Search - Peter Nagy :: Romantic Piano Music 8

Interesting and Varied Selection, Mostly Transcriptions

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 01/23/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This, the fourth of Péter Nagy?s five CDs in the ?Romantic Piano Favourites? series from Naxos, was recorded later than the others (September 1988) and is, to my mind, the best of all Nagy?s Naxos recitals. Beginning with his countryman Liszt (a transcription of Schubert?s ?Trout? for piano virtuoso), Nagy offers an interesting and vary varied selection of pieces, the majority of them transcribed by someone other than the composer, ranging from Ellenberg?s ?Mühle im Schwarzwald? (music that sounds as though it was intended for hurdy-gurdy at some fair) through to highly serious material such as Liszt?s Sonetto 123 del Petrarca or Rachmaninov?s Etude tableau in E flat minor. For me, the most interesting piece on the disc was Godowsky?s ?Night in Tangier?, with its dark coloring and unusual rhythms. Kreisler?s ?Liebesfreud? in Rachmaninov?s transcription for piano comes next, its joyful tone reflected in the leaps made on the keyboard. But Nagy also manages what he had not on his previous offerings: he plays a convincing Chopin (Waltz in E Minor); and the more lighthearted pieces (Beethoven?s Minuet in G; Rosas?s waltz from ?Sobre los olas?) all come over perfectly acceptably with none of the rather overdone left hand or the ?press-on-regardless? attitude which seemed to me to characterize some of his earlier recordings. As the sound of the recording is also good, this is promising material."