Customer Reviews

Liszt: Sonata in B minor

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

 

 

I have had this disc for years, but have recently begun listening again after migrating to Zimerman, Argerich, Brendel, et al. for some time. When I first pulled it out again, I was simply blown away by the surpassing depth and utter poetry of Pollini's playing, and am more so with each listen.

After the mysterious descending scales and sudden explosion of the Allegro energico, what is immediately remarkable here are the rough inner edges, with the repeated notes of the section marked "agitato" emerging insistently and ferociously. Indeed, at various points throughout the piece, Pollini's hands seem to have been overtaken by a kind of mechanical fury--only to give way, often instantaneously and unexpectedly, to the most ethereally beautiful playing. In any event, the first instantiation of the grandioso theme is magnificent, with the thundering chords delivered in a perfectly suspended balance of total control and possessed frenzy. At the end of this passage, the four questioning chords have the sound of a much-needed breath. At this point, the dolce con grazia emerges, utterly crystalline. Again, Pollini's playing is so simple--almost ascetically plain--one begins to drift upward into a quasi-unconscious space. I find myself holding my breath as Pollini moves into the cantando espressivo...

I will not go through each incredible passage in this recording, but must mention the beautiful control and instantaneous changes in tone and dynamics in the fugue, the wild and elemental energy in the rushing downward octaves at the end of the prestissimo section (which Pollini sounds barely able to keep under his fingers, even though he is obviously in complete control), and the rough-edged, uneven beauty of the returning grandioso theme. In that latter section, other pianists produce the usual, rather overwrought grandeur, while Pollini's version sounds, perfectly, like a series of quickly drawn breaths, perhaps reflecting the extraordinary exertions of the preceding section.

Finally, there is simply no other account on disc which achieves what Pollini does at the Sonata's conclusion. Pollini leaves increasingly long pauses between the three bright-sounding chords in the piano's upper register, which sound as if suspended in some unearthly space. During the extremely long pause into which the second of these chords expires, one drifts into a partly unconscious state, only to be pulled back suddenly to await that final dark b natural, which Pollini delivers after another long pause with a decisive parting groan. Where other performances of this piece--even excellent ones--merely play through the final notes, Pollini creates one of the most transcendental experiences in all of music.

Pollini's recording of Liszt's B-minor sonata is fantastic and does justice to this piece that stands out as one of the most interesting contributions to the sonata repertoire.

Here in 1990 Pollini concetrates on two contasting aspects of Liszt, in a program he still plays in concert. On one hand we get Liszt's flamboyantly ambitious capstone to a career of breakneck virtuosity, the B minor Sonata. Pollini's account is supernaturally good, an enthralling exhibition of absolute technique and rare musical instincts. The piano is also rcorded well, which isn't always true from DG, so the full sonority of Pollini's wide-ranging dynamics comes through.

The other side of Liszt is his late, gloomy, spare pieces that do not so much paint pictures of a place (he did that masterfully in 'Annees de pelerinage') as paint elusive moods, most of them dark. If the Sonata exercises Pollini's passion, these skeletal late works exercise his intellect, since it takes a probing intelligence to decipher them.

In sum, I dn't know if Pollini's Liszt is the absolute best to be heard today, but I believed it while listening to this CD.

Simply...buy this marvellous cd!! Pollini's rendition of List Sonata is beyond description! Though Pollini is best known for his Chopin and Schumann splendid recordings this one with Liszt's Sonata is just incredible!

Maurizio Pollini is the perfect pianist to listen to when you want to get introduced to a work you are only slightly familiar with or not at all. You may be sure that you will not get any monkey tricks with that man. He plays everything as objectively as possible in so subjective a world; no weird accents or wild tempo fluctuations with Pollini. His technique is stupendous and it seems that he can play, literally, everything with ease. The problem is that this rigidity of approach may work very well in Stravinsky and Schoenberg, but in Chopin and Liszt it is nearly disastrous.

If you are (un)fortunate enough Pollini's rendition of Liszt's Sonata to be the first one you have ever heard, everything would be just wonderful. I have not been so fortunate. It is difficult to imagine how anybody who loves the work might give less than three stars to this performance - for the music is so great, that even when played without the slightest amount of imagination it is an exhilarating experience. I also understand that some people, apparently admirers of anti-Romantic piano playing, may find this disc worthy of four or five stars, but I am not one of them. For Liszt's Sonata is infinitely more than tremendous technical feat. It requires passion and poetry, abandon and rhetoric, a great deal of imagination and a very fine sense for building a dramatic climax - everything, in short, that Pollini completely lacks. He more or less completely misses the point of the work, sounding dull and drab, not to say mechanical and monotonous, almost all the time. Even Zimerman, who is far removed from my favourite pianists, I would prefer over Pollini any time. To put the Italian pianist in the league of Bolet, Arrau or Gilels, or even in the league of the monstrously fast Weissenberg, Howard and Argerich, would be absurd. Though I don't particularly like Brendel, Berman or Richter in the Sonata, I do prefer any of them over Pollini, too; these men (and one woman) at least show some personality on the keyboard, no matter that I dislike it.

Also, I have to say, DG have done a very poor job with the sound. It is crisp and well-balanced, to be sure, but abominably flat and to speak of anything like sonority or depth would be to misuse the words. The booklet is just as disappointing. It contains an amazingly dull essay by one Paolo Petazzi (who?) which combines boring technical analyses with superficial historical overview in the worst 'liner-notes-style' possible. Last but not least, a total duration of about 45 minutes - nearly half of the maximum capacity - is a crime against the buyer (unless you find the CD at 50% reduced price as I did).

Excellenet CD to get rid of by giving it as a gift to somebody who is a perfect newcomer to the field of Liszt and his magisterial Sonata.

P.S. The 'bonus tracks' fair quite a bit better, by the way, since Pollini is obviously more comfortable in Liszt's no less unique, but far less artistically challenging, late pieces. Unfortunately, they are by far not enough to compensate for his vapid rendition of the Sonata.

.. but nothing more! It's a superb reading of the Sonata, but no soul, no feelings! Nuages gris is absolutely flat, less than a exercise for tremolandos!

Surprising, because Pollini's Chopin is marvellous, full of passion and feeling! But here, is hard to feel Liszt's poetry and tragic dilemma in Mr. Pollini playing!

Better playing - Sonata: Yundi Li (DG), Dubravka Tomsic (IPO); Nuages Gris: Hamelin (Hyperion).