Liszt Piano Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Franz Liszt
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 4/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 447 755-2GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (2) Légendes |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Lilya Zilberstein, Piano |
| (6) Consolations |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Lilya Zilberstein, Piano |
| Fantasia and Fugue on the theme B-A-C-H |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Lilya Zilberstein, Piano |
| Ballade No. 2 |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Lilya Zilberstein, Piano |
| (4) Valses oubliées, Movement: No 1 |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Lilya Zilberstein, Piano |
| Impromptu |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Lilya Zilberstein, Piano |
Author: Bryce Morrison
This richly varied recital shows Liszt in many guises: as religious visionary, prophet, lyricist and epic teller of tales. And Lilya Zilberstein, an imperious virtuoso to say the least, is fully equal to the many and various challenges. Her all-Russian command can be properly engulfing in the rhetorical storms of the Fantasia and Fugue on the theme B-A-C-H, particularly when, as John Ogdon so aptly put it, the music appears capable of carrying the very heavens on its back. She is similarly fearless in the B minor Ballade, and it is only in music of greater introspection that a few questions are raised. Her balance of sense and sensibility in the six Consolations (often described as consolations for those daunted by Liszt’s more opulent demands, though in truth they are exquisite miniatures in themselves) is admirable, her unusually slow tempo for the popular and serenely flowing No. 3, striking and original.
Elsewhere, however, a suspicion that she is happier in thunder than in gentle, song-like utterance is confirmed. For her the First Legende is a glittering concert study. Octaves roar and the notes cascade with flawless evenness and accuracy, yet there is too little of that devotional aura so memorably captured by Kempff, in his celebrated and long-deleted Decca recording (3/72), or, more recently by Stephen Hough. Her restrained rather than exultant close to the Second Legende is novel rather than convincing and, personally, I would opt for Brendel (on a five-disc set) in both these works. Demidenko and Pizarro (steel-tipped and luxuriant respectively) are also more evocative. Zilberstein’s way with the First Valse oubliee is too heavy-handed to achieve much of its elfin sparkle and unsettling ambiguity, and in the F sharp Impromptu, where Liszt stretches out his arms far into the future, she is no match for Horowitz who, despite some unnecessary emendations of his own, is far more sensitive to Liszt’s modernity and polyphonic interweaving of ideas.
Overall, I would have liked playing which ravished the senses more keenly, was less insistently robust. On the other hand Zilberstein’s trenchancy is beyond question, and the recordings are outstanding.'
Elsewhere, however, a suspicion that she is happier in thunder than in gentle, song-like utterance is confirmed. For her the First Legende is a glittering concert study. Octaves roar and the notes cascade with flawless evenness and accuracy, yet there is too little of that devotional aura so memorably captured by Kempff, in his celebrated and long-deleted Decca recording (3/72), or, more recently by Stephen Hough. Her restrained rather than exultant close to the Second Legende is novel rather than convincing and, personally, I would opt for Brendel (on a five-disc set) in both these works. Demidenko and Pizarro (steel-tipped and luxuriant respectively) are also more evocative. Zilberstein’s way with the First Valse oubliee is too heavy-handed to achieve much of its elfin sparkle and unsettling ambiguity, and in the F sharp Impromptu, where Liszt stretches out his arms far into the future, she is no match for Horowitz who, despite some unnecessary emendations of his own, is far more sensitive to Liszt’s modernity and polyphonic interweaving of ideas.
Overall, I would have liked playing which ravished the senses more keenly, was less insistently robust. On the other hand Zilberstein’s trenchancy is beyond question, and the recordings are outstanding.'
Liszt Piano Works
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