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

4CDs thematically compiled:

CD1 Early Studio Recordings

CD2 Horowitz at Carnegie Hall - Early Live Recordings

CD3 CBS Studio recordings and Horowitz' return to Carnegie Hall

CD4 The last decade

Piano Classics is proud and happy to present the second volume dedicated to this Italian artist - “The only other pianist”, according to Michelangeli - in a complete survey of his Liszt recordings, some dating back to the late 1950s, featuring the complete first book of 'Années de pèlerinage' (Suisse), a fine selection of Hungarian Rhapsodies, a disc of late piano pieces, both piano concertos and an assortment of studies and character pieces, rounded off by a magnificent reading of the B minor Sonata.

Recordings made between 1958 and 1997, from original tapes and transfers from original LPs.

Franz Liszt, a sensational virtuoso, a pioneering composer, and a towering figure in the history of the piano, produced more music for his instrument than Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann combined. This 10-disc collection, uniting his major piano works and a number of more rarely heard pieces, features recordings from the last 50 years by such pianists as György Cziffra, Aldo Ciccolini, André Watts, Mikhail Rudy, Stephen Hough and Leif Ove Andsnes.

A must have collection of Liszt’s works for piano performed by some of the greatest interpreters of his music. With a premiere division line up of pianists this 10 CD set offers the listener two performances of the B minor sonata by Gilels (captured in 1949) and Richter, the late Lazar Berman plays the Dante Sonata, the Transcendental Etudes, the Years of Pilgrimage Book 1and the Mephisto Waltz No.1.

Recently retired Alfred Brendel is heard in the Three Sonnets after Petrach, the Paganini Etudes and a selection of opera paraphrases. The great Earl Wild puts his stamp on the Mephisto waltz No.1, and the Reminiscences from Robert leDiable, and Don Juan.The legendary Cziffra contributes more operatic paraphrases, this time Tannhauser and Rigoletto, plus Gnomenreigen and the Hungarian Rhapsody No.19.

Expect the unexpected with Cziffra in this music – his performances were always at a white heat, and not for those of a delicate disposition! Listeners will have the opportunity to compare. Vladimir Ovchinikov’s recording of the Transcendental Etudes with Berman’s. Berman’s recordings today are hard to come by and this is a welcome reissue of this remarkable and elusive artist. The younger generation is represented by the outstanding Artur Pizarro performing the Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Further information

The Brendel recordings are from his highly acclaimed Vox recordings from the late 1950s which critics have preferred to his later Philips recordings. ‘Brendel was from square one a devout Lisztian and a true believer, his adroit pacing, his unfailingly architectronic timing of detail and dramatic events gives him a Toscanini-like impact’ Harris Goldsmith, on Brendel’s Weber/Liszt transcription of the Overture to Oberon. Wild finds exactly the right balance between devil-may-care energy and accurate virtuosity. Here on can sample Wild at something like his zenith as a Liszt player. Virtuosic, bordering on incendiary, but stand well back.’ Gramophone

Ovchinikov’s Transcendental Etudes: ‘Extremely fine pianism… a superb achievement outclassing Bolet and Arrau in just about every department. Ovchinikov has set the standard and set it high.’ Gramophone

Comprehensive booklet essay

Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kiev in 1903. He made his debut in the United States at the Carnegie Hall in 1928, where he became an overnight success, and spent the rest of his career based in America. Although throughout this time he remained pathologically insecure about his own abilities, withdrawing from public appearances for several years at a time, he is remembered as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. He died in New York in 1989.

John Ogdon was born on 27th January, 1937 in Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire and died on 1st August, 1989 in London. His first serious study of the piano was at the Royal Manchester College of Music where his contemporaries were Alexander Goehr, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies; he also studied composition with Richard Hall, all of whom have music recorded in this collection. His prowess was noticed when he replaced an indisposed soloist in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto in Liverpool and played almost at sight. At the age of 21 he made his London debut at the Proms in 1958 with Busoni’s Concerto (which he recorded in 1967).

In 1961 he was awarded the Liszt Prize in Budapest and the following year shared the coveted first prize at the Moscow Tchaikovsky competition with Vladimir Ashkenazy; this achievement launched his international career. His recordings from this time not only attest to his remarkable virtuosity and intense musicianship but also his determination to explore both rarer and modern repertoire and give them the performances that show them to their best advantage.

This collection therefore contains not merely the classics – concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Schumann and Grieg and solos by Liszt and Chopin – but rarer concertos by Mendelssohn, Glazunov Bartók as well as the aforementioned Busoni. The major contribution to the catalogue of recorded music must be the solo piano works by the 20th century composers: Sir Michael Tippett, Alan Rawsthorne, Alun Hoddinott, Christopher Headington, David Blake, Robert Sherlaw Johnson and his teacher and colleagues from his days in Mancheser: Richard Hall and the previously mentioned Goehr, Birtwistle and Maxwell Davies as well as works by himself. One further work requires especial mention: Ronald Stevenson’s Passacaglia on DSCH, the composer’s tribute to Dmitri Shostakovich.

At over 85 minutes duration it has to be split across two CDs and the work together with Ogdon’s support of it yielded the highest praise.