FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Members will, I am sure, be delighted to know that a further Dinner Recital is being planned for the 27th January 2015. We have already enjoyed two previous events of this kind at The Forge, Camden Town, London, the first of which was organized by the Liszt Society and the second by the Wagner Society. The 2015 event is being hosted by the Berlioz Society.

As members will know, these events are joint events involving ourselves and our three ‘sister’ societies, the Wagner Society, the Berlioz Society and the Alkan Society. Each society will be providing approximately 20 minutes of music for the 2015 event.

For the first time, in 2015, invitations will also be extended to members of the Gustav Mahler Society and the Richard Strauss Society, although none of their music will be featured.

I hope you will keep the date clear in your diary for what promises to be another splendid occasion.

Preparations are also ongoing for this year’s Annual Day and Piano Competition although the date and venue have not as yet been finalized. Full details will be published in our next newsletter.

Many thanks.Jim Vincent

CONCERT REVIEWIngolf Wunder - Thursday 20th March 2014

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Ingolf Wunder (what a superb surname for a pianist!) was a second prize-winner at the 2010 Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Many people there felt that he had been “robbed” of first prize. Regardless of whether he should have won, he has gone on to establish himself as a very notable international pianist with a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Very fine player that he is, I suspect, though, that the very best is still to come.

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THE

LISZT SOCIETYNewsletterwww.lisztsoc.org.uk

No 115 June 2014

He opened his recital with a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations. This is an extraordinary and technically demanding piece, filled with eccentric elements, remarkable even for Beethoven. One wonders what his contemporaries made of it with its strange mix of rapid twists and turns and explosive sforzandos. It sounds anarchic even today. Wunder played the piece, as one would expect, with intelligence, subtlety and virtuosity but somehow one felt that he never quite entered fully into the spirit of the piece.

This was certainly not the case, though, with the following two pieces by Chopin: the Nocturne Opus 9 No. 3 and the well-known Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise. One felt that here Wunder was entirely “on home ground”. These were absolutely magnificent performances displaying tenderness, nobility, fabulous delicacy of touch and pure virtuosity. His playing of the second piece reminded me somewhat of Artur Rubenstein, which is the highest praise I can give.

The final programmed piece was the Liszt Sonata. I was interested to hear how a natural player of Chopin would fare in this very different territory. In fact, Wunder was absolutely magnificent in the sonata. This was a towering performance – one of the best I have ever heard. Rhetoric and poetry were played off against each other to stunning effect and with complete technical transcendence. He made the structure of the whole piece – like a great arch – seem natural and inevitable and the whole formed a superb combination of lyrical subtlety, spontaneity and white-hot excitement. One couldn’t have asked for more! If he records this work for Deutsche Grammophon then I would urge members not to hesitate in buying it.

I personally feel it is always a shame to follow the Liszt Sonata with anything else as it spoils the quiet mystery of its ending. But having been called back on stage three or four times by a very vocal audience Wunder had no option but to play an encore. This was Arcadi Volodos’s paraphrase of Mozart’s ‘Rondo alla Turca’, which, as one reviewer put it, “shovels all the notes into the Large Hadron Collider and hopes for the best”. Wunder’s virtuosity in this piece was simply jaw-dropping but I still wished that we had been able to leave quietly after those last few strange and mysterious bars of the sonata.

Jim Vincent

CD REVIEWFranz Liszt – Master and Magician (The Masterworks Collection)Sony 1942-2006 FSK 0 25CDs + DVD

This 25 CD/1 DVD Sony box set celebrating the bicentennial and career of the great Hungarian pianist/composer features some of the most iconic performances in the catalogue. Included in the set are the Rubinstein/Wallenstein Living Stereo recording of the first piano concerto, Van Cliburn's recording of the second piano concerto under Ormandy, Byron Janis playing Totentanz under Reiner, and Philippe Entremont playing the Hungarian Fantasy under Ozawa. Other pianists playing representative solo works by Liszt include Gary Graffman, Yevgeni Kissin, Jorge Bolet, John Ogdon, Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter, Barry Douglas, Arcadi Volodos, Gerhard Oppitz, Claudio Arrau, Charles Rosen, Murray Perahia, Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax and many more. The performances are uniformly superb with some of them considered amongst the finest Liszt interpretations ever recorded.

Liszt's orchestral music is well represented as well. Included is Leonard Bernstein's masterful recording of Les Preludes with the New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta's recording of Orpheus, Claudio Abbado's Prometheus, and Bernstein's indispensable Faust Symphony. The set includes many other orchestral pieces. Conductors include Fritz Reiner and Leopold

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Stokowski just to name two. Because of the wide spectrum of recording dates the sound is variable, but almost all performances sound as if they have been remastered using the latest DSD or 24-bit technology. Most of these recordings have been given a brand new life in this collection. The bonus DVD features Horowitz playing Soirées de Vienne: Valse Caprice No. 6, Sonetto del Petrarca No. 104 and Consolation No. 3. He is a master of this repertoire and the DVD is a treasure.

If you are a Liszt collector chances are you already own many of these recordings. But because of its eclectic nature, there is much here even a Liszt aficionado may not possess. Liszt newbies will be overwhelmed by the breadth and excellence of these interpretations. Especially noteworthy are Richter's Olympian performances and Arrau's beautifully nuanced Romantic vision of this music. Whatever your level of Liszt expertise, this boxed set provides many hours of enjoyment and showcases his often surprising depth as a composer. As a commodious introduction to Franz Liszt, the Romantic master and arguably the most gifted keyboard technician in the history of music, this set offers a fine overview of his amazing career. It may also play an important role in what I suspect will be a burgeoning rediscovery of his artistry and an enthusiastic reappraisal of his work.

Mike Birman

Valentina Lisitsa - a YouTube phenomenon

In the last Liszt Society newsletter (No. 114), I wrote a short article identifying a number of wonderful pieces of film footage of great pianists that can be found on Youtube – Claudio Arrau, Van Cliburn, Georges Cziffra and Jorge Bolet, among others. These performers, of course, made great names for themselves in the concert hall and on disc and only subsequently did their recordings become available to a wider audience through YouTube.

I felt it would be interesting to write a short-follow-up article on a pianist who has achieved wide fame through the reverse process – i.e. through posting a huge array of performances, including much music by Liszt, on her own Youtube channel: the Ukranian born Valentina Lisitsa. I believe that to date her channel has received over 70 million ‘hits’! In fact, through the medium of the Internet and YouTube she has probably been seen by far more people than all the above-mentioned great pianists combined! And reading some of the comments posted by visitors to her channel (the vast majority of whom are highly enthusiastic) I get the feeling that many of those who enjoy her channel are young and not necessarily concert goers in the traditional sense. There is no doubt that she has introduced many to the world of classical pianism who would not have otherwise have found their way there.

Why should this be? The younger generations have, of course, grown up within a world of rapidly developing digital technology and are very used to accessing music and information online. I suspect the world of the concert hall, in comparison, may seem very ‘stuffy’ and hidebound with its raft of outmoded conventions – e.g. it being deemed acceptable to applaud after an aria during an opera but not after a movement in a symphony. The concert hall has, in my view, too much the air of a ‘club’ with arcane rules and I suspect the young want something less formal. Hence the huge popularity of players such as Valentina Lisitsa.

Of course, Lisitsa has throughout her career played live concerts and has played with some of the world’s best orchestras but it is YouTube that has really given her career such a massive boost in recent years and made her a worldwide star.

None of this means, of course, that she is necessarily a great player – I am just drawing attention to the phenomenon of YouTube and its power to reach huge new audiences.

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Critics have not always been kind to her playing. It seems to me that there is a similarity here to the critical attitude to Lang Lang. In the UK, at least, there is a deep suspicion of popularity – especially if that popularity is largely to be found among a wide ‘untutored’ audience. This, in my view, is intellectual snobbery.

My own view of the merits of Lisitsa’s playing is very limited as I have not heard her live in concert and I have only, to date, seen one or two items on YouTube. Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 is one of the few things of hers that I have experienced on YouTube. Although she has a very sensitive touch I found the piece far too drawn out and the musical lines over-extended – so much so that it lost, for me, a sense of forward motion and coherence. Chasse Neige is another work I have sampled. I found this rather hard-driven and a little harsh in tone but, none the less, displaying amazing virtuosity. I couldn’t help remembering Artur Rubenstein’s dictum as I listened to these performances : “Generally speaking, slower passages are improved by being taken a little quicker and fast passages are improved by being taken a little slower.” Thirdly, I have listened to her astonishing performance of a very early work by Liszt, the Rondeau Fantastique sur un Thème Espagnol, El Contrabandisti. This work is as close to unplayable as it is possible to get! I think Lisitsa gives an absolutely superb performance of this piece and I can hardly imagine it being bettered. Although it is an out-and-out virtuoso piece she never ‘rushes her fences’ but keeps a perfect tempo throughout and plays with an ease and charm that belies the horrendous difficulties involved.

Despite some reservations mentioned above, I found much to enjoy in her playing, not least the youthful freedom and exuberance that she brings to everything she performs. But I shall let members decide for themselves! And for those members who may not be ‘YouTube friendly’, the recent CD “Valentina Lisitsa plays Liszt” may be just the thing. It is a new release from Decca under reference 028947853527. It includes, among other things, Ballade No. 2, a handful of Liszt/Schubert transcriptions, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1 – and, not surprisingly, El Contrabandisti!

Jim Vincent

MEMBERS’ LETTERS

Dear Sir,

I would like to thank you very much for the newsletters, and also for the copy I received of the Liszt Society Journal, which is such a beautiful, impressive and helpful publication.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about a recent article I have written from a slightly unusual point of view called "Franz Liszt and the Seven Rays". This article examines Liszt's life and character from the perspective of Esoteric Psychology. I thought that this article might be of interest to some of the members of the Liszt Society. This article appears in the Esoteric Quarterly, an online peer-reviewed journal, at the following link:http://www.esotericquarterly.com/issues/EQ10/EQ1001/EQ100114-Jamerson.pdf#page=1

Best regards,

Celeste JamersonUSA

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Dear Sir,

I am writing with regard to some data which I need for my research about Liszt’s entrepreneurial activities. In particular I need some information about Liszt’s marketing strategies, income from his concerts, teaching and other activities and outgoings in his early years (1815−1840). I am wondering if someone from the Liszt Society could give me advice about the sources (books, articles) in which this information may be found. If you can help, please e-mail me at tamara.golicnik@siol.net

With thanks,

Tamara Goličnik

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Dear Sir,

Whilst reading my favourite catalogue Selections, I came across a CD featuring the piano music of an Italian composer called Roffredo Caetani performed by Alessandra Ammara. Who was Roffredo Caetani? He was Liszt’s godson. He was born in 1871 and only died in 1961! He studied with Sgambati and this CD is the first recording of his piano music. There are seven piano works featured: a Ballata, Four Impromptus, a Toccata and, finally, his huge Sonata. He composed his Sonata when he was only 22 years of age and at over 45 minutes it is one of the longest sonatas in the piano repertoire. The CD is produced by Brilliant Classics, reference number 1CD 94909. Excerpts from the CD can be found on YouTube and are well worth exploring.

Judith Gore

Roffredo Caetani

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CONTACT DETAILS

Letters and articles for the Newsletter, Membership Applications and Renewals, and Enquiries:

Jim VincentThe Membership SecretaryThe Liszt Society3, Offlands CourtMoulsfordOxon OX10 9EXUnited Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 1491-651842memsec@lisztsoc.org.uk

The Liszt Society is a Registered Charity No 261164Registered as a Limited Company No 977039

Registered Office: 1a Hawthorne Drive, Evington, Leicester, LE5 6DL, UK

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