Although Campanella may well be a more accomplished technician than Roberto Szidon, whose set of complete Hungarian Rhapsodies is available on DG, and at mid-price, he is far less poetic. With the Italian Liszt's music neither sounds especially 'Hungarian' (read 'gipsy'), nor very rhapsodic. He is too stern, too controlled and generally unresponsive to the extraordinarily vivid mood-swings inherent in the style.
Campanella certainly has taste, however, and never lets the music degenerate into camp zigeuner frippery. But in such an overtly high-spirited piece as the ''Carnaval de Pest'', the Ninth Hungarian Rhapsody, for instance, the player must relax sufficiently to allow the music to fizz over and delight the listener. In the hackneyed Second, too, Campanella is so scrupulous in revealing every detail of the score that most of the tension has been ironed out.
These criticisms can be applied throughout the set, though the last four pieces are admittedly rather more successful. These belong to the composer's final years and contain obsessive ideas that require a different response from the player. The Italian has the intellect to appreciate this, but still the off-beat rhythms at the end of the Eighteenth do not sound particularly convincing or idiomatic. The piano tone overall is a bit lacking in colour and presence, though it is perfectly adequate. Szidon's set is definitely preferable to this one.'