Piano Sonata, Venezia e Napoli, etc : Hamelin

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Fantasie und Fuge uber das Thema B-A-C-H, S529ii
Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude, S173/3
Venezia e Napoli - Supplement aux Annees de Pelerinage seconde volume, S162
Piano Sonata in B minor, S178

Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano

Recording details: August 2010, Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon

This year, April is Hamelin month at Hyperion; not content with giving us another blockbuster addition to the Romantic Piano Concerto series, the pianist gives us his contribution to the Liszt bicentenary.

The Liszt Sonata is undoubtedly one of the peaks of the repertoire, and recordings are suitably copious, but when an artist of Hamelin’s virtuoso pedigree wishes to tackle it no excuse need be made for an additional version. The recital opens with a lesser-known masterwork, the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, and for light relief there is Liszt’s scintillating supplement to his Italian Annee de Pelerinage, the three pieces of Venezia e Napoli, but perhaps the emotional core of the recital is Liszt’s intensely spiritual Benediction du Dieu dans la solitude.

This is a major Liszt recital from one of today’s most admired recording artists. ( Hyperion )