Liszt & Tchaikovsky Symphonic poems

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Franz Liszt, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Label: ASV

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 52

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CDDCA586

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) Tempest Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Yondani Butt, Conductor
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Yondani Butt, Conductor

Composer or Director: Franz Liszt, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Label: ASV

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: DCA586

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) Tempest Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Yondani Butt, Conductor
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Yondani Butt, Conductor

Composer or Director: Franz Liszt, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Label: ASV

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: ZCDCA586

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) Tempest Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Yondani Butt, Conductor
Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Yondani Butt, Conductor
This is really a record for admirers of Liszt. Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne is virtually never given in the concert hall, and recordings of it have not been common. There are, of course, reasons: it was Liszt's first foray into the new medium, invented by him as far as the name goes, of tone-poem, and it is undeniably long and lacking in real inventive distinction. That might seem more than enough to condemn it in almost all music-lovers' ears; but for the curious, and of course for all who are fascinated by Liszt's extraordinary personality, it has a lot of interest. The subject matter, a poem of Victor Hugo's, concerns the artist's withdrawal from the world of political intrigue in order to contemplate Nature; and the 'vast confused sound' of Hugo's opening strikes from Liszt a marvellous piece of imagery. He was not, though, in full command of his technique of thematic transformation in this work; and not the most devoted Lisztians have been able to deny that he is here guilty of the repetitiveness and prolixity that threatened his music far into his career. Nevertheless, it is a work to interest not only all Lisztians but every student of the music of the nineteenth century.
Yondani Butt draws a committed performance from the London Symphony Orchestra, who respond to the music's unusual challenge very warmly. It is a pity that the coupling was not another Liszt tone-poem, which would not only have drawn the ever-growing army of Lisztians but avoided competition with a performance of Tchaikovsky's The Tempest from Claudio Abbado at his most exhilarating on CBS. The opening, in the Chicago performance, has a brooding intensity that Butt's careful but more pedestrian account lacks; and Abbado whips up climaxes with a fervour and a dark, ferocious gloom that is lacking in Butt's. Collectors who happen to want these two works, or are prepared to have one work for the sake of the other, will not regret acquiring the record, I think; and it is decently recorded, with some full and vigorous handling of the various powerful climaxes in both works. For Tchaikovsky alone, though, it has to be Abbado. His coupling is the Second Symphony (the Little Russian).'

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