Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S171/R16

To celebrate 10 years of recording activity with Lise de la Salle, aged only 24 years-old, with 6 discs under her belt, Naive are delighted to offer this 'best of' that collects an impressive series of outstanding performances in diverse repertoire.

The bonus DVD includes a 93' recital recorded in one of Paris' most beautiful concert places: Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. The programme includes works by Schumann, which Lise de la Salle has recording here for the first time. She continues to develop an impressive international concert schedule, in recital and in concerto.

An incomparably gifted pianist, Liszt was a stunning virtuoso, the creator of the solo recital and the father of modern piano technique, as well as being an intensely spiritual artist and a noble composer. “Liszt is not a pianist, he is a poet, whether he plays his own music or that of others,” Théophile Gautier wrote. The influence of the man who Lamartine called “the king of the piano” on the development of piano music was immense, and his piano music amounted to a passionate overture pointing the way to the future of the art.

Liszt considered virtuosity of the kind that makes such a powerful impression in his “Campanella” study (based on one of Paganini’s Caprices for solo violin) or the Mephisto Waltz to be a vital ingredient of the music and not an end in itself. A great admirer of Wagner’s harmonic language, he produced a number of transcriptions of the music of Wagner, which he realised with great brilliance.

Liszt took minor orders in 1863, and several of his works – such as Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, the third piece in the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (a title borrowed from Lamartine) – can be seen as central to his spiritual quest. He could also be lyrical, as in the celebrated Nocturne, which has become better known under the title Liebestraum, and melancholy or intimate, as in the Consolations, which he dedicated to Victor Hugo. As for the Jeux d’eau a la Villa d’Este (from the Années de pèlerinage), the extraordinary impressionism of this piece look forward to Ravel’s Jeux d’eau.

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.

Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantly interesting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 20th-century composers. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in the United States and abroad, he appears in the most prestigious concert series and music festivals all over the world.

Elisabeth Linhart and Karl Eichinger perform lieder and piano solos by Liszt and Wagner, including Liszt’s Sechs Ausgewählte Lieder for soprano and piano, Wagner’s Fünf Gedichte von Mathilde Wesendonck and Liszt’s “Liebestraum”.