In 1819 the Viennese music publisher and composer Anton Diabelli sent a short waltz to a long list of composers. These included Schubert, Hummel, a very young Franz Liszt and, as the most prominent composer of the time, naturally Beethoven. Diabelli was proposing to compile an anthology of variations on his own waltz, one from each composer. Beethoven responded in a characteristic manner: first there was nothing, and then there was nothing … and then, in 1823, there was an entire, and monumental, set of no less than thirty-three variations.
Although Liszt’s thirteen symphonic poems exist in two-piano transcriptions prepared by the composer himself, it was his Czech student August Stradal (1860–1930) who transcribed twelve of them for solo piano – versions which demand almost superhuman virtuosity. Stradal died before he could tackle the last of the symphonic poems, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe; Risto-Matti Marin has made good that lacuna with his own virtuoso transcription, and adds six of Stradal’s transcriptions of Liszt songs for good measure.
Many of Liszt’s works were transcribed for other instruments; both by the composer himself and other musicians. These hauntingly beautiful pieces for cello and piano were originally written for piano solo or the voice. They are from the final period of his life and are the product of his old age and his quest for spirituality. Far from the virtuoso brilliance of his earlier works, their intense and romantic melodies express melancholy and desolation, the sparse textures and harmonic instability daringly looking forward to the twentieth century.
“The whole conception of performance in these days is too heavy, loud and blatant,” said Walter Gieseking in 1926, expressing his preference for “more delicacy and ethereal refinement of tone”. That same year the New York Times praised the German pianist for “achieving unusual richness and fineness of effect within a relatively small dynamic scale,” noting “his poetic sentiment and imagination, the intimacy of his musical expression and his exquisite adjustment of tone values.” Gieseking’s finesse, imagination and sureness of touch brought him special and lasting distinction in the solo piano works of Debussy et Ravel, which he recorded in their entirety.
“The whole conception of performance in these days is too heavy, loud and blatant,” said Walter Gieseking in 1926, expressing his preference for “more delicacy and ethereal refinement of tone”. That same year the New York Times praised the German pianist for “achieving unusual richness and fineness of effect within a relatively small dynamic scale,” noting “his poetic sentiment and imagination, the intimacy of his musical expression and his exquisite adjustment of tone values.” Gieseking’s finesse, imagination and sureness of touch brought him special and lasting distinction in the solo piano works of Debussy et Ravel, which he recorded in their entirety.
Balakirev remains one of the most atmospheric and significant of all Russian composers for the piano. From the Slavic allure of his Mazurkas, through the visionary Second Nocturne and monumental Sonata in B flat minor, to his joyous Spanish-infused pieces, he marries expressive depth with virtuoso panache. Hailed as ‘one of Britain’s best pianists’ by The Spectator, Nicholas Walker has returned to Balakirev’s original manuscripts for these performances and unearthed many new discoveries. This collection brings together Walker’s complete set of Balakirev’s piano works in a cycle that has been hailed as ‘the reference set’ by the American Record Guide.
Liszt’s chamber music is not well known—to the extent that some music lovers often do not even know it exists—for the sole reason that, in large part, it consists of transcriptions, and the principle of transcription does not automatically inspire confidence in today’s musicians. Yet, aside from the few ‘originals’ proposed in this programme, the transcriptions were quite often realised by Liszt himself, for whom the concepts of transcription, reduction, adaptation or paraphrase were an integral part of musical creation. The works chosen for this recording meet two criteria: they all include a more-or-less solo cello part, and a good number of them come from the 1880-86 period, i.e., Wagner’s and Liszt’s last years.