Liszt: Totentanz, S126 for piano & orchestra (Paraphrase on Dies irae - 'Dance of Death')

“…the most impressive performance here is of the bizarre and remarkable Totentanz… Whether the work's extremes of lyrical solo reflection and collective eruptiveness can ever really be conjured into hanging together is a good question. For all that, Cohen does encompass those extremes impressively. Throughout, his Brazilian conductor-and-orchestra compatriots accompany him with colour and flair.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2008 ****

“…for unapologetic bravura combined with intimate poetry, a complete empathy with Liszt's intentions and full-blooded recorded sound, Cohen and his cohorts are hard to beat.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2007

“Liszt's Sonata is seen to have 'an enlarged field of tension' and here is a performance that, from a tension of expectancy in the dragged notes of the opening bars to the tensions of the bravura passages, is the epitome of breadth and dignity. Not meretricious but not cerebral either; and to that add 'passionate' in Kreisleriana and Fantasie, the climaxes of its finale gauged to a nicety.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2006

“In these appropriately dramatic performances, he brings convietion to No. 1 and is no less persuasive in No. 2. The slow movement of the First Concerto is superbly managed (with admirable assistance from the Czech wind players, who also illuminate the adagio sostenuto of No. 2). Banowetz responds to the greater depth of the second of Liszt's piano concertos, and offers brilliance in the concluding allegro animato. A suitably vivid performance of the over-the-top Totentanz completes a well-performed programme.” Classical Music

“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