Global Fascinations and Sophistications

Liszt transcriptions

Liszt's transcriptions of other composers' music are as highly regarded as his original piano works. The violinist Ferdinand David's Bunte Reihe are 24 Character Pieces through all the keys. Here, David's original violin & piano scoring in successions of dance movements of various European derivations, couched in brilliant or caressing style, are superbly transformed by Liszt's uncanny keyboard mastery.

The Liszt Society, London are firm admirers of Valerie Tryon's playing. This is her second disc in the Naxos complete piano music series (Vol.14). Although I missed her Wigmore Hall recital last year, due to other commitments, her playing is as fine as ever, but what makes this disc so compelling is the continuous flow of melodic invention, new harmonisations and colourings perfectly chosen to suit the diversity of the 24 numbers - 25 actually, because Liszt changed his mind and set another version of Ungarisch, changing the tempo marking from Allegretto moderato to Allegro marziale with his customary zest for exploring new approaches [listen - track 20, 0:12 - 1:07].

Continue >>

To listen to the aural illustrations in this review, you may need to download RealNetworks' realplayer G2.