Liszt

The maximalist Franz Liszt and the almost minimalist Erik Satie might seem a preposterous album pairing, but violinist Andreas Seidel and pianist Steffen Schleiermacher – really, it is Schleiermacher whose project this seems to be, although he gets second billing – make a strong case for its relevance. The key is that it is the mysterious late works of Liszt that are featured. Between Liszt's works of the early 1880s and the famous Gymnopédies of Satie is a period of just seven or eight years, and, more importantly, a common spareness of melodic material and, in some cases, an interest in popular music.

Franz Liszt was involved in years of travel as a virtuoso pianist, enjoying the wildest adulation of audiences in a frenzied period that became known as Lisztomania. The appeal of his programmes included appropriate national tributes, and Liszt had recourse to varied musical sources as stimulus for these kinds of composition. From the lovely Canzone napolitana that uses a melody of unknown origin and the Hungarian Folk Songs that formed part of Liszts triumphant return to his native land, to a spectacular paraphrase of God Save the Queen that might have amused Queen Victoria, these rousing musical gifts are all evidence of a composer/ pianist at the height of his inventiveness.

Consolations is Saskia Giorgini’s second Liszt album, after her critically-acclaimed rendition of the composer’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Named after Liszt’s six Consolations, the album also contains the Caprices-Valses, Valse Impromptu, Légendes and the world-famous Liebesträume. These introspective pieces shed light on love in all its forms and manifestations, showing us human nature in all its different aspects, as well as a different side of Liszt’s colourful musical persona.