Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Five Under the Radar Liszt Sonata Recordings

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Five Under the Radar Liszt Sonata Recordings · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:06
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I want to thank all of you who have taken out
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  subscriptions to the Piano Maven through my Substack
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  page. And paid subscribers get free monthly music
• 0:25
  downloads and other goodies. So consider taking
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  out a paid subscription, which will help keep
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  this podcast in production. You know, doing this
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  podcast takes a lot of time and work. And sometimes
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  people think I just roll out of bed and stagger
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  over to my computer and I rant about recordings
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  off the top of my head, but it's not all that
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  simple. Nor was it simple for me to pick five
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  commercially released recordings of this sonata
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  in B minor by Franz Liszt. to talk about on this
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  episode. We did an episode about live performances
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  of the Liszt Sonata recently, so I thought I
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  should do a Liszt Sonata episode where I've picked
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  five Liszt Sonata recordings that I've reviewed
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  for Classicstoday .com in the past, and all of
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  these, I think... qualify as being under the
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  radar. And that includes this one by Van Cliburn.
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  It's his 1975 studio recording. I don't know
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  if it was recorded in 1975. I know it was first
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  issued in 1975 on RCA Victor. And it tends not
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  to get spoken of often when people talk about
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  the great list sonatas. But I think this one
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  is quite good. And if you really like a meaty
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  and big -boned Liszt sonata served up in the
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  Grand Manor, Van Cliburn will definitely satisfy
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  you. He wears his heart on his sleeve, to be
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  sure, but he doesn't belabor obvious points.
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  And he grabs big virtuosic passages by the scruff
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  of the neck. and he's really quite diabolical
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  in the Fugetta, but he always takes the time
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  to sing out lyrical passages. I think this is
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  an interpretation that's all of a piece, and
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  it showcases Van Cliburn's instinctive musicality
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  and his emotional generosity. at its most communicative.
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  Now, I know there are a few live Van Cliburn
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  Liszt sonata performances out there, and I know
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  that some of you are going to write to me and
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  say, hey, you know, these are better than the
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  studio recording. But I did want to talk about
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  the studio recording because it really should
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  get some serious reconsideration. Another recording
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  of the Liszt Sonata that I like a lot, that you
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  might not know about, comes from the Czech pianist
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  Žitka Čečová. And this pianist first came to
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  my attention for her complete recorded cycle
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  of Smetana's piano music on the Superphone label.
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  And there is this live recital disc with her.
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  that's also on Superphone. It has the Brahms
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  Sonata No. 3 coupled with the Lis Sonata. Her
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  Lis Sonata takes 29 minutes, so you would probably
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  assume that her tempos tend to be on the fast
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  side. But they're relatively conservative tempos,
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  in fact. But you do get a sense of each section
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  flowing coherently and effortlessly into the
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  next. section in long integrated arcs and paragraphs.
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  This is kind of a centrist regulation model Liszt
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  Sonata, but I wouldn't say it's anonymous, and
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  I was very happy to hear it again. Now, on the
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  French Mireille label, there is a terrific live
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  Liszt Sonata with Boris Berezovsky. He isn't
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  always the most subtle pianist in the shed. But
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  this is a really good Liszt sonata. It's fresh
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  and it's vividly detailed at all times. And he
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  uses almost no pedal in the exposition section's
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  octaves, but he shades them with discrete harmonic
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  pointing so they don't sound dry or notey. And
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  the lyrical second theme... is very straightforward.
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  It doesn't dawdle as it sometimes can. And in
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  the coda, there is tons of rubato, but it's meted
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  out in intelligent proportions, which helps the
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  music build when it should. I think this is one
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  of Berezovsky's best recordings. There's another
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  excellent lissanata that features the Ukrainian
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  pianist Alexei Grinyuk. And I first heard him
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  play during the 2005 Van Cliburn competition's
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  preliminary rounds. And years later, I had the
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  pleasure of reviewing his solo piano debut disc
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  that came out on Orchid Classics. This includes
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  a really persuasive version of the sonata. His
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  tone, I think, is as rich and burnished as that
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  of Claudio Arau. His octaves are as pulverizing
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  as those of Marta Argerich. And he shares Alfred
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  Brendel's freedom from sentimentality, but he's
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  a little more emotionally generous. And he also
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  has the concern for contrapuntal movement that...
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  Leon Fleischer has in his recording. But I would
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  say that Alexei Grinyuk fuses all of these qualities
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  that I've been talking about into his own very
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  personal and I would say it's an emotionally
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  three -dimensional interpretation. And it's gorgeously
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  engineered too, which is a big, big help. And
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  another supremely well -engineered Lissanato
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  recording. constitutes my fifth recommendation.
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  And this is a recording with pianist George Emmanuel
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  Lazaridis. And this is a subjective and highly
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  rhetorical interpretation that... I think is
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  stylistically similar to Claudio Arrau, and sometimes
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  it evokes the even more subjective and often
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  idiosyncratic gestures in Ernst Levy's recordings
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  from the 1950s. For example, George Emmanuel
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  Lazaridis often stretches that repeated note
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  theme. He often stretches that out to the breaking
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  point. yet never in a mannered way. And, you
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  know, even a row could go overboard in this passage.
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  And Lazaridis treats the difficult octave passages
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  like music instead of gymnastics. And melodic
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  shaping more than speed really seems to be his
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  priority in this interpretation. But on the other
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  hand, he's almost deadpan in that D major second
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  theme. You know, he doesn't emote over it. He
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  really just plays it straight and rather offhandedly.
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  Yet for all of the personal rubato and subjective
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  moments, the interpretation in the end conveys
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  a lot of drive and momentum. Also, the sonics
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  are... Just gorgeous. This came out on a SACD
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  on the Linn label, L -I -N -N. And if you are
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  a real audiophile who wants a Lissanata that
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  will show off your stereo system, you will really
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  like this recording. I'm sure that... I can find
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  five more under -the -radar list sonata recordings
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  to talk about, and maybe I'll do that another
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  time soon. But I'd like to know what your favorites
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  are, whether they are under the radar or over
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  the radar. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
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  listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings. Thanks for tuning
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  in, and I look forward to being with you next
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  time.