Search - Franz Liszt, Van Cliburn :: Van Cliburn: My Favorite Liszt

Simply breathtaking

Alscribji | 08/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Van Cliburn, who in 1958 became as much of a celebrity as Elvis, is one of the world's greatest ever pianists. I have never heard anyone play Liszt with so much gravity and understanding. Part of this may be because Van Cliburn's hands are so enormous, nearly as large as Liszt's.This recording of the Sonata is a must-have. The first eerie notes are played with spine-tingling anticipation, then comes the climatic theme, with technical stunts to make your head swim. Mr. Cliburn comes through it all without an error and with an astonishing amount of passion and fire. The songs fades away eerily, just as it began.Un Sospiro is one of my favorite pieces ever, and Van Cliburn plays it marvelously. The melody is split between the two hands, which causes the left to have to cross over the right often and very quickly, but the melody remains very even and so lyrical it brings tears to the eyes. Van Cliburn is the only pianist to date who has been able to make me cry with the sheer beauty of his sound, and it is undoubtedly his legendary, singing approach to the keys. All of the other pieces on the CD are simply marvelous, and the wild, swirling Mephisto Waltz provides a fitting end to this stunning CD. Encore!"

Van Cliburn's Liszt

Alscribji | Washington, D.C. | 04/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was never a fan of Van Cliburn's playing. I have always been interested in the by-ways of piano literature, e.g., Alkan, Scriabin, Mednter, and Sorabji. Hence, pianists such as Horowitz, Hamelin, and Powell I find appealing not only in their technique but also in their choice of overlooked but really good repertoire that has suffered neglect due to the 'standards' of piano performance, i.e., that which is most easily accessible to the public (unfortunately, public consumption [and attention spans] have largely determined what piano music will be recorded). Van Cliburn was one such pianist; chopin, brahms, beethoven, rachmaninoff, debussy, etc., much of it good music, but recorded to death to the neglect of equally good, but different music. At any rate, I was hesitant to purchase Van Cliburn's Liszt CD. I played it and was surprised. His Chopic CD had sounded mechanical to me, but this Liszt CD is actually very very good. I imagined his performance of the Liszt B minor sonata to be dry, dull, and boring. It was anything but. It is definitely a unique recording of the Bm sonata, one that can be listened to over and over again along with Pollini, Zimerman, Nojima, and Demidenko. He shapes the dimensions of the sonata very well and has a very good control of its sonorities. His performance of Un Sospiro cannot equal Hamelin but it is, nonetheless, an excellent performance that stands on its own. The Mephisto Waltz was another surprise: Van Cliburn plays it to the hilt. I have heard more breath-taking versions, e.g., Horowitz, Sgouros, and Wild. But Cliburn's measures up. He adds flourishes at the end that are effective and in no way take away from the piece but rather add to the spirit of the waltz. I would recommend this CD highly."

Once More In The Spotlight

Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue* | CA USA | 07/30/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A classical music critic/writer Harvey E. Philips once asked, "Was Liszt but the best of the brilliant Romantic virtuosi?" And I ask, is Van Cliburn the best of the brilliant interpreters of Liszt's masterpieces? I say the affirmative to both questions, no doubt about it.



Franz Liszt was one of my top favorite masters of classical music whose profound compositions are masterpieces of beauty and style. One of his most notable pieces and one of the highlights in this set is "Sonata in B Minor" which was written in 1852 through 1853 at the peak of his composing artistry. On this piece, his exceptional talent in writing music was used to its full advantage. Wagner once described it as "beyond all conception beautiful, great, lovely, deep and noble, sublime." His words mirror my thoughts on this deep and powerful piece of music. To me, it is one of the top five most ingenious compositions of all music eras from Baroque to Modern; the others are Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18," Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 23," Chopin's "Polonaise In A Flat Minor, Op. 53" and Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue."



Van Cliburn is no stranger to the world of classical music. In 1958 at age twenty-three, he took the world by storm when he won the First Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow that paved the way to his fame. The accolade made him one of the most brilliant pianists the world has ever known.



I always enjoy listening to these masterpieces played to perfection by a pianist extraordinaire who can do justice to any classical composition most especially from the pens of Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Debussy and of course Liszt. And one thing I loved about this album, "My Favorite Liszt," is the material which is very impressive. These pieces were tastefully selected by Van Cliburn as his own personal favorites--surprisingly, these are also my top choices from all of Liszt's compositions.



The three sublime charmers from the repertoire include "Consolation No. 3," "Un Suspiro" and "Liebestraum No. 3." These pieces are among my top ten classical favorites.



What better way to appreciate Liszt's works of art than listening to Van Cliburn's renditions? I wholeheartedly recommend it as well as his other remarkable albums: "My Favorite Debussy," "My Favorite Chopin," "Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2" and "The World's Favorite Piano Music."



"The music is in the air. Take as much as you want." ~ Sir Edward Elgar ~



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