Liszt: Fantasia & Fugue on B-A-C-H, S529

This year, April is Hamelin month at Hyperion; not content with giving us another blockbuster addition to the Romantic Piano Concerto series, the pianist gives us his contribution to the Liszt bicentenary.

The Liszt Sonata is undoubtedly one of the peaks of the repertoire, and recordings are suitably copious, but when an artist of Hamelin’s virtuoso pedigree wishes to tackle it no excuse need be made for an additional version. The recital opens with a lesser-known masterwork, the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, and for light relief there is Liszt’s scintillating supplement to his Italian Année de Pèlerinage, the three pieces of Venezia e Napoli, but perhaps the emotional core of the recital is Liszt’s intensely spiritual Bénédiction du Dieu dans la solitude.

This is a major Liszt recital from one of today’s most admired recording artists.

Two CDs of exceptional rarities. Throughout his career Liszt was an inveterate reviser of his works and much of his best-known output exists in earlier suppressed versions. These are often of great interest in themselves - containing music which was later excluded or, in the case of works commenced in the 1830s and '40s, piano-writing which was later simplified. Of particular note here is the genesis of what later became the Dante Sonata, one of Liszt's most important works.

As a favourite piano partner of Martha Argerich, Lilya Zilberstein is earning many accolades for her performances around the world. Here is a rare and early recital she recorded for DG of both popular and lesser-known Liszt fare, including the famous Legend St Francis of Paola walking on the water and the confiding six Consolations.

Recorded on the Westchor-Orgel of Mainz Dom (Hans Klais 1928).

Misha Dacic's concerts at the Miami Piano Festival in recent years made a sensational impact (check him out on Youtube). They show that appearances do not deceive: he looks like and actually is a wizard: a true artist, with limitless technique and the ability to conjure up myriad tonal effects from the piano, to turn that “miserable instrument” (Beethoven) into an orchestra of the most amazing timbres and sonorities.

Dacic’s affinity with Liszt shows in the selection of pieces on this new CD, presenting facets of the multi-faced genius, centred around three masterpieces, the epic B-A-C-H Variations, the seldom heard “Grosses Konzertsolo” and the infernal Dante Sonata, in which Dacic incorporates elements from all three versions Liszt made - prepare for some surprises!). As a suitable conclusion to an adventurous and tumultuous artistic life he ends with the late piece 'La Lugubre Gondola'.

SFZ MUSIC, the independent label for HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS & CORNETTS, are pleased to announce their latest release, the debut recording of one of Britain’s most exciting young organists. David Pipe is the assistant director of Music of York Minster and is rapidly forging a reputation for exciting, ground-breaking recital programmes.

This recording brings together two of the giants of the 19th Century organ repertoire with the splendour of York Minster’s famous romantic instrument. Two classically inspired pairs of preludes and fugues by Brahms feature alongside Pipe’s own arrangement of the monumental final movement of Brahms’ 4th Symphony. Pipe also provides an arrangement of Liszt’s Il penseroso from Années de Pèlerinage: Nicolas Kynaston’s arrangement of Funérailles and Jean Guillou’s arrangement of the monumental Fantasia and Fugue on the name of BACH complete the programme, alongside two delightful miniatures. All the arrangements are brilliantly idiomatic and translate perfectly to the organ: Pipe’s virtuosic performances and the mighty gothic power of the Minster instrument combine to stunning effect.

This recording was previewed on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune on 8th August and was launched at a recital at York Minster, given by David Pipe, on 11th August 2012

It was inevitable that Jean Guillou’s fascination for Liszt would be exercised through the virtuoso’s panache and his transcriptions for orchestral masterpieces are a delight to behold for fans of the organ . None of the works brought together on this disc escape Jean Guillou’s ‘signature’. Recently restored to its full glory in 2007, the organ of Naples Conservatory brings these sublime transcriptions to life in a way that Liszt would have surely admired.