Customer Reviews

Message to All Pianists

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The relatively poor rating I have given this release has to do with the 15 Brahms Rhapsody Transcriptions, not the remaining tracks which were recorded much earlier (in the mid to late fifties). To my ear, Cziffra's playing deteriorated significantly in his later years. These Brahms Transcriptions are certainly interestingly written, but the playing is mostly earthbound and it often sounds as if Cziffra is struggling technically. As a notoriously unpredictable player, it may be that he simply didn't bother to get this music securely under his fingers. Or perhaps the mechanism that had served him so well as a younger man -- with the requisite hours of practice, of course -- had vanished. Or maybe not. There is some playing from a live recital that post dates this release that is far more fluid and impressive than this. In any case -- and this is certainly nothing more than a personal opinion -- though this recording serves the valuable purpose of allowing us to hear this difficult music rather than try to play it ourselves, the performances in and of themselves disappoint.

For Cziffra improvising was very much a spiritual experience. Freed from the printed page, the hands, heart, and mind were free to wander. Cziffra's son György Jr. and eventually Cziffra himself took it upon themselves the very difficult task of capturing these `fluttering butterflies of the mind' and turning them into the dots and dashes of musical notation for the benefit of future generations of pianists. Cziffra made his brilliant recording of 15 of Brahm's Hungarian Dances in his own transcriptions {originally composed for four hands} between 1982-1983. Brahms did not care for Liszt's flamboyant virtuosity but with his Lisztian arrangements of these wonderful gypsy style melodies Cziffra hoped for a `musical handshake' between the two great composers. I think he succeeded. Cziffra entitled his earlier and much more virtuosic paraphrases and transcriptions{recorded in 1957} `Etudes de concert'.{ The music scores{ in two volumes} are now available from `Edition Peters' and the FONDATION CZIFFRA internet site}. Cziffra's playing of the `Flight of the Bumble Bee' is simply astounding - at the time, he was even accused of cheating! Can anyone really play interlocking octaves so fast, light and electrifying? Yes! - at least if you are Cziffra! Although the recordings by Katsaris and Volodos {his own variant} are very good - in no way do they compare with Cziffras. The same can be said of Cziffra's own recording of the `Tritsch-Tratsch-polka - it is simply incomparable. The other `Etudes' on this disc; the `Rumanian Fantasy' - an original improvisation which recalls to mind the Rumanian Rhapsodies of Enescu - is fantastic; as is the virtuoso, Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody style arrangement of Brahm's Hungarian Dance No:5. The `Valse Triste', after the violinist Ferenc Vecsey, recalls Cziffra's Budapest `bar days' when he was often asked to improvise on this lovely, yearningly sad melody. Cziffra used to practise 10 hours a day and on the day of a concert he would practise right up until the last moment before stepping out of the wings on to the stage. He liked to have his muscles bathed in sweat and all the joints lubricated before a performance. That was the only way he could give 150% of himself; and that is what he did. Fabulous dedication - tremendous playing!