Liszt: La Lugubre Gondola II, S200 No. 2 (Die Trauergondel)

“There’s intelligent method in this two-disc mega-recital...Disc two ingeniously pairs four works from Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage collections with descriptive pieces by Bartok, Marco Stroppa, Ravel and Messiaen, highlighting poetic, formal, textural and gestural similarities galore. Aimard’s readings are characterised by a clarity that allows detail and shape rightful pre-eminence.” Sunday Times, 16th October 2011

“Bombarded as we are by Liszt recordings in his anniversary year, this is refreshingly different. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is also a skilled maker of programmes...Since large quantities of Liszt in one sitting can be indigestible, this is an excellent way into the B minor sonata and sections of Années de pèlerinage.” The Observer, 16th October 2011

“Aimard has long established himself as the thinking person’s pianist. His Liszt Project juxtaposes a selection of Liszt’s works with compositions by contemporaries and successors who were inspired by him...It’s a strong idea, sustained by the Frenchman’s fastidious pianism, but it comes across more as a lecture-recital than a satisfying listening experience.” Financial Times, 30th October 2011

“Aimard is a supremely intellectual pianist and his intense, rigorously thought-out playing illuminates the two programmes...Aimard's approach is purposefully cool in order to highlight the structural elements of the piece and while there's some exquisite hushed playing, the thunderous climaxes don't build with quite enough abandon.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012 ****

“This impressive double album is surely one of the most intelligent recorded contributions to the Liszt Bicentenary of 2011...Nothing in Aimard's performances is done for mere effect: throughout, he projects Liszt with a solidity and refinement of invention. A superb achievement.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“In the main, the later the Liszt the more impressive Aimard is...he is ideally persuasive that no composer stayed younger in his desire to make something new...Aimard's reading of the B minor Sonata is distinguished - intellectually satisfying, as it should be, as the most intelligent and far-reaching of all post-Beethoven sonatas on a large scale.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2011

“she certainly shows a startling affinity with [Liszt's] very particular musical world. The B minor Sonata is the centrepiece of Buniatishvili's programme, and she goes at it with real ferocity...Her floating of the melody of the Liebestraum, and her elegant weaving through the mysterious harmonies of La Lugubre Gondola, though, show there is much more to her artistry than just full-frontal musical assaults.” The Guardian, 2nd June 2011 ****

“This debut disc looks like a safe 'Best of Liszt' selection but, thrillingly, is much more than that. Buniatishvili is a young artist with a huge temperament and technique that puts one in mind of the young Martha Argerich.” Classic FM Magazine, August 2011 *****

“as a result of the focused intensity and sumptuous beauty of tone that Buniatishvili brings to the Liebestraum No. 3 we seem to be hearing this hoary old standard afresh. That mesmeric sense of inwardness is here, too, in the transcription of the Bach A minor Prelude and Fugue - which at first feels like a hallucinatory extension of her eloquently desolate account of the near-atonal Lugubre gondola No. 2.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ****

“Buniatishvili is at her best in the Bach A minor BWV543 Prelude and Fugue transcription, where her playing becomes far more poised and controlled, without sacrificing one iota of imagination. The latter selection alone is worth the price of admission.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“Howard's performances are quite marvellous: scrupulously prepared and enlightened by this performer's high degree of spontaneity. Hyperion's recording captures every nuance” CD Review

“This, at last, is the comprehensive collection of late Liszt for which we've waited” Fanfare