Search - Franz Liszt, Maurizio Pollini :: Liszt: Sonata in B minor

Marvellous!!

Santa Fe Listener | 12/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Simply...buy this marvellous cd!! Pollini's rendition of List Sonata is beyond description! Though Pollini is best known for his Chopin and Schumann splendid recordings this one with Liszt's Sonata is just incredible!"

A commanding B minor Sonata - Pollini at his most passioante

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/13/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here in 1990 Pollini concetrates on two contasting aspects of Liszt, in a program he still plays in concert. On one hand we get Liszt's flamboyantly ambitious capstone to a career of breakneck virtuosity, the B minor Sonata. Pollini's account is supernaturally good, an enthralling exhibition of absolute technique and rare musical instincts. The piano is also rcorded well, which isn't always true from DG, so the full sonority of Pollini's wide-ranging dynamics comes through.



The other side of Liszt is his late, gloomy, spare pieces that do not so much paint pictures of a place (he did that masterfully in 'Annees de pelerinage') as paint elusive moods, most of them dark. If the Sonata exercises Pollini's passion, these skeletal late works exercise his intellect, since it takes a probing intelligence to decipher them.



In sum, I dn't know if Pollini's Liszt is the absolute best to be heard today, but I believed it while listening to this CD."