Liszt - Sonata in B minor; Grandes études de Paganini

George-Emmanuel Lazaridis: piano

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 208 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 84 mb
Scans @ 300dpi = 29 mb

Total playing time: 57:41

Recorded: 15-18th May 2006, The Maltings, Snape, UK

Released: 2006, Linn CKD 282

Track listing:
1. Sonata in b minor
2. Grandes Etudes de Paganini - I
3. Grandes Etudes de Paganini - II
4. Grandes Etudes de Paganini - III
5. Grandes Etudes de Paganini - IV
6. Grandes Etudes de Paganini - V
7. Grandes Etudes de Paganini - VI

Reviews:
ClassicsToday
In 2002 I capped a highly favorable Schumann CD review with the following: "Needless to say, keep your eye on George-Emmanuel Lazaridis." I'm proud to vindicate my prediction five years later, for here's a Liszt Sonata that easily ranks among this warhorse's most arresting recorded versions. On a scale ranging from fast and taut (Leon Fleisher, Clifford Curzon, Leslie Howard, and the young Horowitz) to rhetorical and subjective (Claudio Arrau and Ernst Levy), Lazaridis definitely falls into the latter camp. He often stretches the repeated-note theme to the breaking point, yet never in an ultra theatrical, mannered way (even Arrau could go overboard here), and he treats the difficult octave passages like music instead of gymnastics.

In this context it comes as a surprise to hear the lyrical D major theme phrased so objectively, although the central fugato brilliantly reconciles sophisticated part playing with demonic drive.

Much as I've enjoyed similarly conceived Liszt Sonata recordings from young pianists such as Yundi Li (DG) and David Fray (Atma), Lazaridis' palpable physicality and wider dynamic range (helped by Linn's state of the art sonics) take honors. Next to the effortless, offhand panache with which Marc-André Hamelin dispatches Liszt's Paganini etudes, some listeners might take issue with Lazaridis' serious-minded and at times unorthodox interpretive stance.

Despite the pianist's undeniable poise and control in No. 2, the downward runs and arpeggios are too poker-faced to scintillate. And it took several hearings for me to get past No. 3's protracted tempo and appreciate Lazaridis' painstaking lapidary work. Similarly, No. 4 trades speed and outward panache for evenness, variety of articulation, and superb tonal control.

The pianist plays No. 5's "hunting horns" very slowly and gradually adds speed, in the manner of an introductory call to arms. As for No. 6, I've never heard the theme's short, decorative notes dovetail so elegantly into the rolled left-hand chords that follow, and I've rarely heard bravura and poetry intermingle to such an inspired degree in the variations. The power and ferocity of the climaxes are enough to make sure you've insured your loudspeakers and warned your neighbors! Clearly Lazaridis is no run-of-the-mill virtuoso, and we're sure to hear more from him.


Musicweb
There is of course far more to Liszt than the shallow, generally held view that he was a virtuoso first, a creative artist second. Not that there is anything wrong with virtuosity, which was a significant driving force during the romantic era. The concept of 'the artist as hero' remains potent to this day, not least when we encounter an artist who can do justice to the towering demands of the Paganini Studies. And there is no question that George-Emmanuel Lazaridis does so.

The recorded sound from Linn is excellent, finding that always elusive balance between detail and atmosphere. In fact this balance is a critical consideration in a recording of these compositions, whose emotional, technical and expressive range is so wide – this is so with the Sonata especially. For the piano tone sounds particularly well, and the first climactic section of the Sonata is thrilling in terms of both sonics and performance. Rarely can a piano recording have generated such sheer impact.

It is no exaggeration to suggest that the Sonata in B minor is the summit of Liszt's achievement as a composer of piano music. He completed it in 1853, soon after he had settled at Weimar as Kapellmeister, and gave its dedication to another great piano-composer, Robert Schumann. The first performance took place in Berlin in 1857, when the pianist was Liszt's protégé, Hans von Bülow.

While undoubtedly a virtuoso showpiece for those talented enough to perform it, the Sonata is far more than a 'display of fireworks'. The music’s thirty-minute span contains an astonishingly wide range of moods, some of them inward and restrained. Moreover, the work closes with an extended epilogue, a veritable meditation. It is understandable, therefore that this music is the most challenging that Lazaridis performs in this new recording. He copes well with the demands, particularly so the technical demands, but technique is only the half of it. If there are doubts they lie in the direction of interpretation and concentration, rather than technique, and it is true that a great artist like, say, Jorge Bolet (Decca), can offer more insights.

The more obvious pyrotechnics of the Paganini Studies suit Lazaridis to perfection, as they did the composer-pianist before him. If it really was Liszt’s intention to make himself ‘the Paganini of the violin’ then this performance confirms it. The range of approaches exploits many aspects of the piano and Lazaridis is a match for them all. As an example, his poetic rendition of La Campanella is beautifully judged, and as such is the highlight of the whole disc.


Gramophone
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