Amazing Liszt | Leif Ove Andsnes - Liszt Piano Recital

Moving and incredible | Leif Ove Andsnes - Liszt Piano Recital | Liszt, Andsnes

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	• Leif Ove Andsnes - Liszt Piano Recital Liszt, Andsnes EMI Classics, 2001 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

northern Liszt

Some reviews of this disc and others have characterized Leif Ove's playing as cold and unemotional, and upon my first hearing of Liszt Recital, I could very well understand where these ideas were coming from. However, now I would beg to differ: I think that Leif Ove exhibits supreme control and discipline - which, particularly when applied to Liszt, could very well be interpreted as cold. One may perhaps feel that he is hesitant or even reticent to allow more emotion to colour his interpretations of the music given his clarity of tone and absolute precision in striking the keys. Yet I do not think that Leif Ove does any disservice to the music. Rather than indulge us in a wild frenzy of emotions, he is thoughtful and contemplative; he's passionate too, but on his own terms. He does not tell us, the listeners, any more than we need to know. This is northern Liszt, and I like it especially when I need something glorious yet tempered. However, for pure passion perhaps Bolet's 2-disc release on Decca London is better. (But Leif Ove has recorded here different pieces than Bolet, so maybe you should get both after all.)

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Amazing Liszt

I don't even like Liszt solo piano music! Or I should say I never did much before I got this recording. I am a huge Leif Ove Andsnes fan, and he certainly does not disappoint on this recording. He make Liszt's almost impossible-to-play music sound, indeed, like music, and not just interminable scales and fireworks with no substance. Very highly recommended!

Moving and incredible

This cd is amazing, I can't imagine listening to it without being moved. It will take you somewhere beyond the everyday experience, your imagination will come alive. True, the overall tone of it is dark, but I would hardly call it "depressing". After listening to the whole cd, I am left in a different state than before, a state of awe. This cd was the first time I heard Liszt, and he's been one of my favorites ever since.

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Liszt my way

I happened to hear a performance recorded at Carnegie Hall where Andsnes played apres une lecture de Dante. I could do nothing but buy the CD. It's truly marvellous. Die zelle in Nonnenwerth was a new piece to me and is a highlight on this recording, dreamy and thoughtful.

A supreme recital

Andsnes's superb Liszt performance deserves the attention. His interpretation of the Ballade No. 2 is among the best. The unusual light touch that he uses in every piece determines the characteristic property of the whole set. Also I have to say that his Mephisto Waltz No. 1 is the fastest I have seen recently, and he does that without a single misplaced finger ! Appreciated recording.

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An index to the excellence of Leif Ove Andsnes's Liszt recital is that he makes familiar works exciting and fresh-sounding and obscure ones persuasive and accessible. Andsnes turns the "Mephisto" Waltz No. 1 from a tired circus stunt into a tone poem daring in its effrontery and voluptuous in its lyricism. He plays the "Dante" Sonata without the usual penny-awful bludgeoning and sentimental blustering and lifts its treatment of love, chaos, and redemption to an exalted level. The infrequently performed "Andante lagrimoso" (No. 9 of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses) is haunting in its unceasing alterations between pain and serenity. And in late works--such as the Second and Fourth "Mephisto" Waltzes and the "Valse oubliée" No. 4--the pianist shows us how far Liszt had traveled from romanticism toward both expressionism and impressionism, making us understand how these works lit the paths of composers as diverse as Debussy, Schoenberg, and Bartók. If you buy only one recording of Liszt's piano music this year, make it this. --Stephen Wigler

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