Liszt: Widmung S566 after Schumann (Liebeslied)

“Trifonov's combination of delicacy and fire leaves an indelible impression in this debut recording with the Mariinsky. The Tchaikovsky, scorching and heart-rending but never bombastic, is paired with solo Liszt transcriptions” The Observer, 12th August 2012

“Trifonov has won every top piano competition, and this shows why. His performance of the Tchaikovsky warhorse...is nuanced but not mannered, virtuosic without being showy, and powerful yet not hammered, as many young Russian pianists do...He has the world at his feet.” The Times, 11th August 2012 ****

“Last year’s winner [International Tchaikovsky Competition] 21-year old Daniil Trifonov is truly exceptional. Trifonov … the orchestral support is first-rate … Even more impressive are the solo works included here which display all the variety of Trifonov’s tonal range … Seemingly there is nothing that Trifonov cannot do. Trifonov may be at the start of his career but he is already a mature artist. His youth brings an overwhelming energy which seems to blow the cobwebs off everything he performs: he forces one to listen to these works anew, the sure sign of greatness.” International Record Review, October 2012

“His special blend of attributes is on display here, not least his technical ease, exquisite control and rich resource of colour. In the Tchaikovsky [Concerto], Trifonov's playing ignites when it has to, but is generally notable for its dynamic phrasing and variety of articulation. For such an overworked piece it sounds remarkably fresh.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 ****

“[Trifonov] makes the instrument sing and allows the music to breathe … The six Liszt song transcriptions show him at his best, triumphantly capturing all the despair of ‘Erlkonig’ … A pianist, then, with a great international career in front of him (no doubt about that).” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

“Liszt and his chosen models are all heard at their most exquisite” Fanfare

“Few composers have ever shown a more insatiable interest in the music of others than Liszt, or devoted more time to transcribing it for the piano. Here Howard plays 60 of Liszt's 100 or so song transcriptions, including several by the lesser-known Dessauer, Franz and (as composers) Anton Rubinstein and Clara Schumann, alongside Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.
The selection at once reveals Liszt's variety of approach as a transcriber no less than his unpredictability of choice. Sometimes, as most notably in Beethoven's concert aria, Adelaïde, the keyboard virtuoso takes over: he links its two sections with a concerto-like cadenza as well as carrying bravura into an amplified coda. But after the dazzling pyrotechnics of many of his operatic arrangements, the surprise is the self-effacing simplicity of so much included here.
The five songs from Schumann's Liederalbumfür die Jugend are literal enough to be played by young children. Even his later (1880) fantasytype transcriptions of Rubinstein's exotic TheAsra has the same potent economy of means.
Howard responds keenly to mood and atmosphere, and never fails, pianistically, to emphasise the 'singer' in each song – in response to the actual verbal text that Liszt was nearly always conscientious enough to write into his scores.
The recording is clean and true.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“he brings his natural dynamism and considerable talent to bear. Particularly impressive is his signature opener, the limpid Adagio from Marcello's Concerto No 3.” The Independent, 19th May 2012

“Both the Rachmaninov C sharp minor Prelude and Schumann/Liszt 'Widmung' feature lovely interweaving between melody and accompaniment...Rhodes obviously has it in him to be a persuasive Beethoven interpreter. Whatever persona Rhodes chooses to cultivate in terms of presentation, he certainly is a serious musician.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“He's at his best when the music is most abstract. In the Bach-Busoni Chaconne he grips the polyphony with a probing intensity, a manner revisted in miniature in the grave, brittle dance of the Marcello-Bach Adagio...Rachmaninov's C sharp minor Prelude is convincingly shaped as a crescendo in anguish, while the Schumann-Liszt Widmung becomes rapture personified.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 ***

“I'm impressed by Gvetadze's unfailingly beautiful sound and I would buy this recital for her perofrmance of the two song transcriptions alone: Widmung must be one of the most beautiful accounts on disc.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 ****

“Her tone is liquescent and her sprays of pianistic fioritura sound effortless, yet she possess all of the strength that Liszt's writing requires...[The DVD] is not only charming and atmospheric but it is also extremely accurate in conveying her fingers on the keyboard...This short film constitutes an unexpected visual bonus to a CD that would be very worth acquiring even without it.” International Record Review, September 2011

“In music that so many pianists play merely for thrills and bravura, she proves a thoughtful artist with a wonderfully flexible sense of line and tempo...there's always a sense of a musing, meditative intelligence exploring their layers of meaning in the very act of playing, as if she is spontaneously creating the music under her fingers. Her very wide range of colour, always sensitively and appropriately applied...make these interpretations very special” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 ****