LISZT Années de pèlerinage - Suisse (Piemontesi)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Franz Liszt
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Orfeo
Magazine Review Date: 08/2018
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 56
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: C944 182I
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Années de pèlerinage année 1: Suisse |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Francesco Piemontesi, Piano Franz Liszt, Composer |
(2) Légendes, Movement: No. 2, St Francis de Paule walking on the water |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Francesco Piemontesi, Piano Franz Liszt, Composer |
Author: Harriet Smith
But the CD will be the main draw for many. There’s a quiet sense of command that is evident from the off, Piemontesi allowing the ringing chords of the ‘Chapelle de Guillaume Tell’ time to speak but also imbuing them with a musing quality. The melody that then emerges over tremolos is suitably sonorous, while the following bass octaves are energetic but never merely showy. Louis Lortie’s choice of a Fazioli makes for a brighter, more extrovert sound here and his recording sets him in a bigger acoustic than is given to Piemontesi, playing a Steinway.
Technically Piemontesi is completely at ease with this music and feels no need to play up the virtuoso elements of Liszt’s writing, while accompanying figures never get in the way of the narrative line. His ‘Pastorale’ has a playful clarity to it, compared to which Lortie focuses on creating a more haloed sound. The following ‘Au bord d’une source’ glistens in this new reading, though Stephen Hough is even more subtle in his colouring (as he is in the finale ‘Les cloches de Genève’, which is perhaps a tad too spacious in Piemontesi’s account).
The outbreak of fearsome weather in ‘Orage’ is brilliantly dispatched, with the vertiginous chromatic octaves just before the minute mark superbly daring, really letting rip to tremendous effect. Lortie is more blurred here, as if the cloud cover is altogether lower. ‘Vallée d’Obermann’ is also impressive, combining a dark grandeur with moments of high drama that never verge on the hysterical (which they can do). After this, ‘Le mal du pays’ is suitably inward, with Piemontesi drawing out inner lines with sensitivity.
To fill out the disc we get the second of the Deux Légendes, in which St Francis of Paola walks on waves. Piemontesi imbues the opening writing in tenor and bass registers with a warmly imaginative range of colours and here, as throughout, there’s a tremendously clear sense of narrative, capturing both the grandeur and the myriad hues of Liszt’s remarkable tone poem.
Hopefully Piemontesi is going to record the remaining two books, for this is very fine.
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
SubscribeGramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.