Name: Liszt - 10 Hungarian Rhapsodies / Georges Cziffra / Great Recordings Of The Century / EMI Classics Audio CD 2001 Stereo / 724356755420
Brand: EMI Group Limited
SKU: 724356755420
Price: 136.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Description
Product Reviews

Description

Liszt - 10 Hungarian Rhapsodies / Georges Cziffra / Great Recordings Of The Century / EMI Classics Audio CD 2001 Stereo

UPC 724356755420

Product Details:

Label: EMI Classics ‎– 724356755420

Series: Great Recordings Of The Century

Format: CD, Remastered, Stereo

Country: UK & Europe

Released: 2001

Genre: Classical

Style: Romantic

Track Listing:

1. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.2 in c#

2. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.6 in D flat

3. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.8 in f#

4. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.9 in E flat 'Carnival In Pest'

5. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.10 in E

6. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.11 in a

7. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.12 in c#

8. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.13 in a

9. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.14 in f

10. Hungarian Rhaps, S.244: No.15 in a

Description:

Cziffra's one and only recital appearance in London during the 1960s caused a furore. His Chopin was hotly disputed, his dazzling playing of Liszt took the public by storm, and if you listen to this disc you will hear why. His technique is phenomenal, octaves tossed off with power and ease, while his passage work carves a scorched earth policy up and down the keyboard. As a fellow Hungarian, and with plenty of gypsy blood in his veins, Cziffra's response to Liszt's Rhapsodies also manages to get beyond pyrotechnics to the folk-heart of this idiosyncratic style. This is not music to look down upon, neither should it be the territory of pianistic peacocks, for it is serious music of the highest order requiring an improvisatory feel for the ebb and flow of the quintessential rubato required. Every now and again, he launches an attack of fortissimo which has the assaulting effect on one's ears of an exploding grenade. His pianistic flourishes stretch every sinew, as much of the listener as of Cziffra himself we get carried along, yet his playing is also expressively tender where it needs to be. In his hands the piano sounds like an orchestra, and these interpretations could well be the nearest we ever get to Liszt's own playing. Cziffra (1921-1994) had a chequered career that ended with him as a reclusive figure after the tragic death of his conductor son. After escaping Soviet-dominated Hungary in 1956 he settled in Paris, where these recordings were made over several sessions during a three-year period at the Salle Wagram. As one reviewer wrote of him when he took Western Europe by storm at the time, 'he combines the precision of a metronome with the electrical discharge of a thunderstorm'. On the evidence of this disc one can well understand the choice of words.

Tracklist:

1	No. 2 In C Sharp Minor	9:07
2	No. 6 In D Flat	6:24
3	No. 8 In F Sharp Minor	5:43
4	No. 9 In E Flat "Carnival In Pest"	9:59
5	No. 10 In E Major	4:50
6	No. 11 In A Minor	5:02
7	No. 12 In C Sharp Minor	8:46
8	No. 13 In A Minor	8:23
9	No. 14 In F Minor	10:48
10	No. 15 In A Minor "Rákóczy"	5:34

Review:

This disc brings together a selection of the Hungarian Rhapsodies recorded on various dates between 1972 and 1975. The recording venue was the same throughout which may help to explain the consistency of the recorded sound. In addition, the latest remastering has proved to be very successful and gives good tone, depth and clear textures.

Cziffra was something of a controversial pianist, born in Budapest and whose parents were gypsies. The gypsy musical heritage was very much in his blood so to speak and Cziffra was used to performing gypsy style music publicly in bars and circuses from the age of five. Thereafter he developed a phenomenal piano virtuosity with the help of formal tuition to which was allied an instinctive aura of showmanship and love of display.

He took to these Hungarian Rhapsodies very naturally and was famed for his performances of them throughout his life. They were, and are on this disc, very uniquely distinctive in their free-wheeling manner with extensive use of rubato and wide dynamics. The result of this upon the listener is to either find the performances thrilling or simply wearing. They are a complete opposite to Szidon's fine, but more controlled, set of the complete Rhapsodies.

Because of their nature as performances and also their incompleteness as a set, I would suggest that this disc makes a strong case for being bought as an alternative sample with the Szidon set being the main reference point for the music. A little of Cziffra goes a long way but is such a strong statement of such gypsy styled authenticity that it must also qualify for serious consideration as a purchase. There is a strong case for owning both views and that seems the best option.

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