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Home , Faust Symphony, Nuages gris, Symphonic poems (Liszt)

ARTIST’S INTRODUCTION My relationship with Liszt started with the FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886) composer’s obvious piano-centric and romantic Franz Liszt is a composer whom I have always repertoire. It then deepened immensely as a found intriguing, fascinating and puzzling. Much challenge. I was one of Lazar Berman’s first has been speculated about Liszt. He was the female students. Berman was regarded as 19th century equivalent of a rock-star, at home his generation’s ultimate Liszt interpreter and 1 Toccata, S. 197a [1.16] on the piano as well as in all social circles. was quick to judge that a diminutive lady with He was the first real touring Pan-European hands spanning a 9th (although I can now 2 Unstern! Sinistre, disastro, S. 208 [4.55] artist, leading multiple lives at once, and yet stretch a 10th on a good day) would ever 3 Wiegenlied (Chant du berceau), S. 198 [3.15] finding the time to write so much music. succeed in playing Liszt well. By the time I 4 Bagatelle sans tonalité, S. 216a [2.47] made my debut in Budapest at the Great Hall Most of Liszt’ music has universal appeal. One of the Liszt Academy, performing Liszt’ First 5 Abschied, russisches Volkslied, S. 251 [2.23] can find copious connections to the past as Piano Concerto, I had won awards for my 6 Resignazione (Ergebung), S. 263/187a [1.23] well as a new individual voice developed from performances of the B minor Sonata and his reportedly stunning pianistic skills, but graduated from the Hochschule “Franz Liszt” in 7 Schlaflos! Frage und Antwort, S. 203 [2.35] inspired by a wide range of attributes: pagan folk Weimar. Mr. Berman came around. 8 Im Traum, S. 207 [1.49] to deeply religious music. Later in life, he 9 Trübe Wolken (Nuages gris), S. 199 [2.52] somehow deconstructed his music, as in an act The B minor Sonata, which is considered one of de-composition, looking deeply inwards into of the greatest masterpieces of the repertoire 0 Gretchen from the Faust Symphony, S. 513 [17.51] his own intricate, perhaps troubled, mind. He has been a close companion for most of my q Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 [30.39] wrote miniatures with titles as puzzling as musical life, but it was not until I was exposed their form, harmonic structure and lack of to the late works on this album that I started Total timings: [71.47] motivic material. He was able to produce music to understand Liszt’ music on a deeper level. that at once revered the past, basked in the I like to think that his late works are glow of the present, and paved a long road, deconstructed in a way that perhaps reveal which would clearly lead us to the Second his innermost secrets. At last, he is giving us Viennese school. a glimpse of his fears and despair and is LUCILLE CHUNG PIANO searching for new musical tools to express them. He is taking everything that had made www.signumrecords.com - 3 - him popular and throwing it away. Gone are the Franz Liszt (b. Raiding [Doborján], Hungary compositional output must be considered on its the Nineteenth Century that included Wagner sweeping romantic gestures and melodies, the [now Austria], October 22, 1811; d. Bayreuth, July own merits as well. Aside from his contributions and Berlioz. rich chords, the pianistic razzle-dazzle. This 31, 1886) to the piano literature, Liszt developed the is music that cherishes economy of means, symphonic poem, an orchestral form that Liszt’s representative early works for the piano silences and uneasiness. In this process, I Franz Liszt’s transformative development of would become one of the late Romantic period’s include his Grandes études de Paganini and discovered that the older Liszt was always piano technique, accomplished through his quintessential genres. His reimagination of the the Etudes d’exécution transcendante. The present in the earlier works, if perhaps buried performance, composition, and pedagogy, symphonic form is most powerfully manifest technical challenges contained in these scores, in his subconscious. It is what makes Liszt’ represents his greatest and most lasting in his greatest orchestral work, Eine Faust- composed between 1838 and 1840 and music special and timeless. contribution. He was for the piano what Symphonie in drei Charakterbilden (1857) dedicated to Clara Schumann, reveal the Niccolò Paganini was for the violin: a visionary (A Faust Symphony in three character pictures), breathtaking extent of Liszt’s virtuosity. Moreover, The unique program on this album, centered composer-performer who redefined the standard after Goethe. Though programmatic, the Faust they represent the first of the pianist Liszt’s around the B minor Sonata, and including the of virtuosity for his instrument. As with Symphony does not narrate Goethe’s Faust pathbreaking technical advances (developments ravishingly beautiful “Gretchen” transcription Paganini, Liszt’s extraordinary facility was per se, but provides sketches of Faust, Gretchen, contemporaneous with the evolution of the from the Faust Symphony, as well as a selection part and parcel of his compositional approach. and Mephistopheles. (Liszt’s arrangement of piano itself into a larger instrument, capable of of the late works, is my homage to Liszt, and (Also like Paganini, Liszt’s instrumental ability the Symphony’s “Gretchen” movement appears greater dynamic and textural possibilities). Liszt an attempt to draw a full circle around his derived in part from unique physical advantages. on this disc.) returned to the Paganini and “Transcendental” fascinating world and psyche. Long, narrow hands that lacked webbing between Etudes in 1851, ironing out some of their the fingers allowed him to stretch the length of But of course, in considering Liszt the composer, thorniest difficulties (though they remain Lucille Chung, 2018 a tenth with ease. With the unusual flexibility his piano music is key. The piano provided extremely challenging) and revising voicings in the fourth finger of each hand, he could the laboratory for Liszt’s innovations. And beyond and textures to achieve a clearer, more brilliant create luminous accompanimental textures while merely representing one of the richest and most sound. The following year, he would begin managing multiple voices in counterpoint.) daunting contributions to the instrument’s writing the centerpiece of his piano oeuvre. repertoire, his extensive catalogue of piano Because of his overwhelming gifts as a music demonstrates radical new methods of Liszt dedicated his Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 performer, one rarely thinks of Liszt the thematic development and bold experiments (1852–53) to Robert Schumann – a reciprocal composer irrespective of Liszt the pianist. with harmony and form – innovations that gesture following Schumann’s dedication to As biographer Alan Walker contends, “Liszt made Liszt the most influential composer of Liszt of his Phantasie, Op. 17. Liszt sent the composed with the outlook of a performer, and the New German School, the progressive manuscript to the Schumanns’ home, but it performed with the insight of a composer.” Yet his vanguard of Western music in the latter half of arrived only after Robert had entered the asylum

- 4 - - 5 - in Endenich where we would live out his final and foreshadows the leitmotivic dramatic thrust The Sonata’s first page presents the cellular sotto voce in the work’s opening measures signals years. Clara was indifferent to the Sonata and of Wagner’s operas. material on which much of the Sonata’s structure important junctures as the Sonata progresses, as if never performed it. She was not alone in her is based. The descending scale played piano, lowering and raising the curtain between acts. indifference; following the work’s premiere, given The Sonata continues to be the most intensely by Hans von Bülow in January 1857, Berlin’s scrutinized of Liszt’s compositions, as much for Nationalzeitung derided it as “an invitation the intrigue surrounding a supposed program to hissing and stamping.” Eduard Hanslick as for its sheer expressive magnitude. Though declared, “anyone who has heard it and finds it Liszt never explicitly offered a program, the beautiful is beyond help.” Sonata’s narrative quality is too strong to dismiss, especially considering Liszt’s general Certainly, the B Minor Sonata’s form is aesthetic predispositions. “New wine demands unorthodox, and its expressive character takes new bottles,” he famously proclaimed, regarding no prisoners. Historical perspective, however, the traditional forms as the purview of history The first subject combines two consequential followed by a descending triplet; then, in the bass, has remedied its initial reception; today, the (and Brahms as lamentably old-fashioned). motifs: the first, an assertive dotted-rhythm gesture a marcato gesture built on repeated notes. Sonata is widely regarded as a highly original From the composer of Après une lecture du work, and one of Liszt’s greatest accomplishments. Dante, fantasia quasi sonata and St. François d’Assise: le prédication aux oiseaux, the It is a work of startling formal ingenuity. pedestrian ‘Sonata in B minor’ seems out of Across its four continuous movements, Liszt character. Peter Raabe, the German conductor superimposes a macrocosmic sonata form, who assembled the first complete chronology so that the first movement serves as of Liszt’s music, theorized that the B Minor the exposition; the second movement, the constituted a Faust Sonata, with themes, à development; the third movement, the transition la Eine Faust-Symphonie, depicting Faust, to the recapitulation; and the finale, a triumphant Gretchen, and Mephistopheles. Others have recapitulation and introspective coda. But in suggested that the Sonata illustrates the fall addition to combining sonata structures (as of man; still others speculate that the Sonata well as, nota bene, a fugato third movement), is autobiographical. the Sonata furthermore demonstrates the expressive gravity of Liszt’s symphonic poems

- 6 - - 7 - In signature fashion, Liszt metamorphoses sweeping Grandioso, derived from the repeated with spiritual overtones. The repeated-note “a prisoner were hammering on the walls of these motifs over the course of the Sonata. notes at the Sonata’s opening. motif resurfaces, now dolcissimo con intimo his cell,” writes Raabe, “well knowing that no The movement’s second subject begins with a sentimento. The inclusion of a fugato third one would hear him.” movement likewise evokes late Beethoven. Taking the assertive Allegro energico motif Liszt correctly foresaw that such dissonances as its subject, this fugue of finger-twisting as he indulged in would come to pervade chromaticism serves to return the Sonata to modern music, and that twelve-note chords would the large-scale recapitulation of the finale. become fundamental to Western harmony. “In fact,” he predicted, well ahead of his time, The piano music of Liszt’s last years exchanges “it will soon be necessary to complete the the breadth of the Sonata in B Minor for pithy, system by the admission of quarter-and densely compressed miniatures. “This is the eighth-[tones] until something better turns up!” language of outcries and asides, of whispers This soon blooms into a beguiling passage, repeated-note cell transfigured. and laments,” writes Alan Walker. “It stands For its subtle austerity, Trübe Wolken (Nuages marked cantando espressivo – likewise the in opposition to the exuberant, life-enhancing gris), S. 199 (1881) represents perhaps the most compositions of his younger years.” The harmonic remarkable of Liszt’s late piano miniatures – “a sensibility becomes increasingly untethered, gateway to modern music,” writes Walker, and, as in the cheeky Bagatelle sans tonalité, S. 216a according to theorist Allen Forte, “a high point (1885). The chromaticism and tonal liberty of in the experimental idiom with respect to these pieces looks ahead to the twentieth-century expressive compositional procedure.” Its sinister dissolution of traditional tonality at the hands opening utterance, blighted in its first measure of Schoenberg, Debussy, et al. Witness the by a jarring tritone, barely sketches the home restless nocturne Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort, key of G Minor; quietly terrifying tremolandi S. 203 (1883), after a poem (no longer extant) rumble beneath a series of augmented triads, by Liszt’s student Antonia Raab; or Unstern! anticipating the Impressionist touch of Debussy. The Andante sostenuto recalls the profound to Walker, it is Liszt’s “beatific” key, shared by Sinistre, Disastro, S. 208 (1881), whose slow movements of late Beethoven, whom the “Paradiso” section of the Dante Sonata, opening, ominous tritones, uttered in stark So do some of Liszt’s last creations contain Liszt revered. The key, F-sharp major, held the Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, and octaves, escalate to crashing fortississimo an understated poignancy, melancholy, and programmatic significance for Liszt: according Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este – all works dissonances at the work’s climax – as if nostalgia – from the gentle Wiegenlied (Chant

- 8 - - 9 - du berceau), S. 198 (1881) to the devastatingly LUCILLE CHUNG apathetic whisper of Resignazione (Ergebung), S. 187a/i (1877–81), whose haunting final Born in Montréal, Canadian pianist Lucille measures seem to simply give up. Chung has been acclaimed for her “stylish and refined performances” by Gramophone magazine, If not the portrait of the artist as a young “combining vigour and suppleness with natural Romantic, perhaps history’s lasting image is eloquence and elegance” (Le Soir). of Liszt in old age, weathered and disheveled, as in the famous photograph taken by Nadar She made her debut at the age of ten with four months before the composer’s death in the Montréal Symphony Orchestra and Charles July 1886. His once lustrous mane is now stringy Dutoit subsequently invited her to be a and lusterless, his face pockmarked, and his featured soloist during the MSO Asian Tour gaze quiet. The bouts of depression that he in 1989. Since then, she has performed an suffered late in his life are recorded in the extensive concerto repertoire with over 65 lines on his brow. “I carry a deep sadness of leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia the heart,” Liszt confided to a friend, “which Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, BBC National must now and then break out in sound.” Such Orchestra of Wales, Flemish Radio Orchestra, sadness is given voice in these final works, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerífe, Orquesta whether in their autumnal pathos or their Sinfónica de Bilbao, Staatskapelle Weimar, eldritch harmonic schemes. Philharmonie de Lorraine, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Belgrade Philharmonic, the Seoul © 2018, Patrick Castillo Philharmonic, KBS Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Dallas Symphony, UNAM Philharmonic (Mexico), Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as all the major Canadian orchestras, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Calgary, Winnipeg and Metropolitain, among others. She has appeared with conductors such as Krzysztof Penderecki,

- 10 - - 11 - Vladimir Spivakov, Vasily Petrenko, Yannick International Music Competition, at which Lucille Chung has been hailed as “a considerable Camille Saint-Saëns and Mozart & Me. Both Nézet-Séguin, Peter Oundjian, Gerd Albrecht she also won a Special Prize for the best artist, admirable for her bold choice of music” CDs continue earning critical praise and have and Charles Dutoit. interpretation of the unpublished work. In 1993, by The Sunday Times for her recordings of been broadcast internationally. 2013 marked she received the Outstanding Achievement the complete piano works by György Ligeti the release of a piano duo disc with Alessio As a recitalist, she has performed in over Award from the Governor General of Canada on the Dynamic label. The first volume was Bax, presenting Stravinsky’s original four-hand 35 countries in prestigious venues such as and in 1994 won the Second Prize at the released in 2001 to great critical acclaim, version of the ballet Petrouchka as well as the Wigmore Hall in London, New York’s First International Franz Liszt Competition receiving the maximum R10 from Classica- music by Brahms and Piazzolla for Signum Records. Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Kennedy in Weimar. In 1999, she was awarded the Répertoire in France, 5 Stars from the BBC Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, prestigious Virginia Parker Prize by the Music Magazine, and 5 Stars on Fono Forum Lucille is fluent in French, English, Korean, D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Canada Council for the Arts. in Germany. The final volume, which also Italian, German, and Russian. She and husband, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Madrid’s contains works for two pianos, was recorded pianist Alessio Bax make their home in New Auditorio Nacional, the Great Hall of the Franz She graduated from both the Curtis Institute with her husband, Alessio Bax and once again York City with their daughter, Mila, and are Liszt Academy in Budapest, and the Palais des of Music and the Juilliard School before she received the prestigious R10 from Classica- artistic co-directors of the Dallas-based Joaquín Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Festival appearances turned twenty. She decided to further her Répertoire. Her all-Scriabin CD won the “Best Achúcarro Foundation. include the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, studies in London with Maria Curcio-Diamand, Instrumental Recording” prize at the 2003 MDR Sommer Festival in Dresden, Lübecker Schnabel’s protégée, at the “Mozarteum” in Prelude Classical Awards in Holland as well In 2016, she released Poulenc Piano Works which Kammermusikfest, Santander International Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and as the coveted R10 from Classica-Répertoire in was chosen as the Recording of the Month on Festival in Spain, Felicja Blumental Festival received the Konzertexam Diplom from the France. She also recorded the two Mendelssohn MusicWeb International. in Israel, Music@Menlo, Montreal International Hochschule “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, where Piano Concerti on the Richelieu/Radio-Canada Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Bard she worked with the late Lazar Berman. She label, which was nominated for the Prix Opus www.lucillechung.com Music Festival in NY, International Keyboard also graduated from the Accademia Pianistica in Canada. In August 2005, Bax and Chung Institute and Festival in NYC, ChangChun in Imola, Italy with the honorary title of recorded Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals Festival in China, and the Bravissimo Festival “Master” and from Southern Methodist with the Fort Worth Symphony under Maestro in Guatemala. University under Joaquín Achúcarro where she Miguel Harth-Bedoya, which was released in is now a Johnson-Prothro Artist-in-Residence. 2006. In 2007 she released a solo album for In 1989, she was recognized on the international Ms. Chung is the recipient of the prestigious the Fazioli Concert Hall Series and recently, scene as the First Prize winner at the Honors Diploma at the Accademia Chigiana Lucille embarked on an exclusive contract Stravinsky International Piano Competition. in Siena, Italy. with Disques XXI/Universal. So far, she has She won Second Prize at the 1992 Montreal released two CDs, Piano Transcriptions of

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Recorded in Saffron Hall, Saffron Waldon, Essex, UK from 14th to 16th April 2017. Producer – Anna Barry Recording Engineer – Mike Hatch Editor – Jennifer Howells

Cover Image – © Lisa-Marie Mazzucco Design and Artwork – Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk

Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. Bax & Chung: Piano Duo Poulenc: Works for Piano Solo & Duo Lucille Chung, Alessio Bax Lucille Chung, Alessio Bax SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] SIGCD365 SIGCD455 www.signumrecords.com “Bax and Chung are husband and wife, so it’s not surprising “Chung is a startlingly original … She is able to evoke the that their piano duets work so well. They share a relish of a mercurial mood changes so characteristic of Poulenc with certain brilliant clarity in their playing. In this scintillating grace, consistently beautiful sound and an unerring sense of recital, it’s hard to find even a fleeting moment where ensemble proportion. In succession, each seems more vivid than the last.” is less than meticulous.” Gramophone The Sunday Times

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CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN MAGENTA Customer SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No.SIGCD533 BLACK Job Title: Liszt

SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD533

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

1 Toccata, S. 197a [1.16] 2 Unstern! Sinistre, disastro, S. 208 [4.55]

3 Wiegenlied (Chant du berceau), S. 198 [3.15] LIZST LIZST 4 Bagatelle sans tonalité, S. 216a [2.47] 5 Abschied, russisches Volkslied, S. 251 [2.23] 6 Resignazione (Ergebung), S. 263/187a [1.23] LUCILLE CHUNG LUCILLE 7 Schlaﬂos! Frage und Antwort, S. 203 [2.35] 8 Im Traum, S. 207 [1.49] LUCILLE CHUNG 9 Trübe Wolken (Nuages gris), S. 199 [2.52] 0 Gretchen from the Faust Symphony, S. 513 [17.51] q LIZST Sonata in B Minor, S. 178 [30.39]

Total timings: [71.47]

LUCILLE CHUNG PIANO

LC15723 Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth SIGCD533