''Liszt's Marches have not so much had an unfair press as no press at all.'' So Howard affirms in his (as always) invaluable insert-notes. Ten of the 12 'first recordings' included in these 14 pieces are in fact marches conspicuous by their absence (save for the well-known Rakoczy, played here in a dazzling transcription of the orchestral version) from most recital programmes. Some, as Howard admits, are just ''extrovert stuff'', as jolly and foursquare as Sousa. But several of the shorter ones are spiced by unmistakable Hungarianisms. And one or two others make an indelible impression—not least the Weimar-domiciled Liszt's tributes to this lovely town's two great literary sons, Goethe and Schiller, on the occasion of their respective centenaries in 1849 and 1859: how tellingly, too, they bear witness to the composer's own stylistic evolution in the course of that decade. Save for an exquisitely tender, quasi-Wagnerian subsidiary subject, the much later tribute to his erstwhile son-in-law, Hans von Bulow, nevertheless proves the disappointment Howard warns us to expect—in part he attributes its failure to the two daily bottles of Cognac with which the ageing Liszt tried to counter depression.
The most haunting march of all is surely that enclosed like a trio in the diabolically demanding Scherzo and March of 1851–4, which, with the menacing A minor Galop and the two late Csardas and Mephisto Polka, testifies to the life-long inspiration he found in the macabre even on the dance-floor. But its brighter side is remembered too on this first of Vol. 28's two generously filled discs. And more often than not throughout both, in the light of the Neue Liszt-Ausgabe, Howard comes up with textual revisions and additions that few of us, I guess, ever knew about before. Even as regards dates he is a tireless researcher, currently working with Michael Short on an updated version of the Liszt catalogue. As a pianist per se he again surmounts innumerable hurdles with only the very occasional betrayal of strain or loss of finesse, complementing clear-cut sparkling fingers with powerful wrists. As sometimes before, the piano emerges close, with just a touch of pluminess in tone quality. But it's plainly what he wants.'