Whereas many Liszt sonatas sound much the same, this new recording from Huseyin Sermet – a Turkish pianist in his mid-forties who has been much praised, notably for his Ravel – offers something imaginative, heartfelt and personal. In the Sonata he balances a warm lyricism with a good feeling for rhetorical declamation. His pedal haze in the opening descending scales prefigures the soft-focus glow of his soundworld, which is especially effective in the lyrical sections (and is re- inforced by the warm recording). The fugue is brisk and light-fingered, and Sermet’s com- plete withdrawal at the very end (the final bottom B is barely audible as the sound fades to nothing) typifies his softened cushioning of the music’s contours. What suffers slightly is the work’s drama, its narrative drive if you like. Sermet certainly makes a satisfying musical entity, but there isn’t quite the dra- matic sweep of, say, Zimerman or Demidenko. The key, it seems to me, is that Sermet values beauty of the moment above the work’s broader structural coherence – try the Presto octaves during the build-up to the work’s climax (at 25'28), where his coy pulling back of tempo and dynamic dissipates the growing momentum; by the time it is recovered at the Prestissimo fuocoso assai (25'41), the cumulative tension is lost.
The remaining works are all from Liszt’s final years, a period of professional and per- sonal disillusionment when he composed with an awareness of posterity. Sermet’s seductive lyricism and sonority make something beautiful of these enigmatic, elliptical works. The rhythmic elasticity of the Romance oubliee and the sensitivity and tonal sheen of Wiegenlied make a strong impression, and while there is plenty of atmosphere in the two Lugubres gondoles, occasionally – especially in Nuages gris – I missed a sense of the music’s bleakness. For all his expressiveness and pianistic subtlety, Sermet’s tendency to beautify Liszt’s most stark and visionary writing occasionally blunts its power. Nevertheless, the pianism is of a high class and Sermet is clearly a thoughtful and imaginative musician who should be heard