In the February issue I welcomed, for different qualities, Thomas Trotter's performance of three Liszt works plus the Reubke Sonata (Argo) and Gunther Kaunzinger's all-Liszt CD (Novalis/ASV) on which he plays the organ of the Stiftsbasilika, Waldsassen, Germany. I still find Simon Preston's DG recording of Liszt's Ad nos the most musically satisfying of all in every way. Kaunzinger's virtuosity is placed in a resonant acoustic which, recorded fairly closely, is at little disadvantage. Jane Parker-Smith, playing the Klais organ in the Minster at Ingolstadt, seems less fortunate. The resonance is slightly greater than in St Paul's Cathedral and I find this inhibiting. She needs to create gaps in the texture to allow the echoes to die away to avoid excessive blurring. Some of this may be the fault of the recording and, in the Ad nos the bass is weak at the start and later on. In terms of registration there is a fine chorus of trombas highlighted in the Ad nos highspots, but overall the choices lack variety. Thus Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen hangs fire compared with other performances and Parker-Smith's use of rubato never quite convinces me. The Evocation a la Chapelle Sixtine, in spite of its style-modulations into Mozart's charming motet Ave Verum Corpus, is made to seem rather dull. So do some of the slower sections of the Ad nos.
Parker-Smith plays Jean Guillou's arrangement of Liszt's symphonic poem Orpheus, which works well on its own terms. However, Felix Aprahamian's note points out that Liszt approved Gottschalg's transcription and then made changes to it, publishing it under his own name. Trotter plays Schaab's arrangement. The test of any Liszt recording is bound to be the Ad nos. Parker-Smith is technically acceptable but there are oddities. The phrasing of the fugue subject is staccato on the manuals and not in the pedal; some of the faster passage work is not steady; the triumphant fanfares at 22'08'' are followed by unreasonably pulled out answering phrases; and to pause at 26'01'' breaks the onward thrust of the approaching climax—just before this the bass lacks power in the recording. But the peroration of this splendid work comes off well.'