Liszt / Filipec - Complete Piano Music 51 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Short just as love, life, poetry, and a winter concert given at the Théâtre de l'Athénée, this new B Records album proposes a program of musical miniatures, from Fauré to Schumann and Brahms. An opportunity to hear the baritone Stéphane Degout, one of the best French melodists, and his partner Simon Lepper behind his piano, in a sometimes soft, sometimes stormy, always romantic album. French baritone Stephane Degout graduated from the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Lyon and then became a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l'Opera de Lyon. He gained international attention in his debut as Papgeno at the Festival d'Aix. Since then, he has appeared on major opera stages. He was appointed 'Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' in September 2012, a prestigious award which recognizes 'significant contribution to the enrichment of French cultural inheritance.'

This is the 49th volume in the Naxos series of the complete works of Franz Liszt. Volume 49 features a wide-ranging selection of dance pieces. The Valses oubliées reveal a compound of wistful nostalgia and advanced harmonies while the remarkable Csárdás macabre, a characteristic Hungarian folk-dance, is full of innovative features. The effervescent Mazurka brillante is a very rare example of Liszt making original use of this Polish form, whilst simultaneously transforming it. The Grand Galop cromatique, heard here in two versions, is a bravura encore piece that the young Liszt often played in his virtuoso recitals. The works are presented on this by Goran Filipec, recent laureate of the Granc Prix du Disque of the Ferenc Liszt Society of Budapest.

A central element in Liszt's life was his religious conviction. Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, one of his most famous religious works, was inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine. Excerpts featured on Vol. 3 of this series were critically acclaimed. Vol. 53 presents the 1847 cycle in it's first version; one that follows the poetic works that inspired it more closely than the more frequently performed and recorded later version. Wojciech Waleczek is recognized internationally as a pianist with uncompromisingly high standards in performance. The artist, born in 1980, has been pursuing a robust concert career playing as soloist with symphonic orchestras, solo piano recitals and chamber music concerts in the 27 countries of Europe as well as in Kazachstan, Jordan, Tunesia, Palestina, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname, Canada and the USA.