Liszt: The complete music for solo piano, Vol. 56 - Rarities, Curiosities, Album Leaves and Fragments
Leslie Howard (piano)
CDA67414/7
This penultimate volume in Leslie Howard's unique survey of Liszt's complete music for solo piano contains much rare and fascinating material. There are 81 pieces altogether—far too many to list. We believe that over 70 of them have never been recorded before. As a foretaste of the next volume there are four Rhapsodies in alternate versions; there are transcriptions of three of his symphonic poems, and alternative versions and extracts from many works we have met previously in the series; and finally there are a large number of Album-Leaves, pieces Liszt wrote 'off the cuff' as gifts for friends and acquaintances. One of them, the Album Leaf: Lyon Prélude, is the shortest piece in the entire series of 95 CDs. (It is only five seconds long!)
An essential purchase for all those who have already bought the previous 55 volumes.
All of the music on this album is also available as part of the specially priced box set Liszt: Complete Piano Music: 'Almost any way you choose to look at it, this is a staggering achievement … the grand scope of this project gives us the chance, as listeners, to experience the almost incomprehensible breadth and depth of Liszt's imagination' (International Record Review).