Liszt is a Composer that i have consciously tried to delve deeper into in the last year, at certain turns he has surprised me, Harmonies Du Soir and Un Sospiro have got a grip on my heart in the last year or so, so i'm wondering what other beautiful card Liszt's got up his sleeve that i haven't seen yet when he plays his tricks, i bought this disc from Ebay a short time ago, it wasn't cheap, but i got it for a good price, it's great in the sense that it fills gaps in my Liszt discography nicely, and who knows, maybe another piece to truly fall in love with.
Vahan Mardirossian is Armenian, born in 1975, he's now 37, he recorded this disc in 2007, the visual presentation is great, which includes the inner photos, the photo on the disc itself, and on the inside of the back insert, but i just love the front booklet cover [photo by Karim Rimzi], a nice tight face mugshot, hands placed in front of the nose to give emphasis, hairline showing, but top of the head cut off, i love the lettering in the two opposite corners, the whole thing really works for me.
Well this was a learning experience, believe it or not, even with a personal discography of roughly 1650 discs, and 25 years listening experience, this is the first time i've listened to Liszt's Piano Sonata!, and it certainly needs some more listening!, on this recital Mardirossian includes 4 pieces that are transcriptions from other Composers, these are all vocal works, where Liszt has to transcribe the human worded voice into pure piano sounds, and even though i guess they're not wholly Liszt's creations, it still takes great invention to turn something into pure piano sounds, consider his superb transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies, it was the last piece i was really wowed with, Standchen works so well without the singer!, Liszt spins it as if was always meant to be purely a piano solo, and Schubert is the one that transcribed it as a song!, and now i remember it on a Joshua Bell disc [21st February 2010], with its other name Serenade, the song is of a Serenader at his Lady's window in the moonlight, singing of love, the original song has five stanzas, but i believe Liszt only uses three here, here are the timings for the work,
Here's Dora Deliyska playing the transcription of Schubert's Standchen on YouTube.
A - 0:00-1:45
B - 1:46-3:18
C - 3:19-4:50
D - 4:51-5:55
A-C are the first three stanzas / variations, and D is the coda / finale, after a short prelude the treble in the right hand comes in [0:12+], and it's a gorgeous tune, the main tune and the accompaniment take it in turns to 'sing' the first stanza [0:00-1:45], it's simple and just so beautiful, in the second stanza there's a lower part for the 'voice', and higher for the accompaniment [1:46-3:18], it's a nice variation, the real magic is in the third stanza, it's high in the treble, and there's an immediate echo from the voice, just slightly higher in the treble [3:19-4:50], it's so magical and chimerical, it's the highlight of the piece, there's an angry middle part, but it soon turns to the beginning, then comes some sort of coda to close the whole thing down [4:51-5:55], it's a glorious piece of music.
