Années de pèlerinage

[silvestrione]

Likewise, but for me the 1972 LP of Book 2 had a warmth which wasn't quite captured on the 1987 digital remake, fine though that was. Of course, that Philips 2-cd set of all 3 Années is well worth acquiring -- Brendel for years I-II, Kocsis for III.

Yes indeed! I meant the Philips analogue recording, which you can get hold of on CD, though I also still have the LP.

[Mandryka]

Available in the 13 CD Kempff Decca Eloquence box!

How is the sound?

(His early Bach transcriptions recording on Eloquence received a fabulous transfer, so I have high hopes.)

[silvestrione]

How is the sound?

(His early Bach transcriptions recording on Eloquence received a fabulous transfer, so I have high hopes.)

I'm not a very good guide to sound quality, but it seems to me extraordinary, for a 1950s recording. Catches the magical effects in the playing. A good sense of the piano there before you, in a space.

[Mandryka]

Unbelievably, jaw droppingly, beautiful and poetic Kempff Liszt here -- very very early and decent sound.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0OS6jAACERS4SWPIpyDLy5

[silvestrione]

Unbelievably, jaw droppingly, beautiful and poetic Kempff Liszt here -- very very early and decent sound.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0OS6jAACERS4SWPIpyDLy5

Wow, yes, also available on Qobuz. Strange that it's always that group of pieces, that he never extended his LIszt repertoire.

[Mandryka]

I’d say that Julian Gorus’s recording on Haenssler is well worth trying, at least in Bk 3

[Mandryka]

I am very impressed by Cziffra in Book 3. It is grey shaded. The timbres are nuanced and rather beautiful, but somehow uniform. Anyway, I think the third suite is hard to pull off - dark music - and Cziffra does pull it off. I haven’t heard him yet in the other two suites.

[smittims]

I was surprised to see the steep decline on Cziffra's reputation. Sixty years ago when he was an HMV artist he was highly regarded, and as a Liszt interpreter too, but today few mention him.

[Mandryka]

It must be unbelievably hard to make music out of Book 3 - you’ve got to somehow “feel it” - it’s music which needs soul and it’s a very strange sort of soul in Bk 3. All those threnodies!

Anyway I think Cziffra’s got the chops and he’s in tune with the the Bk 3 vibe.

One thing that surprised me is how much bass comes out of his piano. I only know because - for reasons too boring to recount - I turned off the amp to the main speakers but left the subs going. The subs are getting a good work out!

I always thought I was too cool for Liszt, but I must be getting old and soppy . . .

[Joseph K]

It must be unbelievably hard to make music out of Book 3 - you’ve got to somehow “feel it” - it’s music which needs soul and it’s a very strange sort of soul in Bk 3. All those threnodies!

Anyway I think Cziffra’s got the chops and he’s in tune with the the Bk 3 vibe.

One thing that surprised me is how much bass comes out of his piano. I only know because - for reasons too boring to recount - I turned off the amp to the main speakers but left the subs going. The subs are getting a good work out!

I always thought I was too cool for Liszt, but I must be getting old and soppy . . .

No, you've got it wrong, you've got to be seriously uncool not to like Liszt.

I love book 3 - in fact I love all of the Years of Pilgrimage - but the melancholy ones in book 3 are something else, quite a unique sound world, expression-wise. I recall writing something on this forum - it is probably on the thread about Liszt, I will find it in a sec** - to the extent that the expressive ambit widens over the course of his composing life. Anyway, I'm listening to this which is nice, despite some wrong notes:

**Here it is -

Over on the 'now listening' thread I mentioned I was listening to the first book of Liszt's Annees de Pelerinage. It's very nice, very nice indeed, but it did give the impression of a composer whose powers were not yet fully developed; parts of it adumbrate pieces whose expressive power is more concentrated and potent - parts of Vallee d'Obermann foreshadow Andante lagrimoso, and the thin, eerie textures of La Mal du pays anticipate those of Nuages Gris. For whatever reason (because I think the composition of the first two books overlapped, rather than being chronologically separate) the second book, which I am currently listening to, seems stronger than the first. Now, trying to think of the third book, it is apparent about the expressive development of Liszt's music is that it branches out in extremities - the nature of these pieces where the classical idea of contrast and balance is dispensed with, and each composition takes its general expressive-type and really pushes it. So the melancholy of book 3 is fiercer and more tragic than that of earlier pieces, and the spiritual, ecstatic side is yet more so. I am reminded, in thinking of the nature of Liszt's inspired ideas and how they seem to just have appeared ex nihilo is some cases, of Stravinsky and specifically, the Rite, about which I remember reading that his ideas seem to have arrived fully formed - that, rather than 'organically' developing a single idea, instead a plethora of ideas with very distinctive quiddities are stated, juxtaposed, repeated and rearranged, with special attention on rhythmic process (actually I don't know that much about the Rite at all...) where I see distant similarities with Liszt probably has something to do with the improvisational aspects of Liszt and the use of exotic modes, symmetrical scales etc.

[Mandryka]

I've been back to exploring this over the past few days, especially Bk 3. I've been really enjoying Jando, and Cziffra.

And a real discovery - Raymond Lewenthal playing the first two books - released in 2019.

[smittims]

The three books of the Annees de Pelerinage are scheduled for the R3 Lunchtime concert today thru Friday.

[french frank]

The three books of the Annees de Pelerinage are scheduled for the R3 Lunchtime concert today thru Friday.

From the La Roque d'Anthéron piano festival:

Book I: Tanguy de Williencourt (today)
Book II: Jean-Frédéric Neuburger
Book III: Nathanaël Gouin

[richardfinegold]

My Piano Teacher is working on mastering this work, and as I walk to my lesson room I am usually knocked over by thundering octaves of cascading notes. i think the Piano sighs a bit of relief when I start playing the first prelude from Bachs WTC

[Jonathan]

From the La Roque d'Anthéron piano festival:

Book I: Tanguy de Williencourt (today)
Book II: Jean-Frédéric Neuburger
Book III: Nathanaël Gouin

Great, time to use iPlayer then.