Liszt: Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major) ('O Lieb, so lang'; Rêve d'amour)

A dazzling selection of Liszt performances – the great virtuoso pianist of the nineteenth century interpreted by a pianist in the Russian virtuosi tradition.

Recorded between 1987 and 2003, this set contains live recordings from Carnegie Hall, New York and Suntory Hall, Tokyo.

Rudolf Ganz (1876-1972) was one of the most remarkable Swiss musicians of the 20th-century, as pianist, teacher and conductor. From his earliest days he knew, performed and recorded music by the latest composers before World War I, and when he went to America he was conductor of the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestras for many years. He continued to give concerts in his 80s as a pianist, and the range of his achievements is considerable. This new CD is a magnificent tribute to a great musician, friend of Bartok, Korngold and Busoni - Ravel dedicated one of his most famous piano works to Ganz - and conductor who gave the world premieres of music by Copland and Elliott Carter, among many others. On this CD, we have recordings from piano rolls of 1913, and a very rare performance of Grieg's 'Holberg Suite' recorded in the USA in the late 1940s. There are rare photographs and the booklet notes are fascinatingly detailed. A most important record.

Includes footage from Ganz's 80th birthday interview on Lausanne Radio.

Award-winning blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii makes his first recording for Challenge Classics with conductor Yutaka Sado and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on a disc that includes Sergei Rachmaninov’s much-loved Piano Concerto No. 2 and three popular pieces for solo piano by Franz Liszt.

Blind since birth, 21-year-old Nobuyuki Tsujii was joint-winner of the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. Since winning the competition he has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Ravinia Festival, and given recitals throughout the U.S.A. He has worked with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yutaka Sado and Vladimir Spivakov. Future plans include appearances with the BBC Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and recitals in Berlin, Belgrade and Basel. Nobuyuki Tsujii has made a number of recordings for Avex Classics including an all- Chopin recital disc, and a live DVD recording of his 2008 solo recital at Suntory Hall.

After having spent three years of creative hardship without writing anything, the composition of the Second Piano Concerto restored Rachmaninov’s confidence in his creative abilities, and the first complete performance of the wiork in 1901 brought him great and lasting success. Franz Liszt was a multi-faceted musical genius, and the solo piano pieces featured here cover several aspects of this. The disc includes the celebrated Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, as well as Liebestraum No. 3 and the First Mephisto Waltz.

Meticulously chosen to flame desire, this collection of classical masterpieces is the perfect accompaniment to any romantic encounter.

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.

The great Georgian pianist, Lev Vlassenko, was born in 1928. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in 1956 as laureate of the First Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, being runner up to the legendary Van Clyburn. He is thought of today as one of the greatest exponents of the music of Liszt and this recording is one of 22 such documents that survive of this remarkable musician’s art.