After due reflection, I think this is one of the greatest discs of Liszt’s opera paraphrases I have ever heard. It contains seven of his finest and most popular works in that genre, each of which is well represented in the catalogue, with many distinguished recordings from the 1920s onwards. Every one – and I mean every single one – that Louis Lortie plays offers either a new benchmark or a version to stand with the best. To wit: the Tannhäuser Overture compares with Jorge Bolet’s famous live performance from Carnegie Hall in the majestic unfolding of its themes, and with Josef Hofmann’s scarcely credible dispatch (on a piano roll) of the notoriously difficult right hand; one can listen to Lortie’s ‘Spinning Chorus’ with the same pleasure as Paderewski’s; the Faust Waltz is as thrilling as Petri’s or Barere’s.

Réminiscences de Don Juan, among the most technically challenging of all Liszt’s opera paraphrases, is a miracle of poetry, heady bravura and clear structural command. It can frequently seem like being punched repeatedly on the head with its succession of martellato, double- and triple-forte passages and with pianists putting the brakes on whenever a particularly nasty bend comes in view. Lortie uses these sections simply as the asides and punctuation that Liszt intended. Oh – and it is quite grippingly exciting. Lortie ends the disc with his own transcription of the Prelude from Tristan und Isolde (Carl Tausig and Ernest Schelling also made good Liszt’s puzzling omission) before segueing into Liszt’s version of the Liebestod.

If you want to introduce someone to Liszt the transcriber – and perhaps draw their attention to the amount of work involved in simply notating these pieces, let alone creating them, maybe adding that only a genius could achieve such a feat – this is the disc to play them. In addition, the Fazioli piano, beautifully recorded at Potton Hall, is a lively, powerful and velvet-toned instrument from which Lortie draws the most sumptuous sounds. Jonathan Summer’s booklet matches the quality of the playing. This is an exceptional release.