Search - Liszt, Nosikova, Pro Corde Chamber Consort :: Music For Piano & Chamber Orchestra

PARTY OF THREE

Melvyn M. Sobel | Freeport (Long Island), New York | 04/09/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When you attempt to record two concerto works of juvenilia (e.g. Mendelssohn's fetching 1821 A Minor Piano Concerto--- written when he was prepubescent--- and Liszt's phantasmagorical Malediction for Piano and Strings, c. 1833--- composed when he almost knew better) and one perennial "survivor" (Clementi's only extant, if obviously Mozartian (but delightful!), Piano Concerto in C, c. 1794), what you have is a conglomeration of curiously tuneful bedfellows, the merits of which (and whom) may seem dubious--- unless the pianist is the luminous Ksenia Nosikova. Frankly, a collector would be hard pressed to obtain a tripling of more convincing performances of such rarities on one CD, and all played with a twinkle in the eye, a simultaneously wistful penetration (especially the Mendelssohn), and a self-effacing validity that carries these musical "footnotes" into the realm of the absolutely listenable--- and perhaps memorable, as well.



Superlative front and center piano sound and the committed orchestral support of the Pro Corde Chamber Consort, under Maestro William LaRue Jones, add still another dimension to compositions that one might otherwise simply disregard.



[Running time: 73:41]

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