The third and final volume in an enlightening series of Liszt’s music for two pianos: new recordings masterminded by the great Lisztian of our time, Leslie Howard, and featuring several world-premiere recordings.
Leslie Howard’s complete survey of the piano music of Liszt has been widely acknowledged as a monument in the history of sound recording. Since that vast project reached completion, however, he has continued to mine the Lisztian archives for buried treasure. In partnership with Mattia Ometto, he has recorded the complete symphonic poems and the Faust and Dante symphonies, in versions for two pianos made by Liszt himself. Issued by Brilliant Classics, these collections have met with enthusiasm from dedicated Lisztians, who will be even more eager to acquire the final volume of the series.
This features several works better known in their solo-piano versions, such as the Réminiscences de Don Juan de Mozart and the Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H. The Concerto pathétique may be slightly more familiar in this, its original version for two pianos, but the Großes Konzertstück based on three of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words is a genuine rarity. There are two versions of the multi-authored Hexaméron based on a theme from Bellini’s I Puritani, the second of which has never been recorded, along with a transcription of the Festklänge tone-poem which again differs in detail from the one recorded by Howard and Ometto in their earlier survey.
The finer points of the editions are engagingly discussed by Howard in his booklet note. The performances themselves lack nothing for drama as well as authenticity, and open a window on to the generosity of Liszt’s artistic relationship with earlier masters and notable contemporaries. If we view Liszt these days as a pivotal figure in 19th-century music, it is not least thanks to Howard’s dauntless dedication to the cause.
