Search - Georges Cziffra :: Les Rendez-vous de Senlis: Cziffra's recordings 1980-1986

GEORGES CZIFFRA'S last recordings at the FONDATION CZIFFRA

arffizc | LONDON | 09/23/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This set was issued to commemorate the great Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Cziffra who died in January 1994. Senlis (near Paris) is the home of the Fondation Cziffra which was restored from the ruins of the Royal Chapelle Saint Frambourg at the pianist's own expense in order to assist young pianists and other instrumentalists in their careers. Cziffra enjoyed playing baroque repertoire and his early 1956 LP for Supraphon included pieces by Couperin and C.P.E.Bach. Here his strong fingers dispatch the intricate trills and ornaments of Rameu, Daquin and Couperin with brilliant articulacy character and style. That could also be said of of the Bach-Busoni Prelude and Fugue in D, which, with clear voicing of parts and minimal amounts of pedal, Cziffra builds to a huge pealing climax. Cziffra's early Chopin was lean, lithe and dandified whereas later recordings were much bolder and weightier as exemplified here in his playing of five Etudes, Scherzo in B flat minor and an exciting rarely performed Variations Brillantes. The two Nocturnes are played with a bell-like singing tone but also with some personal rubato. Cziffra came to record Schubert late in his career (there is Hungarian film of him as a child dressed in a sailor suit playing the Impromptu in A flat D.899)but his account of the Schubert Impromptus is very affecting, particularly the sensitively questioning cross hands section of the F minor, while the outer sections of the A flat ripple fluently. Although not as athletic as his earlier Liszt, Cziffra's account of the Mephisto Valse, Chasse-neige and the St.Francis legend display playing of power and passion, while his Lisztian style transcription of 15 of Brahm's Hungarian Dances are spell binding in their virtuosity and gypsy exuberance."

Cziffra's ultimate recordings - a moving valedictory stateme

Discophage | France | 07/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Senlis is a city in France, 40 kilometers north of Paris where in 1973 Cziffra acquired the old, collapsing medieval Royal Chapel of Saint Frambourg and established a foundation for fostering young musicians. He painstakingly had the Chapel restored (the restoration was completed only recently, years after the pianist's passing in 1994), creating an auditorium where, from 1980 on, he made his recordings and gave master classes. This set collates those late recordings, made between 1980 and 1986. To the best of my knowledge they were the pianist's last ones.



To me, one of the most endearing features of the artistry of Cziffra is his early embrace and fidelity throughout his career to the French baroque repertoire (Couperin, Rameau, Daquin, Lulli), in times when it wasn't fashionable, and even anathema, to play it at the piano (a contemporary review in some French record magazine even took exception to the piano's equal temperament tuning!). The contents of CD1/1-16 originally came out in 1982, on an LP titled "Récital à Saint Frambourg". Frustratingly, only half of them were reissued on the Cziffra "Introuvables" set published by EMI-France in 1991 (Les introuvables de Cziffra). They are all here. It's interesting to hear how, in Couperin's "Tic-toc-choc", Cziffra doesn't go for the same kind of dazzling pyrotechnics as Jean Casadesus (Jean & Robert Casadesus - Ravel, Bach, Rameau, Couperin, Poulenc, Françaix, Tailleferre, R. Casadesus, D. Scarlatti) or Marcelle Meyer (Les Introuvables de Marcelle Meyer vol. 2: Rameau, Couperin, Scarlatti, Rossini), playing it instead with robust muscularity. His "Barricades mystérieuses" are serene and pensive rather than turbulent as with Meyer and Alexandre Tharaud (Alexandre Tharaud plays Couperin ~ tic, toc, choc). Likewise his "Moissonneurs" are less merry, more stately than Casadesus' and his "Rappel des Oiseaux" from Rameau, as beautiful as it is, doesn't quite elicit the same sense of mystery as Marcelle Meyer's. On the other hand, taken at a faster tempo, his "La Poule" is more evocative than hers (but less than Tharaud's, Alexandre Tharaud plays Rameau), and his Couperin "Bandoline" flows more naturally than Casadesus'. But whatever these differences in interpretive slant, his articulation is always a model of clarity and firmness and, all comparisons aside, the recital as a whole is a pleasure to hear.



A few months later a double LP came out with, already, the title "Le Rendez-vous de Senlis" (something like "the meeting in Senlis"), from which the title of this present set derives - it has just become "LES rendez-vous..." (plural). It was a collection of various pieces and occupies CD 1/17-18 (Bach-Busoni Prelude and fugue BWV 532), CD 2 and CD 4/1-2 (Schubert Impromptus). It has already been reissued on a 2-CD set, in 1991 (bearing the same title as the original 2-LP set; it's listed on Amazon.fr, Asin: B000026GD2), with the added contents of Cziffra's next published LP, in 1984: his own arrangement of 15 of Brahms' Hungarian Dances. I especially like the Bach-Busoni Prelude and Fugue. Cziffra plays with awesome power and clarity, capturing the organ-like sonorities of Busoni's transcription. The two Schubert Impromptus are played with as much delicacy and Romantic turbulence as any I've heard.



Back then in 1983-4, the "Rendez-vous" recital was greeted with mixed reviews and the Cziffra-Brahms LP was even shot down in flames by the specialized press. Cziffra's arrangement was seen as Lisztian and vulgar (a synonym for the reviewers, really) and his playing technically unassured. I've never had the original LP, but according to some reviews I've read, the notes, by Cziffra himself, were somewhat apologetic about the original Brahms works, comparing them (unfavorably) to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, so dear to Cziffra's heart. Whatever that may be, I personally don't hear any technical shortcomings - I don't have the scores but Cziffra's arrangements sound pretty awesome - and, as for vulgarity, well, isn't it to a certain extent integral to the music? The vulgarity, the kitsch - that's all part of the charm. But possibly we're more ready to let our hair down in enjoy it today then back then.



Cziffra's last recording was, fittingly, devoted to Liszt. It came out on LP at the end of 1986 - way into the CD era and it is here on CD 3. Like the others, it was met with a lukewarm reception back then in the French music press. Except for Gaudeamus igitur (track 8 - "Therefore let us rejoice... while we are young" goes on the verse) Cziffra had recorded all that repertoire before, and (as it was viewed back then) with more dazzling technical pyrotechnics. Funny how it didn't seem to bother anybody that the older Richter or Arrau weren't anymore the young virtuoso firebrands they once used to be and that in their later years they played with an added weight and depth. What flak would Cziffra have gotten, had he recorded the same slow, weighty, grandiose and much-acclaimed Liszt Transcendental Studies as Arrau! Anyway, it is interesting to compare these late recordings with the ones Cziffra made at the onset of his career in the West, in 1957 (reissued in the "Introuvables" set). In Mephisto-Waltz, while the later one has an impressive dynamic range, it is true that the earlier one displays an unleashed frenzy that the new one doesn't approach. But in 1957 there was also more softness of touch in Jeux d'Eau à la Villa d'Este - only in part due to the glaring sonics of the recent recording - and an airy lightness of touch in the marvellous Valse-Impromtu, compared to which the remake sounds just like "grand piano". But then I suspect that compared to the young Cziffra just about anybody would sound earthbound and plodding, and these 1986 readings are still nothing to shame about.



The death of his son, conductor Gyorgy Cziffra Jr, in 1981, in a tragic fire in his home which may have been a suicide, dealt a fatal psychological blow to Cziffra Sr. Some critics have contended that thereafter he was, technically and musically, but the shadow of his former self. I personally don't hear this in these recordings. They must be taken as a moving, valedictory statement - and come in much better sound than the older recordings, too.



Great sound, very present. And I love the chirping birds.

"

Lovely and colorful, but not as fireful as the young czifra

C. Leuchter | Swizerland | 01/20/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These records are being performed by an elder Cziffra, who lost some of his fire. Especially the Liszt and Chopin are missing a bit the large bow.

However the small pieces by Couperin and Daquin are lovely and full of color.

If you like to listen to the classical, fireful Cziffra, this cd is not perfectly suitable."