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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weimar Meisterwerke, October 15, 2004
Mainly Liszt Sonata's duration is about 30-31 minutes. That's the required time to breath during the coronas, respecting the "LENTO ASSAI" (Very slow!)indications and many "ritardando" written by Liszt. Howard does all this in only 24 minutes! Phew!
Sonata's "technical" passages are played with fire and bravura, what is a good point for Mr.Howard. He actually doesn't respect Liszt OWN indication of tempo. "Lento assai" is not "andante con moto" or "allegretto", so the very beginning of the Great Sonata should be player VERY SLOW (hear Yundi Li's one to get what I mean). The same for similar passages and all "recitativo" sections.
Consolations, S172 are sometimes played hurried, but with a nice tone and fine "pianissimo". The third one is one of the most played work by Liszt and Howard does it very good, with soft and gentle expression.
Totentanz played with fire and energy, not too much expressive in the "Canonique" section, but wonderful in "fugato" and "Cadenza". Great "martellato" octaves!
Sometimes I ask if that hurring, especially in slow sections, is because "budget" reason. I mean, this CD lasts 76:47 and contains many pieces, as Totentanz, Gretchen, Sonata of course, Elegies and Consolations: just too many things for a single CD...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a true classic, May 13, 2004
By A Customer
Being one of my absolute passions, I've collected many cd's of the Liszt Bminor Sonata. I have all of the great one's: Horowitz (1932), Barere, Berman, Richter (several from 1960's), Argerich, and Brendal (voxbox). I consider Leslie Howard's to be the absolute best, hands down. I was first given this recording as an "anonymous" performance by a friend. He downloaded it on the internet but the MP3 file had no information on it. I listened to it first picking up a friend at the airport and I nearly got into any accident. What an incredible experience! It took a while but I finally found out that it was Leslie Howard's performance. This is a scintillating performance, absolutely masterful! The pacing may be a bit quick for some at around 24 minutes flat. However, Howard never seems to play fast for just the sake of it. I have now listened to this recording several hundred times and it never ceases to amaze me. This is a must-have disc for anyone who dares to consider themselves a fan of classical music.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very special and interesting, July 2, 2006
Commenting about the sonata here. Howard's overall understanding of this piece seem to be a little diffreent from most other pianists'. For some reason, he thinks that it's not worth spending listener's time on the slow sections of the piece. He hurries through them leaving the impression that he wants to get past them as soon as possible. The technical sections are of cours executed perfectly - very cleanly and with fire, and at a normal speed. Howard manages to cut off at least 5 minutes from the sanata simply by playing the slow section too fast. Musicality is lost in some parts and the entire piece sounds different. Howard compensates for this through his technical mastery and good "flow" in the fast sections. Everything is done extremely cleanly, and the recording quality is quite good. This put the performance of the sonata above those of Horowitz (too messy) and Richter (too boring).
Overall, interesting performance and worth looking into.
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