Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1, Etc

To celebrate Franz Liszt�s bicentenary, Lang Lang has selected some of the most famous, virtuosic and poetic solo pieces ever written for the piano, concluding with a fabulous new recording of the Piano Concerto No. 1 � accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev.

Alternating the lyrical Liszt with the bravura, Lang Lang�s tribute to his �piano hero� mixes old favourites with some lesser-known pieces, transcriptions with original works � and rounds off with the high octane First Piano Concerto.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt's birth, virtuoso pianist Lang Lang has selected some of the composer's most characteristic pieces for his 2011 Sony release, Liszt: My Piano Hero. Prominent on this album is the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, which features Lang Lang in a high-energy performance with Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic. Without a doubt, most of Lang Lang's fans will savor this Romantic showpiece, and for technical brilliance and drama, the performance doesn't disappoint. 

He is especially lively and vivid in this work, and his interactions with the orchestra seem spontaneous and playful, as one might well imagine Liszt would have been. But Lang Lang seems more introspective and personally involved with the solo keyboard pieces that make up the greater part of the album. Here also is the flashy side of Liszt, but there is a greater emphasis on the poetic and rhapsodic, so Lang Lang indulges in reflective pieces as much as the flashy encores. Highlights include La Campanella, the Grand Galop chromatique, Liebestraum No. 3, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, and the arrangement of Schubert's Ave Maria.

Music for Cello & Piano

�This blissfully unhackneyed and brilliantly executed recital takes memory in all its facets as its theme...the recording throughout gives the players all the space and atmosphere they need to characterise the varied moods and textures of an unusually rewarding programme.� --Gramophone, Awards Issue 2012

�Match [Ades's playing] with the mellow sound and manner of Steven Isserlis's cello, and you have something very special. Their choice of repertory here - devised as an extended upbeat to Ades's Lieux retrouves at the end of the programme - is unusual, memorable, and wonderfully performed from start to finish.� --BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 *****

A cello recital with a difference from two maverick geniuses, displaying the fecundity of their collaboration. The world-famous cellist Steven Isserlis, one of the best-loved instrumentalists of today, joins forces with composer and pianist Thomas Ad�s, described by the New York Times as one of the most imposing figures in contemporary music.

This recording opens with three of Liszt�s arrangements for cello and piano�the dark plangency of Isserlis�s tone emphasizing their elegiac power. Jan�cek�s Poh�dka (�A Tale�) is based on a story with many magical elements, and it is this particular quality which Isserlis and Ad�s bring out in their aerial performance. The passionate ecstasy of Faur�s Cello Sonata No 2 is deeply felt, and the elemental mysterious sadness of Kurt�g�s miniatures leads the listener into the 21st century and to the �title track� of this disc which Ad�s wrote for Isserlis himself. Lieux retrouv�s is a characteristically thrilling tour de force, displaying influences from all the composers previously featured and many more. The writing for the cello reaches uncharted levels of difficulty. Isserlis in his thoughtful booklet notes describes it in pictorial terms of rivers and mountains�here�s Anthony Tommasini, again in the New York Times: �The rippling figures for piano and cello spin out in crazed, cyclic riffs; the crystalline piano harmonies sound as if the wind were rustling the chimes in the pagoda; the feisty, industrialized propulsive bursts in the finale.�

Liszt: Piano works

Valentina Lisitsa records Liszt�s most technically challenging work, the �unplayable� La Contrabandista, conceived by Liszt as a spectacular recital encore. Seldom recorded, this work is a true virtuosic challenge for any pianist. Performed with Valentina�s legendary fiery aplomb, this is an imaginative programme, embracing some of Liszt�s celebrated transcriptions of music by Schubert and Verdi.

Not afraid of taking risks, Valentina recorded direct to analogue tape, transferred without edits for a special edition LP product and simultaneously recorded in high-resolution 24-bit digital format.

Valentina is the first �YouTube star� of classical music to have converted her online success into a global concert career in the principal venues of Europe, the USA, South America and Asia. The number of views of her YouTube channel has now topped an astonishing 60 million, and her legion of loyal and adoring fans continues to grow.