and I'd also recommend Stephen Osborne's double CD of the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses. But my single favourite Liszt disc is my treasured Brendel LP which contains 4 of his finest piano compositons - 2 of the Harmonies - Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude and Pensées des Morts, as well as the Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, an expression of grief at the death of his daughter Blandine, and the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H. I heard Brendel play the Benediction and the Sonata in his RFH recitals in the early 70s.

Not forgetting Caliban's favourite Transcendental Studies ....

But I'll end this overlong post by admitting to ownership of the complete Liszt piano works by Leslie Howard on Hyperion, an Xmas present a few years ago. Howard would not be my top recommendation for some of the best-known works, but at 99 discs at about £1 per disc, to have the complete works including different revisions/versions, all the transcriptions (song, operatic, symphonic, etc. etc.) is a great joy. It's proved an invaluable reference point whilst reading the Walker biog. It's a chance to examine some of his later works in detail - piano works which look forward as you say to the sound-painting of Debussy.

And there are some profound thoughts on Liszt from Brendel in his book of essays "Music, Sense and Nonsense".

PS I have yet to listen to the programme....

[Thropplenoggin]

silvestrione: thanks for your post. I'll definitely seek out the recordings you mention.

Richard: a very thoughtful and detailed response (corrective, even?), which made for a fascinating read. Rather daunted by the Warner's opus which I had heard of, I was tempted by Oliver Hilmes' new biography, although this seems to focus more on the legend than the music. Any thoughts?

Like with silvestrione's recommendations, I'll seek some of yours out, too, on Qobuz, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new discs once you've listened to Saturday's programme.

[Richard Tarleton]

Richard: a very thoughtful and detailed response (corrective, even?), which made for a fascinating read. Rather daunted by the Warner's opus which I had heard of, I was tempted by Oliver Hilmes' new biography, although this seems to focus more on the legend than the music. Any thoughts?

Like with silvestrione's recommendations, I'll seek some of yours out, too, on Qobuz, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new discs once you've listened to Saturday's programme.

I read two lengthy reviews of the Hilmes and saw nothing in it for me - it has the look of yet another trawl through the secondary sources and as you say is not about the music.

NB Walker - it is a great read - second time through I even read all the voluminous footnotes which are every bit as fascinating as the main text . Up there with David Cairns's Berlioz. He met or knew just about every figure of musical consequence in the 19th century, from Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and beyond....

[vinteuil]

... a revelation for me was Daniel Grimwood - here on an 1851 Erard :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001O3MLN6

[Thropplenoggin]

... a revelation for me was Daniel Grimwood - here on an 1851 Erard :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001O3MLN6

I'm always interested to hear a HIP piano approach in such repertoire. The label website offers two generous excerpts: http://www.sfzmusic.co.uk/cd-danielgrimwoo.html

[Thropplenoggin]

I read two lengthy reviews of the Hilmes and saw nothing in it for me - it has the look of yet another trawl through the secondary sources and as you say is not about the music.

NB Walker - it is a great read - second time through I even read all the voluminous footnotes which are every bit as fascinating as the main text . Up there with David Cairns's Berlioz. He met or knew just about every figure of musical consequence in the 19th century, from Beethoven to Tchaikovsky and beyond....

Thanks, Richard. I'll take that on board and seek out the Walker.

[AmpH]

I too have Jorge Bolet on Decca in the Annees de Pelerinage ( all of his Liszt recordings in fact ) who was indeed a fine Lisztian, but really I have never felt the need to look beyond Lazar Berman whose recording shows the benefit of a complete traversal of the whole set of Annees. Berman is not an especially showy pianist, but seems to be able to conjure moments of energy or delicacy as required to reflect the musical journeys, especially in the troisieme annee, which often seems to elude others I have heard. My DG set is the old one with the evocative landscape and hooded traveler on the front cover.

Martha Argerich in the B Minor Sonata - simply spellbinding !

[Jonathan]

I too have the Hyperion set and I collected it over the many years it was recorded. I'm also collecting the ongoing Naxos series; some are better than others. I echo the comments about Alan Walker's books, they are superb. The "4th" volume, a translation of Lina Schmaulhausen's diary if the last fortnight of Liszt's life is harrowing - not the peaceful end with him muttering "Tristan" as he died, just a horrible, painful death.
As for the Transcendental Etudes, a recent recording by Dinara Klinton is super. Kemal Gekic is also incredible in these works.
Try exploring the chamber works, there is a disc called Visions currently on sale at JPC, I'm just miffed I paid full price for it!
More thoughts later...

[Pianorak]

Excellent recommendations so far. Here are a few of my favourites:

Jorge Bolet's 1970 recording of the Etudes d'Execution transcendante (piano classics)
Louis Kentner: Ballade No. 2 (apr)
Roberto Szidon: The 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies (DG)

[Richard Tarleton]

here on an 1851 Erard :

The relationship with the house of Erard provides a touching thread running through Liszt's long life - when he stayed in Paris en route to London in 1886, the last year of his life, he went to pay his hotel bill, only to find it had been settled by the firm of Erard....

Tho by this stage of his life he had had the chance to play Steinways (New York), Bösendorfers, Bechsteins.....his compositions having constantly pushed the boundaries of piano design....he had a Chickering in his Rome apartment in the 1860s, him playing it being the subject of a famous painting....Jorge Bolet plays a Bechstein on his Liszt recordings.

[HighlandDougie]

Ditto to everything which has already been said (I'm particularly fond of Jorge Bolet's A de P "Suisse" and especially fond of Lazar Berman in all of them). For a younger pianist's take on the A de P, Bertrand Chamayou is never less than interesting.

[Roslynmuse]

Another pianist I would recommend is France Clidat - she had an amazing technique for the more obviously virtuosic pieces and was also capable of beautifully poetic playing too. There is a 14CD set of the 'complete' (ie standard) piano works, but if you want a sample of her gifts and you have access to a vinyl player then look out for a Decca World of... series LP from the early 70s - it was my introduction to this fascinating composer.

I would endorse the recommendations of the Alan Walker biography - it is superb and very readable, not at all daunting! And I would agree with the assessment of Leslie Howard's survey - an amazing achievement but a little underwhelming in the works for which comparisons can easily be made.

Louis Kentner made some wonderful recordings - the Gounod Faust Waltz is incomparably suave, and an old recording of Constant Lambert's arrangement of the Dante Sonata for piano and orchestra is extremely exciting. (Maybe not for purists, but I agree with Sitwell in feeling that the piece finds its 'true' voice when heard in this version.)

And one other recommendation - Via Crucis in the version by the Corydon Singers and Matthew Best - quite wonderful.

[Jonathan]

Should also have mentioned Mark Viner's operatic paraphrases which is amazing!