Liszt & Wagner: Piano Works
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FRANZ LISZT / RICHARD WAGNER
Liszt & Wagner: Piano Works
Imogen Cooper (piano)
[ Chandos / CD ]
Release Date: Wednesday 20 September 2017
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
After highly successful recordings of works by Brahms, the Schumanns, and Chopin, Imogen Cooper plunges into the world of another great romantic, Franz Liszt, and places him alongside that other giant, Richard Wagner. This is an evocative programme of original compositions and intimate transcriptions, ranging from poetic movements from the Années de Pèlerinage: Italie to darker and deeply elegiac pieces, including Liszt's La lugubre gondola I and Wagner's Elegie. It also features a transcription by Zoltán Kocsis of the intensely passionate prelude to Tristan und Isolde. The famous pianist and conductor died prematurely in November 2016. It was his work that inspired this recording to begin with, and Imogen Cooper dedicates the disc to his memory.
Breathtaking music in unique interpretations: romanticism without melodrama, virtuosity without fuss.
"Cooper's keyboard mastery is as searching as the music itself…her way of balancing chords mesmerises the ear - both in the consonant close of Sposalizio (whose poised opening is exquisitely delivered) and the strangely dissonant final bars of Il penseroso. This is altogether exceptional music-making" BBC Five Stars Instrumental Choice May 2017
"it's about crystalline arpeggios and cut-glass chords, about trills that purl and tremble like fairy waterfalls at sunset." Five Stars ClassicalSource
"In addition to masterful technique and sensitive lyricism, the English pianist Imogen Cooper is renowned for her impeccably considered and well-researched programmes, which eschew obvious choices." Limelight
"The recording is full without being too resonant, in the sympathetic setting of the Concert Hall at Snape Maltings in Suffolk. CDr Conor Farrington provides a well-informed sleevenote, though he discusses the works in their chronological order and not in the order on the disc. Cooper herself also provides a note." MusicWeb
Tracks:
Liszt:
Valse oubliée No. 2, S.215/2
Gretchen aus Faust-Symphonie, S513
Sposalizio (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 1)
Il penseroso (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 2)
Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 3)
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 5)
Nuages gris, S199
La Lugubre Gondola I, S200 No. 1
Isolde's Liebestod (after Wagner), S447
Bagatelle sans tonalite, S216a c1885
Wagner:
Elegy in A flat
Einleitung zu 'Tristan und Isolde', WWV 90
transcr. Zoltán Kocsis
