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Liszt: Totentanz, Tasso - Tanski / Blunier

Liszt: Totentanz, Tasso - Tanski / Blunier

MDG Gold  937 1678-6

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical


Liszt: Totentanz, Tasso, Die Trauer-Gondel II, Piano Music

Claudio Tanski (piano)
Beethoven Orchester Bonn
Stefan Blunier (conductor)


Bicentennial Bash
Happy birthday, Franz Liszt! The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under its conductor Stefan Blunier and the pianist Claudius Tanski present orchestral works and piano music by this Austro-Hungarian great, including the overture to Goethe’s Torquato Tasso and the Totentanz of 1849, on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth. A finely nuanced extra comes in the form of an orchestration of La lugubre gondola by John Adams.

Triumphant Light
“Through the night to the light” might serve as this recording’s motto. As Liszt himself stated, his symphonic poem Tasso – Lamento e Trionfo was based on the idea of a “genius not recognized in life but surrounded by radiant glory in death.” And even in the Totentanz, probably the birthday boy’s most famous creation in the field of concertante music, hope is clearly recognizable in some of the variations on the Dies irae.

Night Lament
Claudius Tanski has selected three piano pieces by Liszt, each progressive in its own different way, in part stamped by grief and resignation, for his tribute to the two-hundred-year-old. This mood applies especially to La lugubre gondola, which is heard in the piano version as well as in the orchestration by John Adams. Tanski complements these pieces with supreme art in Recueillement and Sursum corda and with the piano transcription of the Bach chorale “Es ist genug” from the cantata “O Ewigkeit, Du Donnerwort” harmonizing perfectly with Liszt’s late works.

Resplendent Repertoire
Stefan Blunier has compiled an impressive discography during the short time that he has headed his Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn. He recently released rarely heard orchestral works by Anton Bruckner on MDG. This carefully produced disc also displays all the outstanding qualities of this orchestra. With this recording Claudius Tanski adds to his repertoire of more than twenty MDG CDs that have received outstanding reviews worldwide and numerous prizes.

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Review by John Broggio - June 8, 2011

This disc has some wonderful music making and a rather unusual rendition of La lugubre gondola No. 2

The programme opens with Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo (Poeme symphonique No. 2) and compared to many conductors who have recorded this work, Blunier firmly establishes this work as compelling and completely lacking in hiatus'. With sensuous woodwind solos, fine strings (from top-to-bottom), subtle brass (that threaten appropriately) this account transforms the composition from episodic to rhapsodic. It says much for this partnership and Blunier's direction that the outbursts and more "crowd pleasing" elements are not the most rewarding part of this account (although they are very exciting indeed whilst eschewing the temptation for bombast).

Next up the Beethoven Orchester Bonn are joined by Claudius Tanski for Totentanz which already has a very fine reading on SACD (Liszt: 2 Piano Concertos - Cohen, Neschling). Sadly, the elemental feeling of threat and doom is almost completely lacking in Tanski's playing which is far too safe to provoke anything other than a mediocre response from listeners - despite the tepid keyboard work, Blunier still manages to achieve a wonderfully vivid response from his orchestra. Surely, though, one shouldn't be most excited when the piano stops playing!

Then comes La lugubre gondola No. 2 but not played by Tanski for this is the orchestration by John Adams, in only its third recording. Once again, the interpretation is gripping with an amazing palette of orchestral sound. The graduated dynamics are particularly well handled (as are the unanimity displayed between strings and woodwind soloists when playing the same material). Wonderful stuff. To conclude, Tanksi returns to the keyboard with 4 minatures (the last of which is Liszt's transcription of Es Ist Genug) and there is some combination of Tanski playing in a rather heavy-handed manner and the engineering team being rather unflattering to the sound; in any respect Tanski fails to conjure up the desire to keep listening in the way that Blunier consistently managed.

The recording, in the orchestral only works, has a dangerously wide dynamic range ruling the disc out-of-court for late night listening (not that many would contemplate this repertoire for these times!) but is real demonstration class for both ones equipment and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn. The dynamic range is narrower in Totentanz but still good. The dynamic level is narrower again for the solo piano works and is accorded a higher level than all that precedes it which doesn't flatter Tanski's playing.

For all the reservations, this disc is worth it for the orchestral works alone (5-star performance-wise).

Copyright © 2011 John Broggio and HRAudio.net

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