Franz Liszt: Scherzo and March, Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (excerpts) & other piano works

Featuring

Sviatoslav Richter
Franz Liszt

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Performer Biography

Svjatoslav Richter's first US concert in Chicago in 1960, where he played Brahms's Second Piano Concerto, was described as 'the performance of a lifetime'.

Interpretation

Svjatoslav Richter believed that a pianist should be a performer carrying out the composer's intentions to the letter, dissolving into the music rather than dominating it.

Performer Biography

Svjatoslav Richter, the pianist on this album, was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, to a German father who was a pianist, organist, composer, and professor.

Compositional Technique

The piece 'Nuages gris' (Trübe Wolken) by Liszt explores subtle distinctions of timbre within an overall monochrome wash, rejecting rhetorical discourse and featuring daring 'suspended' harmonies.

Recording & Production

This album features recordings made in Moscow in 1957 and 1958, in Budapest in 1982, and in Köln/Cologne in 1988, with the latter recorded and broadcast by WDR.

Composer Biography

Franz Liszt's early works show the influence of composers like Berlioz, Paganini, and Chopin, with Chopin particularly shaping his connection between music and thought.

Composition History

Liszt's 'Funérailles' (from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses) was composed in October 1849 in memory of Hungarian friends and acquaintances executed by the Austrian court after the failed 1848 Revolution.