Liszt Pelerinage

Liszt's three volumes of Annees de pelerinage are rarely recorded complete, largely because many pianists remain baffled by the dark-hued prophecy and romanticism of the third and final book. So it is particularly gratifying to welcome Lazar Berman's superb 1977 DG recordings back into the catalogue, particularly when so finely remastered on CD. Berman is hardly celebrated as the most subtle or refined of pianists, but at his greatest he combines grandeur and sensibility to a rare degree and his response to Book Three, in particular, is of the highest musical quality and poetic insight.

In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birth, Deutsche Grammophon has assembled a limited-edition, 34-CD collection, housed in a sturdy cubic package that many collectors will covet for its impressive appearance. But this comprehensive set is really aimed at serious Liszt aficionados who appreciate the diverse ways of playing this arch-Romantic's passionate music.

Stephen Hough has the ample virtuoso credentials to excel in these demanding exemplars of Romantic piano music. Only rarely do we miss the rhetorical flourishes or the big, burnished tone and philosophical depth of an Arrau, but this is a first-rate reading of wonderful piano music. Hough's performance of "Vallé d'Obermann," the longest by far of the Swiss book of the Années, is played like the large-scale tone poem it is, and he fully conveys the work's meditation on nature's mysteries. His tempo freedoms in "Au bord d'une source" help make this astounding "water music" a miracle of color and mood. Throughout, Hough's fleet fingers dazzle in the difficult passages and his tonal subtleties reflect the poetry in these nine pieces.

Although Claudio Arrau had impressive credentials as a Liszt player - his only teacher was Martin Krause, who was a student of Liszt - and he performed many of the composer's works early in his career, he neither exploited this association, nor became known as a Liszt specialist. Perhaps this was because Krause warned him not to become a specialist in the music of any one composer, urging him instead to embrace all music. Consequently, the younger Arrau's repertoire was very large; however, as he grew older he concentrated on fewer composers, moving as it were from the universal to the particular applying almost prophetic insight into certain scores, especially those of Beethoven and Liszt.

Franz Liszt was without doubt one of the greatest (if not The Greatest) pianists of all time, as well as an innovating and visionary composer, in one word…a Genius!

Nikita Magaloff is known, among other things, for his complete Chopin recordings. This programme, recorded some eighteen months before his death, shows his very mature pianism.

Firma Melodiya presents a recording of two-piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns performed by the piano duet of Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle. Representatives of famous artistic dynasties and alumni of different music performing traditions, they began to jointly perform in 2011 and have won the listeners’ hearts in Russia, France and Switzerland.

EuroArts presents a spectacular musical event featuring Daniel Barenboim, one of the most prolific and high-profile artists performing on international stages today. He introduced this concert, which was recorded live at the famous Teatro alla Scala Milan in May 2007 as “A concert dedicated to Italy, but not by a conductor”. It is a highly personal tribute to a country he has toured regularly as a conductor and the first ever live instrumental recital recording at this internationally renowned venue. For his solo piano recital he chose Franz Liszt's Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), composed 1837–1849, which contains some of the composer’s most beautiful piano music - a feast not only for piano lovers.