|
Liszt: Sonata for piano in Bm; Lugubre Gondola No1&2 | 
 enlarge | Creators: Franz Liszt, Krystian Zimerman
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $11.32
You Save: $5.66 (33%)
New (37) Used (10) from $8.75
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 27581
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 431780
UPC: 028943178020
EAN: 0028943178020
ASIN: B000001GF5
Release Date: April 14, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
| |
| Tracks:
| • | Sonate H-Moll In B Minor: Lento assa - Allegro energico-; Andante sostenuto-; Allegro energico | | • | Nuages gris | | • | La notte | | • | La lugubre gondola 2 | | • | Funerailles |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Krystian Zimerman's brilliant, powerful account makes an extraordinary impression, both in its overall sweep and in its extremely fine resolution of textural detail. The pacing is excellent, the playing electrifyingly virtuosic yet disciplined, the interpretation impassioned yet dry-eyed and impressively controlled. The fugato is taken at an unbelievable clip and rendered with dazzling accuracy and effect. The recording, made in the concert hall of Copenhagen's Tivoli Park in 1990, achieves an outstanding balance between presence and ambience. --Ted Libbey
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Technique: A+; Interpretation: C+/B- September 12, 2008
John Grabowski (USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a very good performance of the Liszt Sonata that could have been a *great* performance of the Liszt Sonata. Zimmie supposedly spent ten years preparing this work. I believe him, just as I believe him when he says he listened to something like 70 recordings of the Brahms 1st Piano Concerto before making his own recording. In both cases I think he'd have done better to listen to fewer recordings and just attack the piece from his *gut* more. This performance is great technically, with the pianist showing his superbly subtle command of dynamics--some of the shadings are just amazingly nuanced. Listen, for example, to how he handles the first lyrical section, at around six minutes in: gorgeous shading! Another highlight comes at 16:50--such liquid tone. (Why couldn't he have played his Debussy this way??) Another highlight: at 22:00 coming out of a 100-mile-per-hour tear, he slams the brakes, and the deceleration is like a Lamborghini under the control of Mario Andretti, only to roar back to 100 mph again. It's all very thrilling, and let's not get too cerebral here: the Liszt Sonata was in large part a show-off vehicle for the pianist's technique, and Zims does not disappoint in that department. There are times he just explodes with passion and wild abandon, such as the leadup to the recap at around 21:00--thrilling stuff.
Yet Zimerman's weakness, to my ear, is in his interpretation. He over-thinks, over-interprets. So much here is too calculated, and I can't help but wonder if this happens after you've been "preparing" the piece for ten years. There are moments, such as the statement of one of the motifs at 22:40, that are so de-li-ber-ate as to make me wince; it's like an actor who feels he has to emote every line or a writer who must put every third word in italics. Ditto the famous coda at around 26:25, and some lyrical sections, where he roooolls those chords as if to highlight in glow-in-the-dark orange the piece's Romantic pedigree. At times likes these I feel like Zimerman is pounding the music into us with a mallet because he doesn't trust us as listeners. Interpreters such as Richter (particularly Aldeburgh 1966 live, now sadly out of print), Arrau, Levy (also out of print), and even Yundi Li don't feel this need. For that reason, a very good performance missed on being one for the ages.
The other pieces are beautifully played but suffer from the same over-interpretation. I wish KZ would just let the works breathe more; instead I feel like he's imposing his heavy-handed interpretations on them. Works such as Nuages Gris are very atmospheric, and here he never gets out of the way and lets the music speak.
Still, this is worthwhile to add to your collection if you're a Liszt B minor fan, particularly since the two best performances of this piece (the aforementioned Levy and 1966 Aldeburgh Richter) are out of print. Get this recording, but stay open to other interpretations--and keep hoping for the Richter and Levy to come back in print.
The most explosive and tender Liszt sonata in B minor March 29, 2008
Peter Chordas (Portland, OR USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
He practiced too much?! You have got to be kidding me! I dare say, that reviewer has never played piano before.
In my mind, this is by far the most dramatic and fully actualized rendition of Liszt's piano sonata in B minor that I have ever encountered. There are some other good attempts at it for sure and everyone has their favorites. What I believe sets this one apart is the extreme level of concentration transcending in every note from start to finish. At some point, other favorable renditions loose the texture due to the extreme difficulty of playing this piece. This recording is consistent through out and Zimerman plays beautifully. I'm sure he practiced for hours and his hard work paid off! Listen and be mesmerized!
Liszt's Sonata in B Minor and Other Works November 17, 2007
Amy
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It is very difficult to come to a precise conclusion upon the complex and contradictory character of Liszt, which inevitably reflects in his music. When you read any of the books written about his life, you realize that his music was a reflection of his life. Very passionate with innumerable affairs, and on the other hand full of mysticism even devoting the end of his life to a convent. When you listen to his music you feel this two sides of the genius, sometimes poetical and subtle, other times superficial and full of show, always able to captivate his audience. The Sonata in B Minor is possibly the best exponent of Liszt's mastery in piano and in composition. It is a monumental work in the history of piano and of music in general, not only for his improvements in the technique but also for the revolutionary conception of the piece itself. The big scales, chords and succession of octaves must not be seen as mere virtuosity since they not only give stress but give together a sensation of orchestral sound in the piano. Apart from the mere piano technique, Liszt followed the path of changing the sonata form, a path formerly opened by Beethoven, to turn it into one big movement, like in his symphonic poems. The lugubre gondolas binds two centuries of music with a thread of poetry tinged with mystery and melancholy. The story behind these works are very interesting. Supposedly, Liszt's gondolas were composed immediately after a premonition in a dream he had of a funeral gondola carrying his son in law Richard Wagner, and Wagner actually died in Venice only three weeks later. Nuages gris which means Grey Clouds was composed in Liszt's later years as he became more experimental, and unlike most of his works that are extremely virtuostic in nature, this one is quite short and technically very simple to play. The harmonies, which are very different to those found in his earlier works, give a very dark and almost morbid feel to the piece, reflecting the depressions which Liszt experienced at this late stage of his life. Then there is one of my favorite Liszt pieces of all time called Funerailles which comes from his Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses. No one has ever been able to agree who Funerailles was dedicated to. Many say it was a funeral speech for the loss of his friend and composer Frederic Chopin since the fast octaves in the middle of the piece are very reminiscent in Chopin's Polonaise in A Major. Others say that it was not written with Chopin in mind, but was instead meant as a tribute to three of Liszt's friends who died in the Hungarian uprising during the war. This is an amazing cd with many of Liszt's most famous as well as lesser known works. Any one who enjoys Liszt's music will not be disappointed with this cd.
The Liszt B minor played as a fascinating tone poem August 30, 2006
Santa Fe listener
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I don't have much to add to the praise so deservedly lavished on Zimerman's 1990 account of the Liszt B minor sonata. As noted below, the piano sound is deep and full, if a bit clangy at forte and fortissimo. Famous accounts by Horowitz and Pollini aren't recorded half as well. Zimerman plays with remarkable sweep, originality and tonal variety--he's in a class by himself on that score. I've never heard this music give off so many colors.
Liszt invented the orchestral tone poem, and this pianist plays an abstract sonata as if it's full of people, places, shifting pscyhological moods, and dreamy fantasy. He's ultra-Romantic in the sense that every shred of feeling is being extracted before our ears. The fillers, mysterious fragments from the late Liszt, mostly dark in tone, are played just as evocatively.
Simply amazing! July 8, 2005
Antonia Brentano
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a truly amazing disc. Zimerman has it all: a great sound, a great overall vision of this exceptional work (probably the best work of Liszt) and a stunning virtuosity (listen to the fugato!). For me this is without doubt the best recording of the Liszt sonata, with all respect for all those other great recordings of great masters as Bolet, Argerich, Arrau, Gilels, Pollini, etc.
Do not even hesitate one second, buy this CD!
|
|
|
Used CDs | |
