Liszt: Tarantella, S. 162 No. 3 (from Venezia e Napoli)

Josef Hofmann was hailed as the greatest child prodigy of his generation. A demanding debut concert at the Metropolitan Opera House at the age of nine was ecstatically received. The New York Times wrote: "Josef Hofmann played, not only like an artist, but like a master." A pupil of Rubinstein, Hofmann enjoyed a phenomenal international career performing all over the world. These CD transfers show Hofmann at the peak of his powers spanning the years 1919-1929.

This set contains highlights of the most recent Ruhr Piano Festival. The 2011 programme commemorated Liszt’s 200th birthday and two of the CDs contain outstanding renditions of his piano compositions. The performers include Benjamin Moser, Boris Giltburg and Denis Kozhukhin. The bonus CD contains world premiere performances of new piano music.

A must have collection of Liszt’s works for piano performed by some of the greatest interpreters of his music. With a premiere division line up of pianists this 10 CD set offers the listener two performances of the B minor sonata by Gilels (captured in 1949) and Richter, the late Lazar Berman plays the Dante Sonata, the Transcendental Etudes, the Years of Pilgrimage Book 1and the Mephisto Waltz No.1.

Recently retired Alfred Brendel is heard in the Three Sonnets after Petrach, the Paganini Etudes and a selection of opera paraphrases. The great Earl Wild puts his stamp on the Mephisto waltz No.1, and the Reminiscences from Robert leDiable, and Don Juan.The legendary Cziffra contributes more operatic paraphrases, this time Tannhauser and Rigoletto, plus Gnomenreigen and the Hungarian Rhapsody No.19.

Expect the unexpected with Cziffra in this music – his performances were always at a white heat, and not for those of a delicate disposition! Listeners will have the opportunity to compare. Vladimir Ovchinikov’s recording of the Transcendental Etudes with Berman’s. Berman’s recordings today are hard to come by and this is a welcome reissue of this remarkable and elusive artist. The younger generation is represented by the outstanding Artur Pizarro performing the Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Further information

The Brendel recordings are from his highly acclaimed Vox recordings from the late 1950s which critics have preferred to his later Philips recordings. ‘Brendel was from square one a devout Lisztian and a true believer, his adroit pacing, his unfailingly architectronic timing of detail and dramatic events gives him a Toscanini-like impact’ Harris Goldsmith, on Brendel’s Weber/Liszt transcription of the Overture to Oberon. Wild finds exactly the right balance between devil-may-care energy and accurate virtuosity. Here on can sample Wild at something like his zenith as a Liszt player. Virtuosic, bordering on incendiary, but stand well back.’ Gramophone

Ovchinikov’s Transcendental Etudes: ‘Extremely fine pianism… a superb achievement outclassing Bolet and Arrau in just about every department. Ovchinikov has set the standard and set it high.’ Gramophone

Comprehensive booklet essay

The complete Vox, Turnabout and Vanguard solo recordings

Alfred Brendel retires this year from public performance. He will give his last recital in December at Vienna’s Musikverein, in the city where he came to prominence over half a century ago. The recordings he made then for young American labels established in the wake of the Second World War, harnessing young talent in classic repertoire, have stood the test of time. They put down a marker for the music that Brendel would come almost to ‘own’ in the eyes of the piano-music-loving public: the Beethoven concertos and sonatas, Mozart concertos, Schubert, Liszt and Schoenberg. He would later bring deepening insights to the core of the Austro-German repertoire that was his mainstay, but these early recordings are of far more than merely historical value: they are the first, impetuous explorations of a true keyboard lion. Thus there is also music we don’t associate with Brendel, and to which he chose not to return, especially from Russia: Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. In sum, and at a specially reduced price, this is essential listening for anyone interested in piano music and in the career of one of the greatest living pianists.

Many of these performances have scarcely been available on CD: this is the first time they have been gathered together as a set Extensive booklet notes by pianophile Ates Orga, including a conversation piece with Brendel.