Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124

Hungarian born György Cziffra (1921–1994) was one of the most celebrated and individual piano virtuosos of the post-war decades in Europe, especially noted for his powers of improvisation and as a Liszt pianist.

In 1950 Cziffra was arrested after he attempted to escape from Hungary’s Soviet-sponsored regime and was severely tortured. When he was released in 1953, Cziffra started to record for the Qualiton and Supraphon labels (ICAC5008) which began to circulate in Western Europe, propelling him to legendary status. When Russia invaded Hungary, Cziffra fled to Vienna making his debut there in November 1956, with outstanding success. Debuts elsewhere in Europe followed. Cziffra gained international stardom not without critical disfavour, adhering to a nineteenth-century approach to music that allowed for taking ‘liberties’ with the texts.

Cziffra settled in France. He retired from recording in 1986 and left the concert platform in 1988. In the same year, France named him a cultural ambassador to a newly liberalised Hungary. He set up the Fondation Cziffra with his wife who runs it today.

These live recordings have never been issued commercially before.

The Grieg Concerto is typical of Cziffra’s ‘startling and mercurial quality’ while the Liszt Concerto and Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes are very much in the style with which Liszt ‘loved to tease and astonish his adoring audiences’. (Bryce Morrison)

‘Cziffra always held miniatures in special affection’ – the Lully Gavotte and Scarlatti Sonata K.96 are ‘infused with all of his unique tangy brilliance and bravura’. (Bryce Morrison)

After one recital in London, The Daily Telegraph said the audience ‘witnessed feats of piano playing probably never to be equalled, certainly never surpassed, in their lifetime’, and Cziffra ‘combined the precision of a metronome with the electrical discharge of a thunderstorm’. For the Paris press, ‘he was greater than Horowitz’ and for Marcel Dupré, the great French organist, he was quite simply ‘the reincarnation of Liszt’. As Bryce Morrison states, ‘Either way, (Cziffra) hardly invites a middle course or compromise. Above all, you could never ignore this artist who occupies a unique place in the pianistic Parthenon.’

This recording brings together three composers who knew each other and worked together in Paris in the first half of the 19th century: Liszt was a composer and pianist, as was Reber, who studied with Anton Reicha and devoted much of his career to chamber music. Berlioz came to fame in 1830 with the première of his Symphonie Fantastique, on which occasion he first met Liszt: the beginning of a strong friendship between the two composers. The works presented here offer a panorama of French musical tastes from the years 1830-1850. Two are world premiere recordings.

No other pianist is as closely connected with the music of Franz Liszts as Georges Cziffra. The Hungarian-French virtuoso, who died in 1994, was one of the best Liszt interpreters of all time. His recording of the composer's two piano concertos together with other pieces for piano and orchestra are among the highlights of his discography.

Krystian Zimerman made two Liszt discs for Deutsche Grammophon in 1987 and 1990 respectively: one of the two Piano Concertos and Totentanz, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the other of solo piano music, comprising Liszt’s masterwork, the B minor Sonata,and a selection of late piano works – spooky, often unnerving pieces, like Nuages gris and La lugubre gondola II.

Both are generally regarded as benchmark recordings, and have consistently been in the catalogue for over 20 years. On the Concertos disc, The Penguin Guide wrote: “It has poise and classicism and, as one listens, one feels that this music could not be played in any other way”, with Boston and Ozawa offering “excellent support”. Krystian Zimerman, as ever, plays a “superb” instrument (Gramophone) – prepared personally by the artist.

Now, as part of our celebration of the Liszt 200 anniversary, we are offering both as a handy twofer, with new cover art (photo by star Japanese photographer Akira Kinoshita), original liner notes in English, German and French, and additional photos in the booklet. The cover design is by Claudia Zimerman, the pianist’s graphic-designer daughter.

The new Rubinstein 2CD album after the great success of "Best of Chopin by Arthur Rubinstein" with more than 10,500 units sold.

A selection of the most popular Liszt works played by the aristocrat of the piano.

Classic Brendel recordings of Liszt’s two piano concertos and the three popular movements of the Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses.

Newly re-mastered.

Alice Sara Ott follows up the complete Chopin Waltzes – her highly successful international debut – with her first concerto recording on Deutsche Grammophon. The young artist presents two of the greatest hits in the repertoire: Tchaikovsky’s and Liszt’s First Piano Concertos.

Alice Sara Ott recorded this partly live (Tchaikovsky) album in her home town of Munich with the superb Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Hengelbrock, known as a modern interpreter with strong ideas (and a strong work ethic).

Alice says about the Tchaikovsky: “This piece is a revolution for me. It actually contains very different perspectives on life: the melancholy and gloomy, the majestic and, then again, the bright and light, lyrical and soaring. In any case it’s a challenge. A physical one, of course, but, in the end, really a mental one.” A challenge she has mastered, as the Süddeutsche Zeitung confirmed: “In the midst of Tchaikovsky’s avalanche of notes, Ott somehow manages to tease out the quiet passages, and with great poise to make room for lyricism and gently grazing the keys for a dreamy but distinct play of colours.”

The two concertos in this album are works that have accompanied Alice Sara Ott since her early youth. She played the Liszt before an audience the first time when she was 14 and the Tchaikovsky at 17. She has an intense relationship with both works, something clearly audible in the 21-year-old pianist’s vivid interpretations.

Fifty years ago on a country road near Arundel, Sussex, a car unaccountably left the road and hit a tree, killing all three of the vehicle's occupants. One of the passengers in the car was Richard Farrell. Richard was just starting an amazing career as a concert pianist. In 1956 he made what was to be his last tour of New Zealand. By this time he was tackling some of the mountain-peaks of the pianistic repertoire in his programmes - things like the Brahms F Minor Sonata and the "Handel" Variations, Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit", Chopin's Op.10 Etudes, and some Liszt transcriptions and paraphrases. As well, with the New Zealand National Orchestra, whose work with conductor James Robertson he praised, he played the "Emperor", and the Ravel Left-Hand Concerto. That same year Farrell had commenced what seemed a highly promising recording career in England with Pye Records, beginning with a coupling of the Grieg and Liszt E-flat concertos in which he was partnered by the Halle Orchestra under George Weldon. These two concertos are on this recording.