Liszt: Richard Wagner - Venezia, S201

At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the interest of composers for a cappella choir music seemed to be weak. When composers like Mahler and Debussy wrote for choir, they mostly included them into orchestral works. In the 1960s Ligeti opened up new perspectives with his piece for choir Lux aeterna and Gottwald’s transcriptions refer to Ligeti’s work, by applying the technique of writing for voices which gives us ultimately better understanding of contemporary choral music.

Pianist Silke Avenhaus has generated some fantastic reviews from her various international performances, including those at the Wigmore Hall in London. This is a stunning performance from her of music by Wagner, Liszt and Rossini on the C-Avi label. One to watch.

The Italian pianist Michele Campanella is acknowledged as one of the foremost virtuosos and interpreters of the music of Franz Liszt. The Franz Liszt Society in Budapest has awarded him their Grand Prix du Disque on three occasions, and in 1986 the Hungarian Ministry of Culture presented him with a medal for “Services to Liszt”, as did also the American Liszt Society in 2002. The recording of Wagner transcriptions and late piano works by Liszt presented here was a milestone on the pianist’s route to becoming a Liszt expert. It is particularly notable for being made using Richard Wagner’s own grand piano, which dates from 1876 and can be found at the Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth.

This first CD in Katsaris’ Liszt series illustrates five aspects of Liszt, all equally fascinating.

Separated onto two CDS, Disc 1 is themed ‘Gipsy and Romantic’ and Disc 2 ‘Avant-Garde’, ‘Homage a Wagner’ and ‘The Philosopher’.

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.

Though Hungarian by birth, and having studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Louis Kentner, like so many others of Jewish origin, immigrated to London in the mid 1930s, aware that central Europe was not the best place to be at that time for someone of his race. He was to remain in London for the rest of his life, becoming very much part of British musical life both as pianist and, later, as teacher. His somewhat sensational London debut took place in the Aeolian Hall in October 1936 where he gave an all Liszt recital. As a direct result he was signed up by HMV and over the next fifteen years, in addition to much other repertoire, he made a large number of Liszt recordings which featured not only the often recorded etudes and Hungarian Rhapsodies but also premiere recordings of many of Liszt's more important, but then less well known, larger works. Our first APR title (APR5514) featured such unusual works as the Scherzo & March, the Berceuse and the first Polonaise; on the current disc, in addition to a number of the well known aforementioned etudes, we find a group of late pieces, including the bizarre Czárdás Macabre, which was only published in the year of its recording, and the Meyerbeer/Liszt 'Les Patineurs' scherzo. This later piece is one of Liszt's most brilliant operatic transcriptions, but is strangely little known. It is perhaps Kentner's most stunning recording and a fitting way to end this fascinating recital.