Liszt: Complete Piano Music Volume 1 (Grande fantaisie sur Les Huguenots, Danse macabre, Totentanz, etc.) Arnaldo Cohen, piano. Volume 2 (Transcendental Etudes, 1851 version); Jeno Jando, piano. Volumes 3 (Harmonies poetiques et religieuses Nos. 1-6, etc.) and 4 (Harmonies poetiques et religieuses Nos. 7-10, etc.); Philip Thomson, piano (Naxos, four CDs, only available individually)
Given Naxos’ penchant for completism, it was inevitable the label would get around to undertaking a survey of Franz Liszt’s huge corpus of solo piano music, distributing the works among various pianists in different countries and selling the discs at a bargain price. The first four CDs are now at hand and there is enough brilliant piano playing here to make one eager to sample the riches to come.
The Brazilian-born Russian Arnaldo Cohen is one stupendous Liszt pianist, and his performances on Volume 1 tend to throw the ones by Jeno Jando and Philip Thomson into the shade. Cohen plays the very devil out of his recital, which is only fitting, considering the diabolical nature of several works, including the solo version of “Totentanz,” Liszt’s transcription of Saint-Saens’ “Danse macabre” and a few of the bleak, hermitic late pieces. His firm control of rhythm, sonority and melodic movement, but above all his supercharged technique and deep feeling for the music behind the virtuoso fireworks makes this disc a must for all piano lovers.
The Hungarian pianist Jeno Jando, a more familiar name from recordings, traverses more familiar territory, the dozen “Etudes d’execution transcendante.” There are some impressive things ( listen to how easily he rides the turbulent climax of “Harmonies du soir,” for example. At other times he settles too readily for bland competence, a fault that I’m afraid he shares with the Canadian pianist Philip Thomson, whose account of the 12 “Harmonies poetiques et religieuses” Naxos divides between Volumes 3 and 4. Jando and Thomson certainly can send Liszt’s octave runs flying, but compared to Cohen, they connect less imaginatively or personally with the emotional world of Liszt’s popular miniatures.
The recorded sound is excellent and the budget price is decidedly right. Dare we hope that Naxos has the wisdom to turn over the lion’s share of its ambitious Liszt project to Arnaldo Cohen?
