Liszt: Piano Sonata in B Minor; Venezia e Napoli & Other Piano Works

Featuring

Marc-André Hamelin
Franz Liszt

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Liszt believed that good composition involved the construction of 'forms, not formulae', advocating for a free treatment of traditional musical forms.

Composer Biography

Liszt's transformation into a composer primarily occurred after 1848, when he retired from touring and became Kapellmeister in Weimar, aiming to create original compositions.

Compositional Technique

Liszt's Fantasie und Fuge über das Thema B-A-C-H (Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H) uses the letters of Johann Sebastian Bach's name as a musical theme, where B is B flat and H is B natural in German notation.

Performer Biography

Marc-André Hamelin, the pianist on this recording, is known for his exploration of unfamiliar pianistic repertoire and has been recognized for his original and technically brilliant performances of classic works.

Composer Biography

Franz Liszt was awarded the Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur by Emperor Napoléon III in 1861, an honor that pleased him most because the citation described him simply as a composer, not a pianist.

Performer Biography

Marc-André Hamelin has recorded approximately fifty CDs for Hyperion and was honored with a lifetime achievement prize by the German Record Critics' Award.

Critical Reception

Robert Schumann's wife, Clara Wieck, famously described Liszt's magnificent Sonata in B minor as 'truly terrible' and lamented having to thank him for it.