Customer Reviews

Liszt: The Schubert Transcriptions, Vol. 1

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

'The Schubert Transcriptions - II' composed by Franz Liszt is volume 32 in Hyperion's 'The Complete Music for Solo Piano' for Liszt. And, being a real sucker for 'complete' collections of anything, I scarfed this one up without a moment's reflection, especially since I'm something of a Schubert fan, even if I'm not the biggest Liszt fan on the planet.

Most of these pieces are arrangements of selected Schubert songs where the music for the voice and the piano accompaniment are combined into a solo piano piece. One problem with these pieces for the average (like me) amateur listener is that very few of the pieces are from Schubert's major or most familiar Lieder. In many ways, it feels we are simply listening to etudes, but without the delicacy of Chopin's piano studies.

Oddly, aside from the interest to the piano professional, I think there is a great use for this music as background music for serious gatherings where you want the music to be interesting, but not too intrusive.

Leslie Howard delivers a stuning performance on this cd. Not only is the musicianship flawless and creative; the inclusian of variant versions of the peices provide a glance into the stlyle of Lizst:variations of varations of transcriptions. The 45 minute Hungarian March is one of the most hauntingly beutiful peices purchasable, and the recording of the Sories de Venna are worth of a horowithz recording. BUY THIS CD!!