Search - Franz Liszt, Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Johannes Brahms :: Fantasy

Great as a technician, still growing as an artist

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The picture on the cover of this ultra-bargain double CD tells the story: these recordings for DG cewnter on Kissin as a teenager. Tall, rail thin, with flyaway hair, Kissin stunned the classical music world from the moment he appeared. He hasn't relinquished the spotlight eer since. Yet dazzling as he was, a wunderkind isn't a finished artist. Kissin grew up before our eyes, and it would be unfair to compare the finished product with its early phases -- you have to take these recordings growth spurts and all.



Kissin fans wil aleady own the major releases here. The Schubert 'Wanderer' Fantasy is among the best, as are the Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions (as a bonus, Erlkonig and Die Forelle are new to CD, as are two more tidbits, the Bluck "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" and the Bach-Kempf transcription. the very old Karajan and youthful Kissin wre a bad fit in the Tchaikovsky concerto; it was moving to see the great conductor anoint a new superstar--Karajan was steadfast in his sponsorship of young talent--but the performance is apples and oranges all the way, with Kissin unsuccessfully adapting to the maestro's slack tempos.



The Choral Fantasy succeeds on the basis of Kissin's powerful technique in the solo part, but Abbado has never been the most vigorous Beethoven conductor. The Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #12 is as dazzling as you'd expect, but the ruminative Brahms pieces feel a bit punchy and superficial, no surprise from an adolescent.



Despite these reservations, DG offers a terrific bargain here that anyone who follows this celebrated pianist will want to hear.



Here's the complete program listing as give by Crotchet.co.uk:

Six Schubert Lieder - piano transcriptions S558 : No.2 Auf dem Wasser zu singen (Liszt). 6 Mullerlieder 'Melodies favourites' - Schubert piano transcriptions S565 : No.2 Der Muller und der Bach (Liszt). 18 Schubert Lieder - piano transcriptions S558 : No.9 Standchen - Horch! horch! Die Lerch / No.8 Gretchen am Spinnrade / Erlkonig - Wer reitet so spat (Liszt). Die Forelle - Schubert piano transcription S564 (Liszt). Fantasy in C Major D760 'Wandererfantasie' (Schubert). 7 Piano Pieces op.116 : Capriccio in D minor / Intermezzo in A minor / Capriccio in G minor / Intermezzo in E major / Intermezzo in E minor / Intermezzo in E major / Capriccio in D minor (Brahms). Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 in C sharp minor S244 (Liszt). Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor op.23 (Tchaikovsky). Sonata for Piano No.2 in E flat major BWV1031. Fantasia for Piano Chorus and Orchestra in C minor op.80 (Beethoven). Melodie from Orfeo ed Euridice - Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Gluck arr. Giovanni Sgambati).

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