Document

  1984
    May 1984
        Instrumental
                Liszt Piano Works, Volume 3.

Liszt Piano Works, Volume 3 Piano Sonata in B minor, G178. Valse impromptu, G213. Liebestraume, G541. Grand galop chromatique, G219. Jorge Bolet.

Decca digital (Full price) 410 115-1 (Cassette) 410 115-4.

Selected comparisons

Arrau (5/72) 6500 043.

Brendel (11/82) 6514 147

This is Vol. 3 of Bolet's series of magnificent Liszt recordings, and most readers who are interested in it will probably be familiar with both the versions of the Sonata listed above, and with Curzon's (Decca SXL6076, 11/63), which has lately, and lamentably, disappeared from the catalogue. Direct comparisons with, or between, them are not quite the issue here. Each has a strongly-marked character of its own, and in different moods and seasons we go to one or the other in search of different qualities. What matters now is that the Bolet is of their company. Which is to say that here is another recording of Liszt's Sonata displaying absolute mastery, complete insight. With Bolet one is rather more aware of Liszt the transcendental virtuoso who discovered whole new areas of expression within the piano than during, say, Arrau's more 'philosophical' reading on Philips.

Bolet's couplings tell us something further about his interpretation by taking us into worlds of Liszt's that are very different from that of the Sonata. The Valse, for example, is shown to be piquantly graceful, elegantly decorative, and is the local catalogue's only current version. So, too, is Bolet's account of the Galop, whose simple aim, fully achieved here, is to dazzle. The quiet, intimate lyricism of the Liebestraume contrasts as sharply with the Sonata's complexity as with the Galop's headlong flight.

Bolet's performance of these songful pieces is greatly superior in understanding to Barenboim's (DG2531 318, 3/81), the only other complete version locally current, and the fine pianistic shades he produces here are as central as Liszt's art as the Sonata's heroic gestures. At both extremes it of course helps that this music is so finely recorded.

MH



		This is Vol. 3 of Bolet's series of magnificent Liszt recordings, and most readers who are interested in it will probably be familiar with both the versions of the Sonata listed above, and with Curzon's (Decca SXL6076, 11/63), which has lately, and lamentably, disappeared from the catalogue. Direct comparisons with, or between, them are not quite the issue here. Each has a strongly-marked character of its own, and in different moods and seasons we go to one or the other in search of different qualities. What matters now is that the Bolet is of their company. Which is to say that here is another recording of Liszt's Sonata displaying absolute mastery, complete insight. With Bolet one is rather more aware of Liszt the transcendental virtuoso who discovered whole new areas of expression within the piano than during, say, Arrau's more 'philosophical' reading on Philips.



		Bolet's couplings tell us something further about his interpretation by taking us into worlds of Liszt's that are very different from that of the Sonata. The Valse, for example, is shown to be piquantly graceful, elegantly decorative, and is the local catalogue's only current version. So, too, is Bolet's account of the Galop, whose simple aim, fully achieved here, is to dazzle. The quiet, intimate lyricism of the Liebestraume contrasts as sharply with the Sonata's complexity as with the Galop's headlong flight.



		Bolet's performance of these songful pieces is greatly superior in understanding to Barenboim's (DG2531 318, 3/81), the only other complete version locally current, and the fine pianistic shades he produces here are as central as Liszt's art as the Sonata's heroic gestures. At both extremes it of course helps that this music is so finely recorded.