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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 40: Gaudeamus IgiturPièces d'occasion
Liszt: | Gaudeamus igitur - Paraphrase, S240 Una stella amica - Valzer [Pezzini], S551 La marche pour le Sultan Abdul Médjid-Khan [Giuseppe Donizetti], S403 Seconda Mazurka di Tirindelli, variata da F. Liszt, S573a Seconde Marche hongroise - Ungarischer Sturmmarsch (first version), S232 Nocturne (Impromptu, first version), S190a Festmarsch zur Säkularfeier von Goethes Geburtstag (first version), S227 Solovei - Le Rossignol - Air russe [Alyabiev] (first version), S250a Galop russe [Bulhakov] (first version), S478i Lyubila ya [Wieihorsky] (first version), S577i Gaudeamus igitur - Humoreske, S509 Ballade No. 2 (first version) S170a |
This recital gathers several varieties of occasional music (some quite ephemeral pieces cheek by jowl with more enduring creations and transcriptions) together with some of Liszt's earlier versions of pieces better known today as he finally offered them. The student drinking-song Gaudeamus igitur ('And so let us rejoice') is here presented in two amusing and technically daring guises, and joined by various pieces Leslie Howard describes as 'pleasant and utterly unimportant trifles'; the resulting programme is, of course, charming. “Here's a winsome collection of chips from Liszt's workbench ... Sound and notes are up to the high standard of the series too” Fanfare | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 41: The Recitations with pianoforte
Solo Instrumental or Spoken Word? The genre of the melodrama finds little place amid modern cataloguing demands, yet was a particular favourite in the nineteenth century, with examples by Schubert and Richard Strauss, among many others. On this recording Liszt's five surviving such works cover a wide range of human emotion and experience: the despairing fidelity of Lenore which leads her to irreversible blasphemy; the fatal haunting of the once-fearless knight confronted by a ghostly monk; the dead King who remains faithful to his Sigrun even amid the delights of heaven; the widow wooed by a mysterious apparation; and Tolstoy's blind musician, too devoted to his song to care when he performs without the intended audience. These ballads, recited in their original languages (three German, one each Hungarian and Russian—full texts and translations into English, French and, where applicable, German provided), are accompanied and adorned by Liszt's expressive piano parts, Der traurige Mönch being of particular interest as an early example of the true atonality which Liszt was not to develop upon for many years. This latest volume in Leslie Howard's gargantuan survey of Liszt's piano music certainly stands out from the others. “A real curiosity and a valuable one” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 45: Rapsodie Espagnole
“There's plenty in this nicely-planned recital that's on a par with the celebrated Rhapsody and undeserving of present neglect” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Organ Dreams 2
Barber, S: | Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 (arr. William Strickland) | Bridge: | Adagio in E major (No 2 of Three Pieces, H63) | Dubois, T: | In Paradisum (No 9 of Douze Pièces Nouvelles) | Elgar: | Vesper Voluntaries, Op. 14 | Guilmant: | Rêve (from Organ Sonata No. 7 in F major, Op. 89) | Howells: | Siciliano for a High Ceremony | Liszt: | Évocation à la Chapelle Sixtine S658 | Schumann: | Study in Canonic Form, Op. 56 No. 4 in A flat major - Innig | Wesley, S: | Four Pieces from Twelve Short Pieces and a Full Voluntary (Nos 5, 8, 9 & 11) |
“Following eight highly acclaimed discs of 'Organ Fireworks', the winning combination of Christopher Herrick and Hyperion turn their attention towards the calmer and more reflective repertory grouped under the title 'Organ Dreams'. Volume 2 consists mostly of original organ music spanning the period 1815-1952, all of which fits the instrument in Ripon Cathedral like a well-tailored glove.
Not every title reflects a dream-like state, though the disc's opening track – Dubois' Inparadisum creates an aura of calm. Frank Bridge's oft-played Adagio in E is also smoothly shaped, with its grand climax carefully controlled. Guilmant's 'Rêve' of 1902 is delicious, its impressionistic perfume wafting effortlessly.
With a running time of 19 minutes, Elgar's rarely heard Vesper Voluntaries of 1889 form the centrepiece of Herrick's programme. What charmers they are: mostly mezzopiano in dynamic, with occasional fuller-bodied outbursts, none of them outstays its welcome. They are followed by Howells' rambling Siciliano (the most recent piece on the disc), which Herrick keeps moving. However, he does allow himself plenty of time for William Strickland's convincing arrangement of Barber's Adagio.
The Liszt is a shameless piece of kitsch which borrows freely from Allegri's Miserere and Mozart's Ave verum corpus. More worthwhile are Schumann's Study and a quartet of miniatures by Samuel Wesley. The only fault with the whole package is that the portrait purporting to be that of Wesley senior is, in fact, that of his natural son, Samuel Sebastian.
In summary, this thoroughly enjoyable disc is sensitively and affectionately played, and works well at a single hearing.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 48: The Complete Paganini Études
And still they come! Liszt Volume 48 is fundamentally about the Paganini Studies, and in particular features the impossibly difficult 1838 first versions of what became the Grandes Études de Paganini. Paganini's violin virtuosity was the primary catalyst for Liszt's quest to explore the limits of pianistic virtuosity, and these works, along with the 12 Transcendental Studies, are thus his definitive statements on piano technique. “[Howard] can play anything that Liszt wrote, it seems, and be as intelligent and sensitive” Classic CD | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 1: The Waltzes
Liszt: | Valse oubliée No. 2, S.215/2 Mephisto Waltz No. 2 Valse oubliée No. 3, S.215/3 Mephisto Waltz No. 3 Valse oubliée No. 4, S.215/4 Mephisto Waltz No. 4 Landler In A Flat, S211 1843 Album Leaf In Waltz Form, S166 1842 Valse-Impromptu, S.213 Valse Melancolique, S214 No. 2 1839/1850 Valse De Bravoure, S214 No. 1 C1835/C1850 Bagatelle Sans Tonalite, S216a C1885 Valse oubliée No. 1, S.215/1 Mephisto Waltz No. 1 |
“For sheer virtuosic panache and the ability to translate Liszt's ever-changing moods, Leslie Howard must be heard” Hi-Fi News | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 36: Excelsior!and other rare original works
Liszt: | Excelsior! - Preludio [to The Bells of Strasburg Cathedral], S500 (1874) Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth, S534bis (2nd version, 1844) Consolations (6), first series (6), S171a Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth, S534bis (2nd version, alternative text, 1844) Geharnischte Lieder, S511 (published 1861) Rosario, S670 (1879) Schlummerlied im Grabe (Première Élégie, 1st version), S195a (1874) Entwurf der Ramanra-Elegie (Zweite Elegie, 1st draft), S196a (1877) Weimars Volkslied (No 2 in F major), S542a (1873) National Hymne: Kaiser Wilhelm!, S197b (1876) Fanfare zur Enthüllung des Carl-Augusts Monument, S542b (1875) Weimars Volkslied (No 1 in C major), S542 (1857) |
All the works on this disc are believed to be first recordings. Much of Liszt’s music is out of print, or not yet published, and frequently missing from the existing catalogues. Various pieces of one sort or another, often alternative texts of known works, are still being unearthed. Most of the pieces in this selection are rather rare, several are unpublished, and some only recently published for the first time. “Even if it contained nothing but the [early version of the] Consolations, this volume would be one of the most revelatory in the series ... A major contribution to the catalogue. Enthusiastically endorsed” Fanfare “I constantly admired his near-orchestral range of sonority - his strength in grandiloquence and his hypnotic sustaining power in intimacy. Everything is played with total conviction” Gramophone Magazine | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 35: Arabesques
Borodin: | Polka Hélène in D minor for piano 4 hands with Philip Moore (piano) | Liszt: | Deux Melodies Russes - Arabesques S250 (1842) Lyubila ya – Romance – Autrefois, S577ii Tarentella (Dargomizhsky) S.483 (piano transcription) Galop russe [Bulhakov] (first version), S478i Mazurka par un amateur de St Pétersbourg, S384 Prélude à la Polka de Borodine, S207a Tarantella (Cui), S. 482 Rákóczi-Marsch {version populaire}, S244c Virag dál 'Chant des fleurs', S383a Spanisches Ständchen – Mélodie von Grafen Leo Festetics, S487 Revive Szegedin! – Marche hongroise de Szabadi, orchestrée par Massenet, S572 Valse d'Adèle pour la main gauche seul par Géza Zichy {Transcription brillant 2 mains par F. Liszt}, S456 Valse de concert d'après la "Suite en forme de valse" de J. de Végh, S430 Bevezetés és magyar induló {Introduction and Hungarian March}, S573 |
“I constantly admired his near orchestral range of sonority - his strength in grandiloquence and his hypnotic sustaining power in intimacy. Everything is played with total conviction” Gramophone Magazine “A most enjoyable collection” Penguin Guide | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 34: Douze Grandes Etudes
“In this first recording of the concert version of the Douze Grandes Etudes (1837), Leslie Howard brings his customary technical wizardry to bear on this outrageously difficult music in an arresting virtuoso display that demonstrates Liszt's consummate skill at transforming musical material.
Moreover, despite Liszt's exhortation that only the later revisions of the studies should be played, there's a great deal to recommend the 1837 set, as these performances attest. The extreme technical demands of these pieces have led to critical scorn, but the challenges they contain aren't designed merely for display, but are the result of the composer's comprehensive exploitation of the piano's expressive capabilities.
Saint-Saëns said that 'in Art a difficulty overcome is a thing of beauty' and, in the present instance, Howard's own triumph over the monumental difficulties posed by these pieces reveals the astonishing beauty of Liszt's 'orchestral' use of tone colour and sparkling virtuosity.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Liszt Complete Music for Solo Piano 19: Liebesträume & the Songbooks
“Among the most readily and revealingly appealing issues of Howard's stupendous enterprise. Enthusiastically recommended” Fanfare | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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