Rethinking Franz Liszt

Read my review published today in the Style section of the Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, Pianists Andre Watts and Evgeny Kissin offer Liszt recitals
Washington Post, March 8, 2011

Kissin Plays Liszt Live recordings, 1987-2003 (release on April 4)

Franz Liszt's music may be easy to dismiss, but it is as infrequently heard as it is widely misunderstood. The cliches are notorious: the trashy virtuoso, the sex-idol rock star (played appropriately by Roger Daltry in Ken Russell's manic biopic, "Lisztomania") and the repentant abbe. The 200th anniversary of the Hungarian composer's birth this year offers a chance to rediscover this arch-Romantic, one of the most prolific composers of the 19th century. Perhaps it is even time to reconsider the assertion of scholar Alan Walker that Liszt was, in the words of Bela Bartok, "the true father of modern music." Whether that title will lead you to love or hate Liszt more is a matter of personal taste.

Two all-Liszt recitals over the weekend, by pianists Andre Watts and Evgeny Kissin, offered food for thought. Stepping in to replace Nelson Freire on Sunday, Watts played the more rounded Liszt program of the two in his long-overdue debut at Baltimore's Shriver Hall. The highlight was a set of five pieces on the edge of atonality from Liszt's last years, including the "Bagatelle sans tonalite," which ends on a loud fully diminished seventh chord. In these sometimes bizarre works, many of which evoke the despair of the composer's old age (the wandering harmonies of "Nuages gris"), Liszt flirted with the extreme chromaticism ("En Reve"), augmented chords and whole-tone scales ("La lugubre gondola") that would provide paths out of tonality for later composers. [Continue reading]

Evgeny Kissin, piano (WPAS, Kennedy Center Concert Hall)
André Watts, piano (Shriver Hall)
Music by Franz Liszt

RCA will reportedly release a compilation of Liszt pieces played by Evgeny Kissin, recorded live, next month.

OTHER ARTICLES:

• Tim Smith, The one and only Evgeny Kissin (Baltimore Sun, March 7)
  
• ---, Andre Watts at Shriver Hall (Baltimore Sun, March 7)
  
• Thomas Huizenga, Evgeny Kissin Rocks the House: Or How I Learned to Love Liszt (Deceptive Cadence, March 7)
  
• David Weininger, Pianist Kissin plays up to the many challenges of Liszt (Boston Globe, March 5)
  
• John von Rhein, Pianist Evgeny Kissin's Liszt recital a superb fusion of virtuosity, poetry (Chicago Tribune, February 28)
  
• Michael Cameron, No surprises but plenty of fire and artistry in Kissin’s exhilarating Liszt (Chicago Classical Review, February 28)
  
• Michael Church, Evgeny Kissin, Barbican (The Independent, February 18)
  
• George Hall, Evgeny Kissin (The Guardian, February 15)
  
• Richard Fairman, Evgeny Kissin, Barbican, London (Financial Times, February 15)
  
• Ivan Hewett, Evgeny Kissin, Barbican (The Telegraph, February 14)
  
• Stephen Hough, The hot Liszt (The Guardian, December 27)