Liszt - Piano Sonata in B minor, etc

."Beautifully remastered reissues of an epic pianist in provocative poetic mood."
Gramophone Magazine October 2001

Not just one of Liszt's greatest works, but one of the greatest masterpieces for the piano — and played by one of its most famous interpreters!
The sonata lasts about half an hour in one continuous movement, using five different themes to weld the whole work together. It's an epic journey that alternates thrilling pyrotechnical display with haunting romantic poetry.

Claudio Arrau studied with Martin Krause who himself was a pupil of Liszt, and the sonata featured in Arrau's repertoire from the age of eighteen.

Following this is the beautiful Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude which mixes the mystic with the ecstatic. By contrast, the two Concert Studies (Forest Murmurs and Dance of the Gnomes) are devilishly difficult showpieces demanding incredible dexterity. Arrau concludes with Vallée d'Obermann, a musical portait of a threatening, mountainous valley in the Swiss Alps.



For a complete list of this series type 'philips 50' into search

Fifty years on, and the mere mention of Philips Records is still enough to conjure qualities that were first acclaimed when the long-playing vinyl record was in its infancy. In those days, the Dutch Philips label was renowned for the warmth of its recordings and the supreme musicianship of its artists, many of whom went on to achieve legendary status.

Philips 50 brings the excitement of those days back to life on 50 CD re-releases, each of which is enhanced by a sophisticated audio restoration process (96kHz ‹ 24 bit technology) that extracts the maximum impact from the original tapes. And yet not everything on Philips 50 is "old". Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's digital recording of Schubert's achingly beautiful song-cycle Winterreise with Alfred Brendel is as great a recording as any and enjoys the additional benefit of full digital sound. Valery Gergiev's rugged and spontaneous digital Kirov recording of Prokofiev's complete Romeo and Juliet ballet was widely acclaimed when it first appeared, and makes a welcome reappearance at mid-price. Then there's Mitsuko Uchida's atmospheric and immaculately sculpted reading of Debussy's 12 Etudes, classic recordings in every sense of the term, and a fine example of Philips' legendary piano sound. Zoltán Kocsis' benchmark Bartók recordings provide another.