Liszt - 12 Etudes D'Execution Transcendante [Duchable]Now i must admit that Liszt isn't my favourite Composer, in fact far from it, he doesn't even get into my top 20, i dislike his Piano Concertos, i find his Orchestral music overblown, where he excelled was of course in the solo piano repertoire, but even here he has a tendency to be full of virtuoso and dash, quite often pompous and barnstorming in his works, trawling [and i mean trawling] through his compositions is hard work, it's all a menagerie of all sorts of stuff, no order or methodology to make it easy to collect / traverse, however... in saying all of that, there are gems to be heard, and not a few, he's worth the hard work, and here i enjoyed getting to know Liszt that little bit better.
Francoise-Rene Duchable is French, he's now 59 years old, he recorded this disc in 1998, he has extensively recorded for the French label Erato, i like the creative front cover photo, Duchable on a high chair, completely white background for effect.
So many times i have played this work, and have come away on the whole unsatisfied, there's stunning virtuosity aplenty, but poetry and lyricism?, a while back i was pleasantly stunned by Liszt's Harmonies Du Soir by Arrau, and the larger work that that single piece is taken from, has caused me to re-assess this work, and listen closer to the other pieces, one phenomenal thing that happened is that it caused me to watch a YouTube video by Boris Berezovsky, where he sweats his guts out playing the whole of the 12 live, i was also amazed by his Etude 4 'Mazeppa', just watch the pianism at 1:56-2:01, simply wow!, and when you can see the fingerwork, you appreciate the music so much more, so listening to this set anew...
I certainly found Etudes 4, 6 8 & 11 to be the most revelatory, and it's good to know that new favourites are bubbling to the surface, however i still find it's this Eleventh Etude 'Harmonies Du Soir' ['Evening Harmonies' or 'Harmonies of the Evening'] to be the most magical, an Etude yes, but it starts out gentle and poetic, even the main tune starts rhapsodic rather than virtuosic, but Liszt turns the main tune into a stunning rippling feast of chimerical notes [1:31-1:52], my favourite part of the whole piece, later Liszt can't help but move into barnstorming anthemic mode [4:55-5:41], with hands going up and down the keyboard while hammering out the tune, and this in turn leads straight into the main tune played at a delicious forte [5:41-6:00], and Liszt's coda / ending is slowing down the piece into gentleness [6:00+ & 6:28+], as Liszt's evening harmonies descend into night.
Here's Duchable playing Etude 11 'Harmonies Du Soir' on YouTube, it's fairly quietly recorded there.
I certainly found Etudes 4, 6 8 & 11 to be the most revelatory, and it's good to know that new favourites are bubbling to the surface, however i still find it's this Eleventh Etude 'Harmonies Du Soir' ['Evening Harmonies' or 'Harmonies of the Evening'] to be the most magical, an Etude yes, but it starts out gentle and poetic, even the main tune starts rhapsodic rather than virtuosic, but Liszt turns the main tune into a stunning rippling feast of chimerical notes [1:31-1:52], my favourite part of the whole piece, later Liszt can't help but move into barnstorming anthemic mode [4:55-5:41], with hands going up and down the keyboard while hammering out the tune, and this in turn leads straight into the main tune played at a delicious forte [5:41-6:00], and Liszt's coda / ending is slowing down the piece into gentleness [6:00+ & 6:28+], as Liszt's evening harmonies descend into night.
Here's Duchable playing Etude 11 'Harmonies Du Soir' on YouTube, it's fairly quietly recorded there.
