The music of Liszt is slowly playing a bigger part of my life, it was only a few days ago that i was extolling another Liszt recital, unlike Schubert and Chopin [two piano greats] who i straight away fell right into, Liszt is someone who didn't shine immediately, in fact he's still very much an outsider, it's only in the last year or two that there's been a real thaw in my heart for him, this disc is typical of what i guess i had against him, lots of showy notes of real bravura, but Liszt lets the side down with all froth and no drink, but just lately i'm beginning to can see through all that flash, and there is a heart there, it's just harder to see, the bravura is the poetry, the froth is a drink!, i played this disc in my Blog at the end of 2010 [6th November 2010].
Elena Ulyanova-Caldine is Ukrainian / Crimean, not sure of her age, she recorded this disc in 2006, the front cover is fantastic [photo by Walter Merriam], showing Ulyanova-Caldine in front of her piano, i love the slanted lines in the background, looking down on the piano keys, the pose is great, nice smiling face, lovely red dress and a shiny necklace, and the lettering over the dark areas of the piano, a really great visual product.
Like i said above, Ulyanova-Caldine seems to have chosen six pieces that show off the virtuosity / bravura of Liszt, there's lots of notes in there, the piece i loved the most was 'Harmonies Du Soir', it's Etude 11 from his 12 Transcendental Etudes, Ulyanova-Caldine takes a long time over it [over 10 minutes], but there's poetry there, she gets the odd treble bell ringers just right [1:24+], the treble notes caught very well by the recording, the cascades of notes that make up the main tune are just scintillating [2:15-2:40], the highlight of the whole piece, the new tune that Liszt creates is very welcome [4:36+], giving another layer / dimension to the work, again Ulyanova-Caldine gets those treble notes to sing, the forte passages are done well [5:52+], and just after, the hammered out chords with the chiming trebles are thrilling [6:31-7:35], in retrospect i like the way she builds up the whole piece very gradually, both in speeds and volume, it's like a roller-coaster that thrills the more it goes on, the ending is fairly subdued.
Here's Boris Berezovsky playing Harmonies Du Soir on YouTube, watch him sweat!.
