David Denton

David's Review Corner, June 2011

As we reach the thirty-fourth volume of this complete recording of the piano music by Franz Liszt, it is obvious Naxos are going to ensure they give us every note.

With the large symphony orchestras available only in major cities, it was quite common for composers to offer the orchestral version and a piano transcription at much the same time to maximise the music’s dissemination to as wide an audience as possible.

Liszt went further, at times simply employing others to orchestrate his piano scores, an expedient required by the demands made upon him as a composer and performer.

A Faust Symphony had a convoluted history, movements being written and published at different times.

Then came the subsequent revisions, with the score, begun in 1854, finally completed in 1880. Work on the version for two pianos was taking shape at much the same pace, the earliest showing being a version of the second movement in 1862.

Whether in the piano duo version he initially intended the finale to be performed with tenor soloist and chorus is unclear, but that is how we have it today.

Comparing it with the orchestral version one would say Liszt wanted the feel of the work rather than a literal transcription.

The result was a vehicle for a show of red-blooded virtuosity that would tempt any duo.

Already well-known on the Naxos label, Francesco Nicolosi joins Vittorio Bresciani in a duo formed 1998 specially to perform Liszt, this transcription part of their repertoire.

It is a superb reading, at times daringly fast, the split-second unanimity and balance between the pianos being exemplary.

The choir sounds very small and young, Marcus Ullmann sketching in the solo tenor role. The engineering is outstanding.

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