Liszt has a unique way to open a window when everything feels so dense and claustrophobic and then, light, from way up. The effect is always sublime. A wonderful set indeed.
Magnificent music. Less than magnificent recording. I guess it was Berman, in his unfortunately influential DG recording, who started the fashion of playing nearly every piece from this set too slow, especially "Angelus" and the second threnody. Kocsis fell in the trap, as did Korstick, but both still managed to pull it off better than Berman.
A great antidote to the "too slow" tendency is the recording by Daniel Grimwood, posted (in segments) on UA-cam. Here's the first piece, "Angelus!": ua-cam.com/video/dv4q9R0PfEU/v-deo.html Also check out the great complete recordings by Bertrand Chamayou and Muza Rubackyte, both posted here on UA-cam. And that of Ksenia Nosikova, a very fine rendition of each of the three "years."
The recording is great, this is how Liszt‘s late compositions should be played. He was an old man barely able to playe the piano by the point he wrote these pieces. A lot of adequate griefing is conveyed through the slower tempi. This darker mood gets lost in faster recordings like the one of the otherwise great Cziffra, who especially disappoints in the two funeral marches (No.5,6). Korstick also has a wonderful recording of the Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses.
Liszt has a unique way to open a window when everything feels so dense and claustrophobic and then, light, from way up. The effect is always sublime. A wonderful set indeed.
30:41 it's just the circle of fifths but there's something magical and colourful about it ❤
Bellissima interpretazione
Magnificent music. Less than magnificent recording. I guess it was Berman, in his unfortunately influential DG recording, who started the fashion of playing nearly every piece from this set too slow, especially "Angelus" and the second threnody. Kocsis fell in the trap, as did Korstick, but both still managed to pull it off better than Berman.
A great antidote to the "too slow" tendency is the recording by Daniel Grimwood, posted (in segments) on UA-cam. Here's the first piece, "Angelus!":
ua-cam.com/video/dv4q9R0PfEU/v-deo.html
Also check out the great complete recordings by Bertrand Chamayou and Muza Rubackyte, both posted here on UA-cam. And that of Ksenia Nosikova, a very fine rendition of each of the three "years."
Bermans tempos is only too slow on Angelus. The two trenodies are especially great in regard to tempo
The recording is great, this is how Liszt‘s late compositions should be played. He was an old man barely able to playe the piano by the point he wrote these pieces. A lot of adequate griefing is conveyed through the slower tempi. This darker mood gets lost in faster recordings like the one of the otherwise great Cziffra, who especially disappoints in the two funeral marches (No.5,6).
Korstick also has a wonderful recording of the Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses.
48:23
28:27