Recordings
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Liszt: Complete Piano Music
CDS44501/98
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
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Details
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Movement 1: Introduction: Extrèmement lent
Track 1 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [3'25]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 2: Tema: Allegro marziale
Track 2 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [1'16]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 3: Variation I: Ben marcato (Thalberg)
Track 3 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [0'59]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 4: Variation II: Moderato
Track 4 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [2'36]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 5: Variation III di bravura (Pixis) – Ritornello (Liszt)
Track 5 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [1'57]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 6: Variation IV: Legato e grazioso (Herz)
Track 6 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [1'45]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 7: Variation V: Vivo e brillante (Czerny) – Fuocoso molto energico; Lento quasi recitativo (Liszt)
Track 7 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [3'19]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 8: Variation VI: Largo, KKIIb/2 (Chopin)
Track 5 on CDS44351/66
CD5 [2'21]
16CDs Boxed set (at a special price)
Movement 8: Variation VI: Largo, KKIIb/2 (Chopin) – [coda] (Liszt)
Track 8 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [2'24]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
Movement 9: Finale: Molto vivace quasi prestissimo
Track 9 on CDS44501/98
CD51 [3'21]
99CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)
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The Princess Belgiojoso’s concert, actually for the benefit of Italian refugees, took place in Paris on 31 March 1837, but the Hexaméron was not completed in time. The concert has passed into history, nonetheless, for being the occasion of the celebrated pianistic ‘duel’ between Liszt and Thalberg, yielding the Princess’s legendary verdict that ‘Thalberg is the first pianist in the world—Liszt is the only one’. What certainly never took place was a combined performance of the piece by all six composers, despite many later commentaries. Nor did six pianists ever line up in front of an orchestra to perform it until some recent occasions. In any case, the only score in Liszt’s hand of an orchestral version is shortened by half. Curiously, the original solo version has many indications of a proposed orchestral accompaniment which is clearly intended for the entire piece, and a tutti passage is specified in the finale. But since no orchestral version of this passage in Liszt’s, or any other contemporary’s, hand has yet shown up, the passage is recorded here in Liszt’s printed version for solo piano for completeness’ sake. (Liszt also made two quite different two-piano scores of the piece, neither of which is as long as the original, and one of which has an entirely rewritten ending.)
The title and form of this surprisingly well-integrated work are Liszt’s: he collected and ordered the other composers’ contributions, even removing the the last bar of both the Czerny and the Chopin variations to make a better link into two interludes of his own—the first a dramatic interruption, the second a reflective coda before the finale. The noble introduction begins with a theme by Liszt which he often combines and contrasts with Bellini’s theme. Liszt’s variation is restrained and not at all virtuosic, and Chopin stays aloof from the bravura in a beautiful nocturne. Thalberg, with his three-handed effects, Pixis, with his wicked octaves, Herz with his moto perpetuo, and especially Czerny, with a battery of devilish tricks no doubt intended to test even his most famous student, do their utmost to astound. Liszt saves his thunder until the finale, where he cocks a gentle snook at each of his collaborators before a brilliant peroration.
from notes by Leslie Howard © 1991
