Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S125

“Richter in his prime and at his best, excelling in music not central to his repertoire. Could even Liszt play better? It seems unlikely. Superb booklet notes.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 *****

“The Fantasy is a bravura specimen of Richter’s digital sophistication, a glittering colour-conscious exposé of Liszt’s brilliant vapidity...Bravura, élan, introspection and poetic refinement coalesce in a performance of real power...The whole programme is a feast, in fact, of Richter’s Liszt caught in live performance.” MusicWeb International, January 2013

“Coinciding with the death of his mother and the birth of his daughter, these recordings were intensely personal for Zimerman. The Concertos are scintillating, the Sonata Olympian.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“His playing is full of poetry and meaning.... the playing is really wonderful.... Some of the quiet playing is magical.... Strongly recommended to Liszt’ admirers and enemies alike.” Gramophone Magazine (on Piano Concertos)

“This is playing in the grand manner. From the start of First Concerto you're aware of a consciously leonine approach. Zimerman even deliberately takes risks in a few technically perilous places where some of his colleagues, at least in the studio, play safe; and indeed his octaves in the opening cadenza are an example.
The result sounds spontaneous and, yes, even brave. Ozawa and the orchestra are behind the soloist in all this. Not only do lyrical sections sing with subtlety, the big passages also are shapely. There's plenty of drive in this Concerto.
In the Second Concerto Zimerman adopts a different approach; he evidently considers it a more poetic piece and the playing style, strong though it is, is to match. Finely though he handles the gentler music, there are odd sniffs and hums in the molto espressivo passage following the D flat major cello solo, and also in the last of the work's quiet sections. In the gorgeously grisly Totentanz, both the music and the playing should make your hair stand on end. The sound has a depth that suits the music and the piano is especially impressive.
Zimerman's freshness (he reminds us that this is a young man's music), and the coupling, makes this disc a most desirable one.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Indeed, I have only praise. Each of the four works here is well characterized, and the typically Lisztian varying tempos are spot on, unrushed but never deliberate and always leading naturally from one to the next. Climactic passages are powerful, but the sound remains pleasant and avoids the crudity that can emerge from these scores in less sensitive hands” Gramophone Magazine