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Track(s) taken from CDA66371/2

Réminiscences de Norma de Bellini – Grande fantaisie, S394

composer
1841
composer
1831; Norma

Leslie Howard (piano)
Recording details: December 1989
Unknown, Unknown
Produced by Martin Compton
Engineered by Tryggvi Tryggvason
Release date: July 1990
Total duration: 16 minutes 58 seconds

Cover artwork: Faust and Mephistopheles. Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
Reproduced by permission of The Wallace Collection, London
 

Other recordings available for download

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Reviews

‘Outstanding’ (CDReview)

«Leslie Howard domine avec beaucoup de chic le barrage technique des difficultés pianistiques» (EcouterVoir, France)
The Norma Fantasy stands next to that on Don Giovanni for its ability to capture the essence of the operatic drama in a new structure. It is probably for dramatic reasons that Liszt ignored the famous aria ‘Casta Diva’ (which Thalberg used as the basis for his fantasy) but instead chose no fewer than seven other themes for his gloriously elaborate work—a triumph of understanding not just of Bellini’s masterpiece, but of practically all the sound possibilities of the piano in Romantic literature.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1994

Other albums featuring this work

Liszt & Thalberg: Opera transcriptions & fantasies
Studio Master: CDA68320Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Liszt: Complete Piano Music
CDS44501/9899CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price) — Download only
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