BaL 5.03.11 Liszt: Années de Pelerinage: Book 1 "Suisse"

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Hot on the heels of Book 2, we have a second BAL devoted to performances of Liszt's musical images of Switzerland, reviewed by Stephen Plaistow

1. Chapelle de Guillaume Tell
2. Au Lac de Wallenstadt
3. Pastorale
4. Au Bord d-une source
5. Orage
6. Valleé d'Obermann
7. Églogue
8. Le Mal du Payes
9. Les Cloches de Genêve

Some available versions:

Jando
Lortie
Korstick
Laplante
Novacek
Grimwood
Hough
Brendel
Tsuda
Fiorentino
Howard
Berman
Ciccolini

[verismissimo]

So much looking forward to this. Maybe my favourite Liszt. I've had Fiorentino for some decades!

[amateur51]

Oh Stephen Plaistow! - a PROPER broadcaster.

Yippee!

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh Stephen Plaistow! - a PROPER broadcaster.

Yippee!

AGREED

Shame he's talking about Liszt though

I'll be listening with open ears and an open mind, naturally

[LeMartinPecheur]

My one and only Book 1 is an old HMV Concert Classics LP by Edith Farnadi, though it's marked as 'A Westminster recording'. It got good notices somewhere back in an early Penguin IIRC. It came off a porter's-barrow stand at the West Somerset Railway for 50p and surprised me by being very playable.

That's the nice thing about buying records from charities and other worthy fund-seekers: if the LP's unplayable at least you've donated, but you may in addition get something that fills a gap in the library

Well, that's my excuse But alas Mrs MartinePecheur doesn't always agree...

[Roehre]

Well, that's my excuse But alas Mrs MartinePecheur doesn't always agree...

Mrs Roehre doesn't either. So that makes two of us suffering LMP :)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is Liszt that I have been familiar with for longer than most, having played "Au Lac de Wallenstadt" for Grade 8, back in 1967. I played this and two others - "Chapelle de Guillaume Tell" & "Les Cloches de Genêve" - as part of my "finals" recital. But they were not the most challenging at all; "Orage" and "Valleé d'Obermann" are in a different league, the latter being amongst Liszt's finest, in my opinion. I have Bolet's version. Although it won a Gramophone Award, I'm sure there must be better versions.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Although I'll be listening to this BAL, I suggest it shows a lack of imagination akin to the Mozartfest in having a second BAL on Années de Pelerinage withing such a short time. Having said that, I do recommend these pieces to anyone who isn't familiar with them.

[verismissimo]

Such joy, this BAL. :)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Agreed. So well constructed and easy to follow.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Very enjoyable review, but I thought it was a shame that Daniel Grimwood's recording, which featured so strongly in David Owen Norris' recent survey of Book II recently, didn't even merit a mention (unless I missed it).

I was impressed by what was played of Angelich's recording on Mirare, which also featured on France musique's La Tribune des critiques du disques programme towards the end of last year:

http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/em/critiques/emission.php?e_id=65000059&d_id=420000878&arch=1

[BBMmk2]

I liked this BaL today. A very well presented reveiw of the current availability. Stephen Plaistow has the knack of holding your atttention,, which some people tend to just drole on ad infinitum!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've never heard the BAL choice before (Stephen Hough), so I look forward to this next week.
Ending with "The Bells of Geneva" made me shudder slightly. As I said earlier, this was one of the pieces I chose for my finals, 39 years ago, but it was the one that was the least well prepared of the recital. Knowing this, I was dreading ending the performance with this piece, but at the end of the Au Lac de Wallenstadt, the Professor William Mathias looked at the other examiners to agree that they had heard as much as they needed to make their assessment. Phew!

[silvestrione]

I was impressed by what was played of Angelich's recording on Mirare, which also featured on France musique's La Tribune des critiques du disques programme towards the end of last year:

http://sites.radiofrance.fr/francemu...0000878&arch=1

Yes, they found him of especial interest, but how on earth could they have chosen Jorge Bolet? Those later Decca recordings of his are mostly dull, aren't they? Afraid my French is not good enough to get to the bottom of it.

A most enjoyable programme from Stephen Plaistow: wonderful piano playing, and one learnt a lot too.

[Panjandrum]

Good to see a puff for Hough but surprised and disappointed to see Lazar Berman given the brush off so casually. Moreover, a surprise that no mention was made of Bolet: given Stephen Plaistow would have been among those who voted Bolet’s book of the Swiss year as “Gramophone Record of the Year” back in the day, this oversight appears all the more strange.

Very enjoyable review, but I thought it was a shame that Daniel Grimwood's recording, which featured so strongly in David Owen Norris' recent survey of Book II recently, didn't even merit a mention

I think this demonstrates that one reviewer should have been called on to review both books (to say nothing of the perennially overlooked 3rd year).