Liszt - Complete Piano Music-Vol. 14 (Transcriptions of Ferdinand David's Bunte Reihe, Op. 20)

"Liszt composed so much piano music that music lovers or even Liszt lovers (count me in) can be expected to know only a mere fraction of it. Here the indefatigable Valerie Tryon goes through Liszt's Bunte Reihe. Ever come across it? Me neither. These 25 short pieces are Liszt's transcriptions of a set of works for violin and piano by Ferdinand David, where all the major and minor keys are explored. How come 25 pieces instead of 24? Because there are two pieces in A major. Ferdinand David, friend of Mendelssohn, friend of Liszt - friend of everybody - was one of the big violinists of his day. He helped Mendelssohn with the E-minor Violin Concerto. He also was a prolific composer, thought today his music is largely forgotten. These violin pieces are Mendelssohn-derived. For some reason they interested Liszt, who made what appears to be faithful, non-virtuoso transcriptions for solo piano [and] ...they fill a gap in the recorded repertory, and they tell us what minor composers of the day were up to. The industrious Ms Tryon, with her infallible fingers and solid rhythm, is a perfect exponent of this music. And the engineers have given her startlingly realistic piano sound."
- American Record Guide (Harold C. Schonberg), September-October, 2000

"Tyron follows the 'Ungarisch' with Liszt's freer 'Allegro marziale' re-working of the same piece (which Howard appends after the last piece in the set). while this is a model of her assured playing style and no-nonsense melodic approach, it also shows her in lighter, fantasy mode-introduced with some swagger-and demonstrates that technical fireworks hold no fears for her."
- International Record Review (Robert Matthew-Walker), August, 2000

"Violinist/composer/pedagogue Ferdinand David is best known today for having midwived and premiered Mendelssohn's famous E minor Violin Concerto. Respected for his student editions of virtually all of the standard violin literature of the time, his own compositions are rather modest in scope and emotional range, though easy on the ear and superbly crafted. The 24 violin and piano miniatures that make up David's Bunte Reihe go through all the major and minor keys. Franz Liszt transcribed the whole batch for piano solo, and did such a good job of it that you don't notice a violin is missing. The indefatigable Leslie Howard made the world premiere recording as part of his complete Liszt series on Hyperion. I lean, however, toward Valerie Tryon's version for Naxos' ongoing Liszt cycle. Her supple fingerwork and softly sprung rhythms enliven the music to a greater degree than Howard's sober, slightly prosaic approach. Howard's scholarly annotations, of course, tell everything you'll ever need to know about the mu