Wagner: Wagner without words

Pianist Llŷr Williams explores Wagner’s rich and evocative sound-world from a different perspective. Featuring insightful arrangements of Richard Wagner’s operas by Franz Liszt and Glenn Gould (as well as Williams’ own arrangement of music from Parsifal), at the centre of the programme is a selection of Wagner’s own piano pieces—many of which were written earlier in his compositional career, hinting at the grand operatic masterworks which were yet to come.

SIGCD388  142 minutes 38 seconds (2 discs)
'The Welsh virtuoso's idea of juxtaposing a selection of Wagner's uneven piano works with transcriptions is pianophile catnip. Wagner's 'long-winded' Fantasy, written at 19, and his effusive Sonata fo ...