Liszt: Funérailles (Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173 No. 7)

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.

BIS is proud to present a new disc from star pianist Yevgeny Sudbin who here combines works by Liszt, Ravel and Saint-Saëns under the themes of Love, Delirium and Death.

Funérailles is Liszt’s elegy for his Hungarian countrymen who died in the 1849 uprising against Habsburg Rule. Death also appears in Ravel’s depiction of a hanging – Le Gibet (The Gallows) from Gaspard de la Nuit – and closes the programme in Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre.

Love is present in the Petrarch Sonnets – originally song settings of poems in which Petrarch immortalises, the object of his unrequited passion – and Ravel’s Ondine – the tale of a water nymph tempting a mortal to join her in the depths of the lake.

Delirium is present throughout the disc, especially during the nightmarish portrait of the goblin Scarbo.

Yevgeny Sudbin has received considerable critical acclaim for his recordings on BIS. His disc of music by Scriabin was described in BBC Music Magazine as being ‘as terrifyingly changeable and emotionally all-engulfing as the music itself’.

Although the works of Liszt were not a central part of Richter’s repertoire, he was one of the twentieth century’s important Liszt interpreters and was deeply committed to the works which he did play. In this collection we can hear his delicacy, tenderness and great lyric power in the two Liebesträume and contrasting ferocity in the Mephisto Waltz No.1. These are new digital restorations.

'Maldoror' is a fantastic panorama lasting around twenty minutes, freely inspired by the poetic and subversive universe of Lautréamont's 'Chants de Maldoror' (1868). One may detect in it a hotchpotch of influences, including Stockhausen, Xenakis for the fragmentation of the piano at certain points, and probably even the Schumann of the Phantasiestücke. In addition to the traditional virtuosity demanded by the work, the pianist must prepare the strings of four bass notes in order to produce a deformed sound, more percussive in nature, while still retaining the resonant aspect of the piano. However, we are not dealing here with a genuine percussion-piano in the manner of John Cage, but rather an imaginary organ pedalboard and deformations, almost to the point of ugliness, of the attacks in the instrument's bottom register. Jean Frederic Neuburger

From the mid 1970’s until his death, Cuban born Jorge Bolet emerged as one of the world’s truly great pianists and one of the last representatives, along with the likes of Cherkassky, Horowitz and Earl Wild, of the great Romantic tradition of pianism. His pedigree was marvellous - a student of Godowsky-disciple David Saperton at the Curtis Institute, there he was also able to play for Godowsky himself and Josef Hofmann. He won the Naumburg competition in 1937 and looked set for a great career, but the war interrupted the flow of things and he struggled through the 1950s & 60s, mainly playing in the USA and not quite making the international ‘big-time’. His big break came with an RCA contract and the release on LP of a stunning live Carnegie Hall concert in 1974. Shortly after, he was signed to Decca and went on to make many award winning discs. But what of the early years? There’s not much, but here, for the first time on CD, we have the four LPs he made in the 1950s. His very first disc was of Latin-American repertoire that he was never to record again. Here also is the first ever recording of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto in a performance that is still up there with the best.

These almost unknown discs are sure to fascinate, and fill an important gap in the mystery of Bolet’s early career.

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.

Hungarian born Georges Cziffra (1921-1994) was a pianistic phenomenon. After trying to escape Hungary’s Soviet regime, his early years were spent undergoing hard labour which injured his hands.

Following his release from prison in 1953, the Ministry of Culture arranged tours of Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. In 1954, he made his ‘first’ recording in Hungary and in 1955 in Prague, the source of this recital. He won the Liszt Prize in the same year. In 1956 he made a successful bid for freedom, arriving in Vienna, and was signed by EMI in France where his subsequent concerts created a furore.

This recital has never been issued before on CD. It is extremely rare having been remastered from a collector’s LP.

The recital contains miniatures – CPE Bach, Scarlatti and Couperin as well as the Liszt warhorses which Cziffra became famous for. Out of the four Scarlatti Sonatas, Cziffra includes three in F, G and A that are new to his discography.

The recital is totally free from eccentricity and represents the pianist at his best.

The two bonus tracks come from a 1959 recital in Turin which show off his dazzling technique. The Bach arr. Liszt: Fantasy & Fugue has never appeared on CD before.