Liszt: Il penseroso (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 2) (The Thinker)

Two pupils of the great Julius Katchen are featured in the piano music of Liszt on this 2CD set. Pascal Rogé was eighteen years old when he recorded the Liszt Piano Sonata, Mazeppa, Vallée d’Obermann and the third Liebestraum in London in December, 1969. It was during the 1967 International Competition Georges Enesco that Rogé was first discovered. He was sixteen, the only Frenchman to reach the finals, and he won a prize even though he was the youngest competitor. In Paris, where he was unanimously awarded First Prize for the Piano at the Conservatoire (in Lucette Descaves’s class) when he gave his first recital, Le Figaro wrote: ‘… Here is an exceptional personality and already much more than a hope: a gold mine’. The International Herald Tribune praised him with these words: ‘… his remarkable technical prowess, but also style and ability to draw his audience into his line of focus and hold it there. Such a quality is the sign of a true artist.’ Twelve years later, in 1980, he made another Liszt recording for Decca, this time of the Italian volume of Années de Pèlerinage. Both recordings are issued as part of this 2CD set, completed with Liszt recordings of both flamboyant pieces – the transcendental study Wilde Jagd, the second Legend ‘St. Francis of Paul walking on the waves’ – as well as the intimate, almost experimental late works. Born in Calcutta, India, of Viennese-Jewish parents, raised in considerable poverty, Jean-Rodolphe Kars was much admired in pianistic circles. Although his upbringing had been that of a secular Jew, he converted, in 1976, to Catholicism and was baptised in 1977. Mysteriously, in 1981, he put an end to his career as a pianist, entering the priesthood in 1986. All these recordings appear internationally on Decca CD for the first time.

This, the forty-third volume (and sixty-fifth disc) in Leslie Howard's Liszt encyclopaedia, includes the Second Book of the composer's Années de Pèlerinage, a work which derives its considerable inspiration from the art and literature of Italy. Here we find the final versions of the three Petrarch Sonnets and the famous Dante Sonata.

Alongside these works we have Venezia e Napoli, an ingenious set of encore pieces, and the intriguing coda to Au bord d'une source (from the Swiss volume of the Années) which Liszt penned for the young Italian composer/pianist Giovanni Sgambati in 1863.

SFZ MUSIC, the independent label for HIS MAJESTYS SAGBUTTS & CORNETTS, are pleased to announce their latest release, the debut recording of one of Britain’s most exciting young organists. David Pipe is the assistant director of Music of York Minster and is rapidly forging a reputation for exciting, ground-breaking recital programmes.

This recording brings together two of the giants of the 19th Century organ repertoire with the splendour of York Minster’s famous romantic instrument. Two classically inspired pairs of preludes and fugues by Brahms feature alongside Pipe’s own arrangement of the monumental final movement of Brahms’ 4th Symphony. Pipe also provides an arrangement of Liszt’s Il penseroso from Années de Pèlerinage: Nicolas Kynaston’s arrangement of Funérailles and Jean Guillou’s arrangement of the monumental Fantasia and Fugue on the name of BACH complete the programme, alongside two delightful miniatures. All the arrangements are brilliantly idiomatic and translate perfectly to the organ: Pipe’s virtuosic performances and the mighty gothic power of the Minster instrument combine to stunning effect.

This recording was previewed on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune on 8th August and was launched at a recital at York Minster, given by David Pipe, on 11th August 2012

Andre Watts was born in 1946 and made his concert debut when he was only 9 years old. At the age of 16, Leonard Bernstein asked him to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.1. Bernstein became Watts’ mentor. This all-Liszt recital, recorded in 1986, demonstrates what a great musician and breathtaking virtuoso he is.

Born in 1978 in Vienna, the pianist and conductor Florian Krumpöck is the music director and principal conductor of the North German Philharmonic Orchestra and the municipal theatre in Rostock. He gave a highly acclaimed solo debut at the Vienna Musikverein in 2008, playing two complete cycles of 32 piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven for the first time.

Enrico Pace has a special affinity to Liszt: First Prize winner of the first International Liszt Competition 1989 in Utrecht he dazzled both jury and audience with playing of immense power of imagination, subtlety and devilry (here his own appearance worked to his advantage..).

This event marked the beginning of an impressive international career, with concerts in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, La Scala Milan, Wigmore Hall London, and Festivals such as Verbier, Roque d’Anthéron and Lucerne. Equally enjoying playing chamber music he has a partnership with the violinists Frank Peter Zimmermann and Leonidas Kavakos. For a long time Enrico Pace preferred the inspiration and excitement of a live concert, to recordings and it is with particular joy and pride that Piano Classics is allowed to issue his first ever CD, containing works near to Pace’s heart, may it touch the hearts of his many admirers and fans!

Recorded in the splendid acoustics of the Auditorium Pedrotti in the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, Italy, where Pace studied in his youth, 29-31 August 2011.