Liszt: Après une lecture du Dante, fantasia quasi sonata (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 7) (Dante Sonata)

Misha Dacic's concerts at the Miami Piano Festival in recent years made a sensational impact (check him out on Youtube). They show that appearances do not deceive: he looks like and actually is a wizard: a true artist, with limitless technique and the ability to conjure up myriad tonal effects from the piano, to turn that “miserable instrument” (Beethoven) into an orchestra of the most amazing timbres and sonorities.

Dacic’s affinity with Liszt shows in the selection of pieces on this new CD, presenting facets of the multi-faced genius, centred around three masterpieces, the epic B-A-C-H Variations, the seldom heard “Grosses Konzertsolo” and the infernal Dante Sonata, in which Dacic incorporates elements from all three versions Liszt made - prepare for some surprises!). As a suitable conclusion to an adventurous and tumultuous artistic life he ends with the late piece 'La Lugubre Gondola'.

To celebrate 10 years of recording activity with Lise de la Salle, aged only 24 years-old, with 6 discs under her belt, Naive are delighted to offer this 'best of' that collects an impressive series of outstanding performances in diverse repertoire.

The bonus DVD includes a 93' recital recorded in one of Paris' most beautiful concert places: Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. The programme includes works by Schumann, which Lise de la Salle has recording here for the first time. She continues to develop an impressive international concert schedule, in recital and in concerto.

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.

'.... her Kreisleriana can hold its own with any in the catalogue’. Gramophone of Kreisleriana

‘her mastery of every detail of the polyphonic writing is second to none.’ Gramophone of Piano Sonata

Since his debut recording released in 1997, Arcadi Volodos, is celebrated as a keyboard genius, and is without a doubt one of today’s most outstanding and internationally interesting pianists. His unlimited virtuosity along with his unique sense of timing, colour and poetry made him a romantic narrator of intensive stories.

On March 1st 2009 Volodos played at the Musikverein in Vienna, and subsequently toured the Vienna concert program in several German cities such as Essen, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Baden-Baden, Schwetzigen, and has received sensational reviews.

Luiza Borac’s debut recording on Avie, of the Three Piano Suites by George Enescu (AV 0012/AV 0013), caused a sensation and garnered her unanimous critical acclaim, securing this young Romanian pianist’s place on the musical map. For her follow up recording, Luiza, who has won over two dozen international competitions including the Concours Grieg in Oslo, turns her attention to two pillars of the romantic era, Schubert and Liszt. The composers’ seemingly contrasting temperaments are linked on this CD by a common itinerant theme. Excerpts from Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage are paired with Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy (which Liszt orchestrated). Throughout Luiza applies strength and sensitivity in equal measure, beautifully and vividly brought out by the Hybrid SACD format.