Liszt: Liebestraum, S541 No. 2 (Nocturne in E flat major)

Although the works of Liszt were not a central part of Richter’s repertoire, he was one of the twentieth century’s important Liszt interpreters and was deeply committed to the works which he did play. In this collection we can hear his delicacy, tenderness and great lyric power in the two Liebesträume and contrasting ferocity in the Mephisto Waltz No.1. These are new digital restorations.

A gorgeous disc of wonderfully lyrical nocturnes written for solo piano and performed here by Sira Hernandez. Includes repertoire from John Field, Borodin, Scriabin, Satie, Britten and many more.

This reissue (Calliope) is a modern Lisztian landmark, with one of the finest readings of his 'Poetic and Religious Harmonies'. Pascal Amoyel is one of the few pianists to have understood the importance of this essentially declamatory music.

"Liszt's cycle Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses has a special place in my repertoire. For years I've been studying it, watching it evolve, and continue to see it in a new light. And what child-like joy to rediscover works that one thought one knew well!

When I listen now to this recording made in 2007, I realize that an album is a snapshot of a precise moment and that this moment is itself already the benchmark of what one used to be and what one will become. Let's go even further: it's probably because it's "only" a snapshot that it's an authentic version. The present reissue recreates this type of fragility, a unique ephemeral moment of the creative act caught forever". Pascal Amoyel (June 2011)

Played by present-day and past masters of the keyboard, here is the ideal follow-up and complement to our Wild and Crazy Liszt compilation.

Liszt, the virtuoso, played all the keyboard literature and travelled the roads and seas; Liszt, the thinker, nourished his intellect through his readings of Lamennais, Lamartine and Hugo, Shakespeare and Byron, Dante and Petrarch, Goethe and Schiller; Liszt, the composer of songs, indebted to Italian bel canto, the French romance and the German chorale, set texts written in six languages, not including Latin. Hesitating between pure creation and transcription, which called upon his gifts as a wizard of the keyboard throughout his lifetime, he thus paid tribute to every facet of Western art, as may be seen from this recital, or "soliloquy", to use his own expression.

Tristan Pfaff, born 1985, studies with Michel Beroff and has been doing the rounds of the International Piano Competitions, winning the Arcachon. He came third in the recent Scottish International [Oxana Shevchenko was the winner].

The first installment of Piano Classics Liszt Series - 2011 Bicentenary - presents French pianist Michel Dalberto. These recordings made for Denon in the 1990s show Dalberto's great dramatic and pianistic qualities, in monumental and moving performances of the Bénediction de Dieu dans la Solitude, the Weinen, Klagen Variations, the second book 'Italie' of Années de Pelerinage, and the 3 Liebesträume. Future releases in what will be the Liszt series, will include Claudio Arrau, Earl Wild, Jorge Bolet, Alfred Brendel, György Cziffra, Cyprien Katsaris ….