Category Archives: Uncategorized

Review – ‘… Stevenson’s passionately eloquent approach…’

Posted on December 20, 2011 by

CD Review by Patrick Rucker LISZT Années de pèlerinage: Deuxième Année, Italie (complete). Première Année: Au la de Wallenstadt; Au bord d’une source. Troisième Année: Les Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este • Christine Stevenson (pn) • RFZ 69301 (67:56) Liszt … Continue reading →

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Feux Follets

Posted on November 11, 2011 by

Wonderfully evocative title, isn’t it?! Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No 5 is enhanced by this; the imagination gets to work as well as the fingers. Feux Follets, in B Flat Major after the dark D minor of Mazeppa, opens leggero/leggerissimo with lightly … Continue reading →

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Liszt’s 200th Birthday – today!

Posted on October 22, 2011 by

As a small child, I used to stare closely at this cover of an *LP of Liszt’s music in my parents’ record collection, fascinated by the patterns, shapes and colours.  One day I suddenly realised that the individual fragments, when viewed as a … Continue reading →

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The Gervex in the Gite

Posted on September 15, 2011 by

A holiday in France is usually a piano-free zone, so it was a surprise to walk into a rural gite last week and to find an ancient Gervex upright. It was unplayable, though; woefully out-of-tune, and our hostess said it was too costly to … Continue reading →

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Poetry on the Piano, Diablerie on the Violin – and All Hell Let Loose in the Orchestra

Posted on August 13, 2011 by

Other composers needing a mention when Liszt’s Etudes are discussed are Chopin, Paganini, and Berlioz. Berlioz and Liszt met in December 1830. Liszt’s enthusiasm for Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique was boundless; he transcribed it for solo piano, performing the transcription often, … Continue reading →

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Listing the Liszt – in the piano stool, and at the Proms

Posted on July 17, 2011 by

Musical lists are fashionable at the moment – what are your Desert Island discs, what does your iPod shuffle reveal about you, and so on. Usually, each individual’s list contents are different. But there’s one list that is surprisingly similar, whoever compiles … Continue reading →

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Keep playing – even if the Titanic is sinking

Posted on April 3, 2011 by

To a remarkable venue on April 1 - the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, no longer a Convent, but a large Arts community where Radio 3MBS is based. I gave a live broadcast of pieces by Liszt. At least, I thought I … Continue reading →

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For Sale – Recording Studio

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

Sitting here at midnight in Melbourne, catching up with online news from the UK, it was sad to see this report (scroll down to the 29 March blogpost) of Potton Hall being up for sale. My Liszt CD was recorded there a … Continue reading →

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A bit of a cash-flow problem…

Posted on February 13, 2011 by

Composers’ letters make fascinating reading. This 1895 edition of some of Liszt’s letters is doubly significant, as the translations were by Constance Bache, whose brother Walter studied piano privately with Liszt as well as in the Weimar classes; he also performed Liszt’s … Continue reading →

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Don’t slow down for the bump

Posted on December 1, 2010 by

It’s cold here in the UK tonight, very, very cold, snow everywhere, and untreated roads are sheets of ice. So I got stuck this evening on my way home, and sat in an immobile car while the wheels spun uselessly. … Continue reading →

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