SALES SHEET | May 2021 FRANZ LISZT’S Complete Piano Music A colossal work of authority MAY 2021 MAR 2021 © 2021 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd 1 SALES SHEET | May 2021 © Chai Ben-Shan ABOUT FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886) As a pianist, Franz Liszt was unique, in the true meaning of the word. According to Felix Mendelssohn, ‘Liszt possesses a degree of velocity and complete independence of finger, and a thoroughly musical feeling, which cannot be equalled. In a word, I have heard no performer whose musical perceptions extend to the very tips of his fingers and emanate directly from them as Liszt’s do.’ What he was able to do as a pianist-interpreter, Liszt was able to do even better as a composer. The hundreds of scores he wrote illustrated an astonishing command of the keyboard and an even more extraordinary musical mind. Not only did Liszt compose a vast quantity of original works, but he was throughout his life continually compelled to transcribe his own and other composers’ music for the piano. Our ongoing Liszt Complete Piano Music edition have met with critical acclaim, performed by many leading interpreters of Liszt’s music, and also featured debut recordings of very talented up-and-coming pianists. © 2021 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd 2 SALES SHEET | May 2021 Select highlight releases in the Liszt Complete Piano Music series Paganini Studies Grandes études de Paganini Le Carnaval de Venise Etudes d’exécution transcendante Goran Filipec, Piano Niccolò Paganini’s short but scintillating international career influenced a generation of composers and performers, and Franz Liszt’s encounter with him in Paris in 1832 stimulated a determination to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin. Impressed by the 24 Caprices Op. 1, Liszt transcribed and transformed these challenging solo violin pieces into equally spectacular works for piano, the famous Caprice No. 24 given eleven variations and an elaborate Coda. Le Carnaval de Venise shares its popular theme with a version by Paganini, these variations building in complexity towards a final burst of Lisztian virtuosity. 8.573458 ‘With a technique that makes you forget just how exacting Playing Time: 69:20 these pieces are to play, Filipec not only generates the thrill of a live performance but does so with a disarming swagger and 7 47313 34587 8 playfulness.’ – Gramophone RECORDING OF RECORDINGTHE MONTH GRAND PRIX OF THE MONTH DU DISQUE F. LISZT Described as a pianist of ‘technical brilliance which allows him to express himself in an electrifying manner, demonstrating an imaginative exuberance, sensibility and luminosity which we are not used to hearing at the present time’ (Ritmo), Goran Filipec is a musician who never fails to capture the hearts of international audiences and critics. Renowned for his fiery interpretations of works of Franz Liszt and his classical and romantic repertoire of high virtuosity, Goran Filipec defends creativity and subjectivity in performance observing it as co-creation of the musical work, which he often blends with his own arrangements and adaptations. © Stephany Stefan Other releases featuring Goran Filipec: ‘The Croatian concert ‘Filipec has aplomb pianist Goran Filipec and panache. This is is clearly a remarkable a record that lovers of Lisztian.’ Liszt will not want to – iClassical miss.’ – Diapason 8.573705 8.573794 7 47313 37057 3 7 47313 37947 7 © 2021 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd 3 SALES SHEET | May 2021 Historical Hungarian Portraits Later Piano Music 7 47313 40597 8 Jenő Jandó, Piano This album in the Complete Piano Music series of Franz Liszt is devoted to memorialising the dead. Historical Hungarian Portraits dates largely from 1885 and commemorates significant figures in the country’s recent past, including politicians, a poet and a musician. The mood is powerfully sombre. Liszt marked his son-in law Wagner’s death with Am Grabe R. Wagner (‘At the Grave of Richard Wagner’) using a theme from Parsifal. But the most intense and forward- looking of these pieces is Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, a foretaste of the experimental piano writing to come. ‘As a major Liszt authority, [Jandó] plays these somber and spare vignettes with the 8.574059 same commitment he demonstrated in his recordings of the Hungarian Rhapsodies.’ Playing Time: 77:58 – AllMusic.com ALLMUSIC EDITOR’S CHOICE RECOMMENDED Jenő Jandó is one of the most prolific artists in the history of classical music recording. He is also one of its most appreciated and admired. Jandó is Naxos’ most streamed artist, whose top 100 tracks have generated over 26 million streams in 2019. Jenő Jandó is a professor at the Liszt Academy Budapest. Other releases featuring Jenő Jandó: ‘His account [is] ‘Jandó’s tone deeply satisfying is consistently on all counts.’ musical and his – BBC Music Magazine technical finish is impeccable.’ – American Record Guide 8.553594 8.554480 8.554481 0 730099 459426 0 636943 448021 0 636943 448120 MAR 2021 Buch der Lieder Geharnischte Lieder Alexandre Dossin, Piano 7 47313 41067 5 It was natural for virtuoso performer Franz Liszt to expand his repertoire by transcribing his songs for solo piano. The human voice is the purest of musical instruments, and composers have always been inspired by its warmth, expression and emotional power. Liszt’s masterful command of the piano and his ability to transform vocal lines into purely instrumental sounds is evident throughout this album: the dramatic narrative in both versions of Die Loreley, the watery, arpeggiated texture of Am Rhein im schönen Strome and the orchestral qualities of Gastibelza being only a few examples of these pianistic treasures. 8.574106 Playing Time: 75:39 Considered an ‘extraordinary musician’ by Martha Argerich, Alexandre Dossin enjoys active performing, recording and teaching careers. A prizewinner of several international piano competitions, Dossin received First Prize and the Special Prize at the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires. His discography comprises 15 albums released across several labels, including seven albums with Naxos. © Erin Zysett Other releases featuring Alexandre Dossin: ‘Dossin displays an ‘Dossin is a virtuoso of the imaginative and immediately first order who performs engaging romantic these pieces with clarity, good personality.’ – Fanfare pacing, and musical sense.’ – American Record Guide 7 47313 24327 3 8.557904 7 47313 29042 0 8.572432 © 2021 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd 4 SALES SHEET | May 2021 Debut recordings of artists from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Transcriptions Nibelungen • Lucrezia Borgia • Preciosa 7 47313 41497 0 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Andrey Ivanov, Piano Copenhagen-born Eduard Lassen spent 40 years in Weimar where he was to succeed Liszt as music director in 1858. Lassen was an accomplished stage composer writing music for Das Nibelungenlied and Goethe’s Faust that enjoyed considerable popularity, and from which Liszt made piano transcriptions, drawing on high points in the dramas. He also wrote music for a play by Spanish poet Calderón, to which Liszt responded by transcribing an extensive Symphonic Intermezzo. Liszt also imbues the music of his contemporaries Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer and Donizetti with great fervour and virtuosity. 8.574149 Playing Time: 81:02 Andrey Ivanov won numerous international awards including First Prize at the International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade, Fourth Prize at the Iturbi València International Piano Competition and Third Prize at the Birmingham International Piano Competition (formerly the Brant International Piano Competition). © Olga Shved Préludes et Harmonies poétiques et religieuses 7 47313 41487 1 Roman Kosyakov, Piano Franz Liszt inherited strong religious convictions from his father, and the influence of sacred narratives can be found throughout his compositions. Drawn from the so-called Tasso Sketchbook, the Préludes et Harmonies poétiques et religieuses were composed after the end of Liszt’s relationship with Marie d’Agoult, and include the passionately turbulent Langueur. Descriptive titles characterise many of the brief Album-Leaves, while the legend of St François de Paule marchant sur les flots depicts the saint crossing the Straits of Messina using his cloak as a sail after being refused passage by a boatman. 8.574148 Playing Time: 75:10 Since 2017, Roman Kosyakov studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) on a full scholarship with Pascal Nemirovski. He won the prestigious 2018 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, and the Orchestra Prize performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He won the Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition (String Ensemble category) in January 2020, as a member of the Fitzroy Piano Quartet. MAY 2021 Music on National Themes Canzone napolitana 7 47313 41477 2 Hungarian Folk Songs • Anthems Domonkos Csabay, Piano Franz Liszt was involved in years of travel as a virtuoso pianist, enjoying the wildest adulation of audiences in a frenzied period that became known as Lisztomania. The appeal of his programmes included appropriate national tributes, and Liszt had recourse to varied musical sources as stimulus for these kinds of composition. From the lovely Canzone napolitana that uses a melody of unknown origin and the Hungarian Folk Songs that formed part of Liszt’s triumphant return to his native land, to a spectacular paraphrase of God Save COMING SOON the Queen that might have amused Queen Victoria, these rousing musical gifts are all evidence of a composer/pianist at the height of his inventiveness. 8.574147 Playing Time: 72:03 Domonkos Csabay’s musical world has its roots in the rich traditions of his hometown Budapest. Based in the UK since 2015, the pianist, accompanist, répetiteur and chamber musician won the Brant International Piano Competition, and often performs a wide range of classical repertoire throughout the country. Csabay has made concerto appearances Photography with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Kew Sinfonia, Oxford Sinfonia and many more. He made his debut on © Firebird BBC Radio 3 in 2018, broadcasting Eroica Variations by Beethoven.