Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke - The Dance in the Village Inn, after lenau)

Although the works of Liszt were not a central part of Richter’s repertoire, he was one of the twentieth century’s important Liszt interpreters and was deeply committed to the works which he did play. In this collection we can hear his delicacy, tenderness and great lyric power in the two Liebesträume and contrasting ferocity in the Mephisto Waltz No.1. These are new digital restorations.

“He doesn’t splash. He doesn’t fake. It’s real” (The Daily Telegraph)

The debut recording from the superb young pianist, who, at the age of just eighteen, won a sensational victory in the 2009 London International Piano Competition, with an electrifying performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3.

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Behzod Abduraimov is already a mature concert artist who thrills audiences wherever he appears – including an Asian tour with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy, where he was dubbed by the press: “The Western Lang Lang”. An extraordinary combination of youthful passion and an astonishing technique gives his performances an irresistible, life-enhancing energy.

His Decca Classics debut album showcases his passionate performance style through the concept of Danses diaboliques, including Horowitz’s incredible version of Saint-Saëns/Liszt Danse macabre – wildly virtuosic pieces, which perfectly capture the white-knuckle ride that is Behzod Abduraimov’s style.

“. . . thought arose: could this fresh-faced child be a new Horowitz?” (The Independent)

Having made revolutionary changes, during the 1830s and 40s, in both piano performance and composition, Liszt was hardly less innovative in his relationship with the orchestra. He is generally credited with having created the genre of the symphonic poem, in which a narrative or extra-musical idea is depicted within a structural framework usually associated with an abstract symphonic movement. In 1974 and 1977 Sir Georg Solti recorded five of the composer’s Tone Poems as well as the Mephisto Waltz No. 1 with the London Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. With fabled ‘Decca Sound’, these recordings have been much sought after by collectors. Recently reissued in the (limited) Liszt Edition, they are now made available generally as a 2CD set.

The coupling is a much-praised version of the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, in orchestrations by both the composer as well as Doppler, by Iván Fischer, considered one of the most important conductors of our time. The interpretations were unforgettably described by Gramophone, on their first appearance, as ‘frisky as foals and as flavoursome as goulash’. Even though he grew up in a family in which German was spoken, and although he left Hungary at a young age, Liszt regarded himself as a Hungarian, and he took considerable pride in that fact. Nevertheless, Liszt and Hungary did not always understand each other. He promoted the idea that Hungary’s true national music was the music of the Gypsies, not realising that many of the melodies played by Gypsy bands were in fact composed (but not written down) by Hungarian landowners whose families did not appreciate Liszt’s misattributions – particularly because the Gypsies were not highly regarded in Hungary. This, however, does nothing to diminish the popularity of the Hungarian Rhapsodies, six of which were orchestrated in conjunction with Franz Doppler, a flute virtuoso and a composer in his own right who met Liszt in 1854 and began orchestrating several of his rhapsodies three years later.

The American pianist Julius Katchen (1926–1969) was a child prodigy who at age 11 performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy. In 1946 Katchen toured Europe, settled in Paris in late 1947 and became a frequent performer on the European concert platform.

His technique was ‘gold plated’ and despite his early death at aged 43 from cancer, he had a large discography which still sells today. In December 1968 he famously participated in the two-day spectacular known as the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus, playing the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata K545 and Falla’s ‘Ritual Fire Dance’ from El amor brujo.

Katchen made a major study of Brahms during his career and this 1967 live broadcast of Brahms Piano Concerto No.1, with the distinguished German conductor Rudolf Kempe, reflects his deep understanding of this composer.

This recording gives the collector the rare opportunity of hearing Katchen ‘live’ in comparison to his studio account made much earlier in 1959.

The fill-ups consist of familiar Katchen composers, Chopin and Liszt but also two new additions to his discography, Schumann's Prophet Bird Op.82, No.7 and Albéniz’s Triana.

Completing this CD is a rare interview with John Amis where Katchen discusses his early life including his thoughts on Mozart and Brahms interpretation.

These recordings have never been released before and have been remastered using ICA’s Ambient Mastering process which recreates the atmosphere of the concert hall.

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.

Recent Sony Classical signing Khatia Buniatishvili is a phenomenal and acclaimed young artist, and regarded as one of the great pianists of the future. Her debut album for Sony Classical is devoted to Franz Liszt, with a focus on the Faust theme: Liszt’s third Liebestraum is characterised by the line from Goethe’s Faust: ”O stay! Thou art so fair!” and the Mephisto Waltz was inspired by an episode in Nikolaus Lenau’s Faust poem. Moreover Khatia Buniatishvili reads Faust, Marguerite and Mephisto into the themes of the centrepiece of the recording, the Sonata in B Minor – technically one of the most demanding works ever written for piano.