Liszt: Paganini Studies; Schubert March Transcriptions

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Hamelin and Hyperion have come up with an unusual and interesting program, balancing well-known Liszt transcriptions against all-but-unknown ones. The "Paganini Etudes" are among Liszt's better-known piano works, a heartfelt tribute to the violin virtuoso who inspired Liszt to greater heights of piano virtuosity. They're thrillers, and Hamelin has the technique and temperament to compete with the most famous Lisztianers who have recorded them. The Schubert Marches are rarities, both in the original four-hand versions and in Liszt's arrangements. Annotator Jeremy Nicholas does an excellent job of explaining where Liszt got his materials (two of the three Marches come from more than one work of Schubert's) and how he used them. The music sounds like a hybrid of Schubert and Liszt, very effective and engrossing, and Hamelin's playing is predictably intense. Score another winner for Hamelin, one of the most adventurous of all active pianists, and for Hyperion's presentation in all aspects. --Leslie Gerber

Liszt: Paganini Studies; Schubert March Transcriptions, Music, Franz Liszt, Marc-André Hamelin, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Etude for Keyboard, Keyboard, Transcription for Keyboard

Paganini Studies / Schubert March Transcriptions
Average customer rating:

Stunning Virtuosity! Magnificent!

superb recording of rare repertory

One of Hamelin's best.

formidable liszt playing

Paganini Studies / Schubert March Transcriptions
Liszt , and Hamelin
Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Hamelin, Marc-André | ( H ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Marc-André Hamelin plays Liszt

Godowsky: Sonata; Passacaglia

Godowsky: The Complete Studies on Chopin's Etudes

Rachmaninov, Villa-Lobos, Chopin, Schulz-Evler

Busoni: Piano Concerto, Op. 39

ASIN: B00006B1LB
Release Date: 2002-09-10

Amazon.com

Hamelin and Hyperion have come up with an unusual and interesting program, balancing well-known Liszt transcriptions against all-but-unknown ones. The "Paganini Etudes" are among Liszt's better-known piano works, a heartfelt tribute to the violin virtuoso who inspired Liszt to greater heights of piano virtuosity. They're thrillers, and Hamelin has the technique and temperament to compete with the most famous Lisztianers who have recorded them. The Schubert Marches are rarities, both in the original four-hand versions and in Liszt's arrangements. Annotator Jeremy Nicholas does an excellent job of explaining where Liszt got his materials (two of the three Marches come from more than one work of Schubert's) and how he used them. The music sounds like a hybrid of Schubert and Liszt, very effective and engrossing, and Hamelin's playing is predictably intense. Score another winner for Hamelin, one of the most adventurous of all active pianists, and for Hyperion's presentation in all aspects. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

Stunning Virtuosity! Magnificent!.......2005-07-07

I have enjoyed this music, performed by Leslie Howard as part of his exhaustive Liszt repertoire, for many years. Marc-Andre Hamelin takes the six Paganini Grand Etudes to new heights of glory and inspiration. Bravo!

superb recording of rare repertory.......2003-07-30

after enduring the disappointingly arid experience of hamelin's medtner compilation, it is refreshing and revealing to hear him in more mainstream keyboard pieces.

good recorded versions of the paganini etudes have been hard to come by, as they tend to get overshadowed by the transcendental etudes. hamelin is entirely up to the technical challenges, though i found an imbalance in his approach: the delicate works or passages, in particular the "campanella" etude (adapted from a paganini violin concerto) are utterly ravishing, with a delicacy and fluency of touch that is like nothing i've heard in these works before. but the beefier and more dramatic passages, for example the opening of the first etude, seem relatively restrained and even lackluster. odd, as similar passages in the medtner works are enunciated with plenty of spit.

i found the schubert marches less appealing musically, though if you don't like what you're hearing just wait for a minute or two and the themes will change. i hear in these works a schubert vacillating between the poetic sonata composer and the more virtuosic "wandererfantasie" composer, and not coming down on either side.

until hamelin gets around to recording the transcendental etudes, i can strongly recommend the boris berezovsky version on emi, or the old ashkenazy recording -- if you can find it.

One of Hamelin's best........2002-09-30

Many of us may have wondered how Marc-Andre Hamelin would play "Liszt' "original" Campanella" after having heard the pianist's own diabolical etude based on Franz' hallmark for right-hand-long-distance-travel on the Kaleidoscope cd. Well, in 4'42 history's most technically gifted pianist provides a definite answer and definitive version.

Thanks to a photographic precision in realizing the score and a complete control of accentuation and timbre the result makes you simultaneously drop your jaw and lick your fingers. These attributes equally apply to the other five Paganini studies. I have been previously blamed for comparing Hamelin's technique to Horowitz' and gladly concede here that any comparison is irrelevant. A disc like this represents the pianistic equivalent of what Bob Beaman did in Mexico City in 1968.

Yet, there is a catch when it comes to the etudes. I have had the chance to witness the complete set a few times live in concert and remember one outstanding version by Vladimir Ovchinikov. These performances made it very clear that Liszt turned the "risk dial" up so high, that pianists of generations yet to come would have to walk the tightrope in the middle of a force 5 hurricane to emulate the diabolical Niccolo. While he himself is the last person to be blamed for it, Hamelin's version often gives the impression of a lightning fast, relaxed ride down a 12-lane interstate. As a consequence, any trepidation along the lines "will he be able to keep up this insane tempo in the next passage" disappears entirely. While Marc-Andre has injected a light sense of humor in these interpretations, his substituting "pleasure for pain" cannot help but highlight the musical limitations of these scores.

Fortunately, the opposite is true when it comes to the Liszt version of the Schubert Marches. I knew this work from Leslie Howard's survey of Liszt' complete piano works, but Hamelin adds a whole new dimension to them. Marc-Andre's version, that I consider at the same level as his first Alkan recording, reflects a vision on Schubert that is similar to the one that Alfons Kontarsky has championed in duo and solo recordings. Whereas pianists like Pollini and Brendel try to play Schubert in a way that tries to make every theme/detail part of an organic universe, Kontarsky has interpreted the unfinished status of many of Schubert's of works as a reflection of a person who had such a continuous burst of new ideas, that he often was more interested in developing new ones, than finishing others. A good example can be found in the Kontarsky Brothers', performance of Schubert's celebrated f-minor fantasy (really inexpensive at Amazon Germany). By making no attempt to overly link the many themes in the work, it greatly gains in power and orbits all salonesque alternatives.

Similarly, Hamelin lets Schubert do the talking while providing the "Liszt sauce" on the side. Thanks to this objective approach and limitless pianistic resources Marc-Andre fleshes out Schubert in all his musicality and directness. The result is both melodic and dramatic and shames all critics who have remarked negatively on Hamelin's musicality.

The recording, made in the same Henry Wood Hall where Bolet made his legendary Decca Liszt recordings, is clear and dynamic.

In all, another Hamelin must. A wonderful juxtaposition of works/influences by the two composers that were Liszt' greatest source of artistic inspiration in definitive performances.

formidable liszt playing.......2002-09-17

Marc-André Hamelin, returns again to the recording studio to make an exquisite disc of the Liszt Pagannini Etudes, with complete control, dynamic range and feroceous fingerwork which will make any advanced pianist, let alone the common listener's jaw drop to the ground. He puts to use his unbelievable technique which has proved itself in the past in discs such as the Busoni Piano Concerto, Kaleidascope (Unbelievable Encores) and Godowsky-Chopin Studies, Sonata and Passacaglia. Here, he spins each Liszt etude inspired by the immense virtuosity he witnessed of Pagannini with complete ease and confidence. For the most breath-taking performance, listen to Hamelin play "La Campanella" with complete disregard for the technical challenges which would make any college professor of piano think twice about playing it. He conveys a complete joy and love for the etudes, and still shows the raw power of all of the peices. Hamelin next release should be a disc of Symaniowski peices followed by more discs of Schumann, Kapustin and Schubert sonatas. Hopefully he will move on in the liszt piano music to the trancedental etudes which are in need of a modern benchmark, which surely Hamelin will most likely be up to. This reccording is highly reccomended.

Music Review:

Music Review

6 Concertos for Flute / String Orch & Continuo

The Definitive Collection [Original recording remastered]

A Better Tomorrow [EP] [EP]

14 Exitos Internationales

60 Wereldsuccessen [Import]

13 Above the Night [Extra tracks]

Winchester Cathedral [Enhanced] [Import]

Witold Lutoslawski: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 / Les Espaces du Sommeil - John Shirley-Quirk / Los Angeles Philharmonic / Esa-Pekka Salonen

Wheel Stone/Live in Nemuro [Import] [Original recording remastered]

Via Cuba

Un Monton de Estrellas

Diary of a Band, Vol. 2

The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny