Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S178

“the compelling centre of this feast is the playing of the 18-year-old Pascal Roge. Mature, lyrical, symphonic and pianistically profound, his Sonata is a marvel.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 *****

“There are so many super-pianists about nowadays that no boy or girl is likely to make the grade without being able to rattle off Liszt's B minor Sonata faultlessly at the age of 18. The point is how well? Pascal Rogé was 18 when he made this record last December: he can not only play this transcendentally difficult sonata, he gives it one of the most intelligent and Sensitive interpretations anybody could hope to hear.” Gramophone Magazine

“He attains a remarkably sustained intensity with some pages [of the ‘Dante’ Sonata] and the whole is extremely well integrated” Gramophone Magazine (Années de Pèlerinage)

“instead of storming classical heights with jejune interpretations, [this recital disc] is content to offer evidence of pianistic virtuosity, musical sensitivity and an interest in music going beyond the reachme-downs of the standard repertoire … The pieces and playing make the record very desirable” Gramophone Magazine (Kars)

“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 *****

“There’s intelligent method in this two-disc mega-recital...Disc two ingeniously pairs four works from Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage collections with descriptive pieces by Bartok, Marco Stroppa, Ravel and Messiaen, highlighting poetic, formal, textural and gestural similarities galore. Aimard’s readings are characterised by a clarity that allows detail and shape rightful pre-eminence.” Sunday Times, 16th October 2011

“Bombarded as we are by Liszt recordings in his anniversary year, this is refreshingly different. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is also a skilled maker of programmes...Since large quantities of Liszt in one sitting can be indigestible, this is an excellent way into the B minor sonata and sections of Années de pèlerinage.” The Observer, 16th October 2011

“Aimard has long established himself as the thinking person’s pianist. His Liszt Project juxtaposes a selection of Liszt’s works with compositions by contemporaries and successors who were inspired by him...It’s a strong idea, sustained by the Frenchman’s fastidious pianism, but it comes across more as a lecture-recital than a satisfying listening experience.” Financial Times, 30th October 2011

“Aimard is a supremely intellectual pianist and his intense, rigorously thought-out playing illuminates the two programmes...Aimard's approach is purposefully cool in order to highlight the structural elements of the piece and while there's some exquisite hushed playing, the thunderous climaxes don't build with quite enough abandon.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012 ****

“This impressive double album is surely one of the most intelligent recorded contributions to the Liszt Bicentenary of 2011...Nothing in Aimard's performances is done for mere effect: throughout, he projects Liszt with a solidity and refinement of invention. A superb achievement.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 *****

“In the main, the later the Liszt the more impressive Aimard is...he is ideally persuasive that no composer stayed younger in his desire to make something new...Aimard's reading of the B minor Sonata is distinguished - intellectually satisfying, as it should be, as the most intelligent and far-reaching of all post-Beethoven sonatas on a large scale.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2011

“she certainly shows a startling affinity with [Liszt's] very particular musical world. The B minor Sonata is the centrepiece of Buniatishvili's programme, and she goes at it with real ferocity...Her floating of the melody of the Liebestraum, and her elegant weaving through the mysterious harmonies of La Lugubre Gondola, though, show there is much more to her artistry than just full-frontal musical assaults.” The Guardian, 2nd June 2011 ****

“This debut disc looks like a safe 'Best of Liszt' selection but, thrillingly, is much more than that. Buniatishvili is a young artist with a huge temperament and technique that puts one in mind of the young Martha Argerich.” Classic FM Magazine, August 2011 *****

“as a result of the focused intensity and sumptuous beauty of tone that Buniatishvili brings to the Liebestraum No. 3 we seem to be hearing this hoary old standard afresh. That mesmeric sense of inwardness is here, too, in the transcription of the Bach A minor Prelude and Fugue - which at first feels like a hallucinatory extension of her eloquently desolate account of the near-atonal Lugubre gondola No. 2.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 ****

“Buniatishvili is at her best in the Bach A minor BWV543 Prelude and Fugue transcription, where her playing becomes far more poised and controlled, without sacrificing one iota of imagination. The latter selection alone is worth the price of admission.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“Rubinstein's rounded tone and spacious firepower confirm his legendary reputation, and then some: Liebestraum has an unaffected depth. Unforgettable.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 *****

“Listening to these recordings is like eavesdropping on a gracefully ageing veteran, delighted that his fingers are still capable of coming up with the goods...[The Sonata] is played here with a freewheeling grace and humanity. The last few seconds are a highlight - here a miraculous, poetic unwinding.” The Arts Desk, 9th July 2011

“Liszt is not a composer one instantly associates with Rubinstein...This blistering account of the E flat Concerto, recorded in Carnegie Hall when Rubinstein was in his late sixties, might change that perception...the playing crackles with the drama and energy of a live performance.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“If you plan to buy a Liszt piano CD during the composer’s bicentenary, make straight for this tumultuous recital. Hamelin is a master of the rhetorical flourish — amply displayed in the Fantasy and Fugue...He gives us filigree tenderness too and, in Venezia e Napoli, picturesque atmospherics. Finally, there is the epic Piano Sonata, with composer and pianist united in passion, structural control and visionary spirit.” The Times, 24th April 2011 ****

“while Hamelin's technique is superhuman and magisterial, there is never a question of virtuosity for its own sake...the rapidity of Hamelin's repeated notes in the sun-drenched Tarantella is scarcely believable, his poetic poise and noble refinement elsewhere no less notable...Even so, pride of place must go to the Sonata, where Hamelin tempers Liszt's rhetoric with a measure of dignity and restraint...In short, this is a pianist to trump all aces.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2011

“Needless to say, Hamelin's performance of Liszt's Piano Sonata yields nothing in transcendental virtuosity...He opens with a very dramatic reading of the Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H, with total clarity in articulation and voice-leading...Similar vigour and energy is to be found in evocative and exultant readings of Venezia e Napoli, highly characterized and full of shimmering colours” International Record Review, April 2011

“[Hamelin] yields nothing in technique to the greatest interpreters of this towering work on disc...bringing jaw-dropping bravura to the allegro energico sections and lending almost introverted delicacy to Liszt’s “singing” melodies. Some may find him too introverted, but he makes the strongest possible case for emphasising the contrasts in this ever-fascinating music.” Sunday Times, 10th April 2011 ****

“Hamelin comes up with one of the finest recordings [of the Sonata] I've yet heard. Certainly I can't think of one where Liszt's immense single-movement design hangs together better. Under Hamelin's astonishing fingers, the work's progress unfolds with a fusion of spontaneity and seeming inevitability that enthrals both mind and ear as a great masterpiece should.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 *****

“[Benediction de Dieu contains] some of the loveliest pianissimo sounds you'll ever hear, a masterclass in touch and pedalling...After the 'tarantella' from Venezia e Napoli, played with a speed and clarity that will be the despair of Hamelin's peers, comes the mighty and oft-recorded Sonata, an account embracing the letter and spirit of the score that often comes close to perfection.” Classic FM Magazine, June 2011 *****