Liszt: Transcendental Study, S139 No. 8 'Wilde Jagd'

Two pupils of the great Julius Katchen are featured in the piano music of Liszt on this 2CD set. Pascal Rogé was eighteen years old when he recorded the Liszt Piano Sonata, Mazeppa, Vallée d’Obermann and the third Liebestraum in London in December, 1969. It was during the 1967 International Competition Georges Enesco that Rogé was first discovered. He was sixteen, the only Frenchman to reach the finals, and he won a prize even though he was the youngest competitor. In Paris, where he was unanimously awarded First Prize for the Piano at the Conservatoire (in Lucette Descaves’s class) when he gave his first recital, Le Figaro wrote: ‘… Here is an exceptional personality and already much more than a hope: a gold mine’. The International Herald Tribune praised him with these words: ‘… his remarkable technical prowess, but also style and ability to draw his audience into his line of focus and hold it there. Such a quality is the sign of a true artist.’ Twelve years later, in 1980, he made another Liszt recording for Decca, this time of the Italian volume of Années de Pèlerinage. Both recordings are issued as part of this 2CD set, completed with Liszt recordings of both flamboyant pieces – the transcendental study Wilde Jagd, the second Legend ‘St. Francis of Paul walking on the waves’ – as well as the intimate, almost experimental late works. Born in Calcutta, India, of Viennese-Jewish parents, raised in considerable poverty, Jean-Rodolphe Kars was much admired in pianistic circles. Although his upbringing had been that of a secular Jew, he converted, in 1976, to Catholicism and was baptised in 1977. Mysteriously, in 1981, he put an end to his career as a pianist, entering the priesthood in 1986. All these recordings appear internationally on Decca CD for the first time.

Russian-Israeli pianist ROMAN ZASLAVSKY is a master of piano technique that espouses nuance without resorting to arbitrary mannerisms. He first gained recognition by taking 1st prize—the Primer Gran Premio—at the José Iturbi International Music Competition in Valencia, Spain and concert tours brought him around the globe with rave reviews after performances in Israel, Germany, Netherlands, France, Japan, Canada and Latin America.

REVOLUTIONARY SOUND QUALITY: This is the one of the first HD Audio productions in line produced without compromise using the Direct A/A (analog to digital) technique which delivers the culmination of sound clarity realized by the use of the state-of-the-art digital microphone system that transfers the direct signal with a dynamic range of up to 130dB by eliminating all sound shaping and dynamic loss creating stages in the signal path such as cables, non optimal preamps, AD converters or limiters. The result is the highest achievable and unmatched signal to noise ratio. True-Peak EBU R128 Mastering guarantees uncompressed fully natural dynamics from total silence to ultimate peak level without any noise or distortion. ALSO AVAILABLE IN 24/96 lossless HD Multichannel PCM.

In presenting the historic and artistic connections of “Ingenious Opposites,” he gives the listener the chance to experience these masterpieces in a whole new light.

First off is a revelatory compilation of Liszt’s most daring and virtuosic piano music, a special celebration of his wild and crazy side from an array of great pianists – dazzling virtuosity, extreme harmonies and textures – a helter-skelter ride through his piano oeuvre, with just the occasional moment of relaxation.

From the first strumming chords of the First Mephisto Waltz to the spooky harmonies of La lugubre gondola and the obsessive threnody of Totentanz, a master of the instrument stands before us in all his glory.

Featured are such names as Géza Anda, Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Jorge Bolet, Shura Cherkassky, Vladimir Horowitz, Zoltán Kocsis, Lang Lang, Alice Sara Ott, Mikhail Pletnev, Sviatoslav Richter and Yundi Li.

Rarities include four first releases on CD by Jean-Rodolfe Kars and Egon Petri – the latter aMasters of the Old School, with two incomparable performances of transcriptions (of Mozart’s Figaro and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) , guaranteed to bring the house down.

These recordings were originally recorded for Denon and are now available on CD for the first time in nearly 20 years.