Search - Franz Liszt, Kurt Masur, Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig :: Liszt: Orchestral Works / Works for Piano and Orchestra - Michel Béroff / Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig / Kurt Masur

Masur - Champion of Liszt

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 12/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Before he became the embattled leader of the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur made a name for himself by making brilliant recordings with the Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig, these Liszt Orchestral Works foremost among them. It is delightful to have these recordings in print again, and for them all to be collected on seven discs in an inch-thick paper box set is even better. Masur's performances of the "Tone Poems" in particular rank among the best of all-time, along with Haitink and Golovanov in my opinion (see my review of the latter on his "Great Conductors of the 20th Century" title). Also included in this set are the works for Piano and Orchestra, and while Michel Beroff's renditions don't quite measure up to my favorite accounts by Arrau, Cliburn, Janis, Katchen, Richter or Zimerman, they are certainly first-rate. Oddly, my only complaint is that EMI seems to have taken the "slim" out of slim, paper-sleeved box sets with their latest batch of releases. Both this title and the new "Yehudi Menuhin - The Violinist" box are noticeably thicker than previous EMI sets featuring a similar number of discs. A minor point, but us serious classical collectors need every centimeter of space on our increasingly crowded CD shelves."

From a music lover, not a critic

George W. Kinney | Wisconsin | 04/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many of these performances are new to me. That is the beauty of being 59 years old and still learning. My knowledge of classical music is based on what moves me. While others talk about all the other versions and other conductors, I just want to let other people know that these recordings give me great pleasure. While some may find Michel Beroff to be less than adequate, I enjoy his renditions of the piano concertos. I have heard other renditions and find that they all have their places. These concertos move me a great deal. That is my only criteria."

Masur still the greatest Lisztian all these years later

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 04/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With new Liszt collections coming this century from Naxos' stable of conductors and the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda, it seems incredible that Masur's more than quarter-century old collection of the composer's tone poems and other music is still the best there is. But, compared to the other sets, his is still the best collection in terms of completeness and uniform playing and interpretation.



For those coming anew to the orchestral side of piano virtuoso Franz Liszt (1811-76), he was -- in addition to being the greatest keyboard virtuoso in history -- the creator of the tone poem format perfected in the romantic era by the likes of Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and others. Liszt, a visionary and revolutionary composer, expressed his religious and philosophical ideas about art in the tone poems.



Some, like Les Preludes, which presage what Liszt called the preludes of life, or From the Cradle to the Grave (Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe), express ideas about human existence. Others, like What One Hears on the Mountain (Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne) and Ideals (Die Ideale) demonstrate more of a philosophical bent. Literary and nationalist topics like his native Hungary (Hungaria), the Battle of the Huns (Hunnershclacht), Orpheus and Hamlet, show the broad spectrum of Liszt's emotional and artistic ideas conveyed through the tone poems.



The composer never wrote a true symphony. The two included in this package -- the so-called Faust and Dante symphonies -- are just as much tone poems as any other. These show Liszt's extension of sonata format, where devleopment sections can go on, seeemingly, forever and codas can be manipulated to essentially become secondary development sections. It all sounds like a rambling wreck whilen you're getting used to it but the looseleaf style succeeds in the more direct works like Les Preludes, Mazeppa, Battle of the Huns and Prometheus. The longer, more philosophical tone poems may take longer for an unitiatited listener to warm to. And some, like the various tone poems on death, are pretty deadly to everyone's ears.



Kurt Masur recorded this music around 1981 for EMI and these recordings have had many iterations through EMI and Musical Heritage Society, an American subscription service where I first became aware of Masur's mastery over this repertoire. To state succinctly why he succeeds where many others fail, I believe Masur's tendency to underplay the bomast and use relatively quick tempos works all the time. Conductors like Noseda, whose style is to blow up slow and fast sections at twice marked tempo, can inadvertently show off the sometimes latent (and sometime blatant) banality in the music. Under Masur, Liszt almost always sounds musical.



Depending on the version you acquire, the sound may seem a tad dated and you may need to fiddle a little with your controls to hear everything the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra has to offer. As the oldest orchestra in the Western world, this group has been around since the beginning of this music and they play well for Masur. The various vocal performers in this set also help out greatly. Anyone looking for a relatively complete overview of Liszt's historic tone poems can't find a better set than this one."