Liszt: Concertante Bits 'n Bobs

 

For this entry of my Bits 'n Bobs series, I am going to divide up some piano concertante works from pianists Leslie Howard on Hyperion and Louis Lortie on Chandos. Howard, in particular, did The Lord's work on Hyperion, with no less than 61 volumes of Liszt, mostly solo piano music, while Lortie covered three volumes of concertante music on Chandos. For those interested in Howard's big set, as I understand it, he excels in the less familiar pieces found in Liszt's dusty corners, and competes less successfully in the more familiar works.

I am largely unfamiliar with the pieces on this Bits 'n Bobs listening session, so they will be primarily discoveries for me.

1. Hexaméron
2. Grand Solo de Concert

Both of these pieces can be found in many iterations and variations on the original. The Grand Solo de Concert started out as a test piece for a conservatory, was expanded for two pianos, and eventually came about in a version for piano and orchestra, the one I am listening to here.

As a piano solo, the music is supposed to be a monster of a piece to play. I am not sure how much of that translates to the concertante version with orchestra, but I expect the instrumental ensemble takes over some of the duties, while the soloist can focus on the virtuosic bits.

Grand Solo de Concert is not a long work either. Spread across four movements, Liszt essentially works his way through many contrasting and connected sections. Akin to his well-known piano concertos, the composer orchestrates more for individual sections rather than the entire group playing together the whole time. He does it well too. As in those concertos as well, the piano is the focus.

Hexaméron is what is commonly known as a collaborative work. On the whole, the piece is a theme and variations, from which Liszt contributed the introduction, the second variation, a couple of interludes, and the finale. The rest of the variations were created by various other composers, including Czerny, Chopin, and Thalberg to name a few of the more well known contributors.

The theme the Hexaméron variations are based on comes from an opera by Bellini called I Puritani; specifically the duet 'Suoni la Tromba'. It is a wonderfully swinging tune, and one can see why it might be a popular choice, especially if one were going to attract the biggest keyboard artists of the day. Certainly, the melody ably withstands the variations treatment; not just as an upbeat march, but as an intimate evocation as well.

As I had mentioned when covering Liszt's Totentanz recently, I think the composer worked best in a theme and variation form rather than the looser fantasias, for the structure keeps Hexaméron holding together throughout its runtime. Compared to the Grand Solo de Concert, the theme and variations provides more orchestra-and-piano fireworks, a more shared victory by the conclusion.

I can't really speak to the playing by Australian pianist Leslie Howard, as I haven't heard these concertante works before, but the piano is placed ideally alongside the orchestra. As I commented in Liszt's orchestrated version of Trois Odes Funèbre, Karl Anton Rickenbacher is a reliable leader of orchestras, here with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble has oodles of punch and color, all one could hope for in music such as this.

De Profundis

Liszt inserts a religious service melody as one of his themes developed in the first movement, I believe as a secondary motive, lending the Latin title.

I am not as enamored by De Profundis as the others. The three-part work is wildly unbalanced, containing a 22-minute first movement, with the later two movements adding up to 10-12 minutes combined. Those last two movements are much more characterful too, whereas the opening trails this way and that, with large solo piano portions figuring in heavily.

I had always thought of Canadian Louis Lortie as a house pianist for Chandos, notable for his series of Chopin and Ravel on that label. Turns out, he can be found on other labels, must the vast majority of his recorded output can be found on Chandos. As with his traversal of Saint-Saëns' piano concertos, Lortie is not afraid of a big sound, sometimes a requirement in Liszt. I can't really say I grasp a general approach from Lortie in Liszt, for this is just one piece, and not a well-known one at that.

The Hague Residential Orchestra is no stranger to Chandos Records either, here providing ample support to Lortie's pianism. I have not come across US conductor George Pehlivanian before, but is perfectly fine in this Liszt series.

Summary

I have never been completely convinced by the concertante music from Franz Liszt. They seem more works of pianistic flash than anything of a substantive piano - orchestra argument. Although Liszt is quite adept and even unique as an orchestrator, in these sorts of works where piano and orchestra usually share the load, it is the solo piano Liszt is interested in here, with no apologies as to the subsidiary orchestral contribution.

I will keep exploring though. If anything from this particular listening session, it is the two from Leslie Howard's program I find more interesting. The Grand Solo de Concert is more compact, while the theme and variations of Hexaméron are winners, maybe due to the contrast of differing composers contributing to the work. If the final two movements of De Profundis were the only ones to hear, I would probably be a happy camper.



Bits 'n Bobs

Hexaméron, S. 365b (22.37)
Grand Solo de Concert, S. 365 (14.50)
     Leslie Howard, piano
  Budapest Symphony Orchestra
  Karl Anton Rickenbacher, conductor
  Hyperion; 2000

De Profundis, S. 691 (33.34)
     Louis Lortie, piano
  The Hague Residential Orchestra
  George Pehlivanian, conductor
  Chandos; 2002

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