P21 041-N
Franz Liszt was arguably the most diverse of all composers in the range of his musical creativity. The double CD in this first volume offers us five aspects of Liszt, all equally fascinating:
A) The Gypsy, with its immensely popular Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Liszt’s cadenzas) and the no less beautiful Rhapsodies Nos. 3, 5 and 7.
B) The Romantic, with its sublime Love Dream No. 3, its lyrical Elegies and Klavierstücke, along with the noble and impassioned Concerto No. 2, performed with the splendid Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester under the baton of Arild Remmereit.
C) Revelatory of Liszt’s avant-garde genius are the Prelude and Funeral March, Unstern! - Sinistre and Grey Clouds, with their sometimes bizarre, atonal harmonies prefiguring Scriabin, Debussy and Schoenberg.
D) The composer’s funeral homage to his friend and son-in-law Wagner is represented by the two Mournful Gondolas, R. W. Venezia and At the Grave of Richard Wagner.
E) Lastly we come to Liszt the philosopher and the greatest of his masterpieces, the Sonata in B Minor, wherein we apprehend the creation of the universe and the destiny of man. The first two notes express the beginning of creation, by God or spiritual powers, according to one’s beliefs. These first two Gs represent the first and second particles of matter, and the descending scale that follows gives continuity to this matter which acquires movement, simultaneously creating space and time. Then follow great leaps on both hands, an explosion, a Big Bang, akin to the origin of the universe which in turn engenders life itself. Following on comes the Sonata, symbolising the universe and its development, its complexity, but also the human race and its destiny, its emotions, conflicts, revolutions and moments of fulfilment. The work ends, in its final, sublime chords, in a reaching-out to immortality through the liberation of the spirit, the soul set free from the trammels of the physical universe. In this final moment of transcendence, it feels as though Liszt is offering magisterial guidance in courage and hope.
CD 1 • Gipsy & Romantic
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
1 Rhapsodie Hongroise no. 2
2 Rhapsodie Hongroise no. 3
3 Rhapsodie Hongroise no. 7
4 Rhapsodie Hongroise no. 5 “Héroïde-élégiaque”
5 Elégie no. 1
6 Elégie no. 2
7 Notturno no. 3 „Liebestraum“ • « Rêve d’Amour » • “Love Dream”
8 Klavierstück no. 2
5 Klavierstücke
9 Klavierstück no. 1
10 Klavierstück no. 2
11 Klavierstück no. 3
12 Klavierstück no. 4
13 Klavierstück no. 5 „Sospiri!“
14 Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 2 in A major • A-Dur • la majeur
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Arild Remmereit
CD 2 • Avant-Garde, Hommage à Wagner, The Philosopher
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
1 Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch
2 Unstern! - Sinistre
3 Nuages Gris • Trübe Wolken
4 Die Trauergondel no. 1 • La Lugubre Gondola no. 1
5 Die Trauergondel no. 2 • La Lugubre Gondola no. 2
6 R. W. - Venezia
7 Am Grabe Richard Wagners
8 Sonate h-Moll • B minor • si mineur
private mono recording - live in France, 1973
REVIEWS
Une sonate de 1973, les Klavierstücke de 1975, un concerto de 2007, le reste de 2011, la moitié en studio et l’autre en public, des pianos de toute sorte, des acoustiques itou, des auditoires plus ou moins tousseurs… Tout cela est un peu désordonné, mais il faut se réjouir que ce dernier des Mohicans, seul lisztien en activité (qui d’autre joue comme ça ?) nous offre un disque en cette année de commémoration. Passons à l’écoute. Tout ce qui est récent est phénoménal : les Rhapsodies hongroises, qui ont gardé Cziffra dans l’oreille, ont des trépignements spectaculaires – Lang Lang peut aller se rhabiller. Les hommages à Wagner et tous les embryons de musique moderne (Lugubre Gondole, Nuages gris…) sont apparemment dictés par l’humeur mais en réalité très pensés. Une mention particulière au Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch, œuvre fétiche de Cyprien Katsaris, avec son coup de potentiomètre final qui distord la musique jusqu’à la grimace, il fallait oser ! Le concerto a des coups de poing, des griffes, de reins fantastiques ; l’orchestre finit sur les genoux, mais il tient jusqu’au bout.
Et la sonate ? Un document, capté par un micro baladeur, une vieille photo jaunie, hélas ! Le jeu est surnaturel, mais le son totalement artificiel. Dommage, on était à la croisée des chemins entre Horowitz, Barère et Cziffra (toujours…). « Volume I » nous promet la pochette : peut-on espérer une sonate définitive pour le Volume II ?
Diapason (France)
“Katsaris plays Liszt, Vol. 1” contains recent performances alongside others dating back to the early 1970s on two CDs. The A major Concerto, recorded live in 2007 in the Berlin Philharmonie with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Arild Remmereit, shows Katsaris at his mercurial best. Also of great interest is the B minor Sonata in a monaural recording made during a private performance in France in 1973. The two Elegies, the Five Piano Pieces for Olga von Meyendorff and an ardent Liebestraum are particularly affecting.
International Record Review (United Kingdom)
The question might be, “why get these recordings especially during the 200th birthday celebration of Franz Liszt when we may already have all these recordings by other pianists.” The answer is simple: THE PIANIST!
Cyprien Katsaris, born in France in 1951, has established himself as a cult pianist somewhat in the manner of Georges Cziffra, Shura Cherkassky, Earl Wild and several others whose fingers and technique are some of the fastest and most dependable in the business. Katsaris does – and always did – take chances at the piano as did pianist Vladimir Horowitz. The audience loves it and Katsaris almost always wins! His playing is extraordinary and will be long remembered for the joy, panache and individual approach and view he places on each piece. […].
No matter what Katsaris chooses of Liszt, his recordings and performances are in a class by themselves.
[Concerning the catalogue of PIANO 21:] It’s all brilliant – and musically memorable.
www.classicalmusicguide.com (USA), 14 October 2011
That Cyprien Katsaris remains one of the great seminal performers of Franz Liszt has another monumental testament in these discs, essential for the “Compleat Lisztean.”
Many connoisseurs of the piano consider Cyprien Katsaris (b. 1951) the legitimate heir to those Liszt legacies bequeathed us by Gyorgy Cziffra and Vladimir Horowitz. […].
A group of four Hungarian Rhapsodies opens the set, most appropriately with the ubiquitous No. 2 in C-sharp Minor. Katsaris relishes its obvious sonic allusions to the cimbalom, harp, violin, and clarinet, a perfect model for Bartok’s later Contrasts. The slides, fioritura, trills, added cadenzas, and manic energy of the rendition marks it for any tribute to this artist’s canny pyrotechnics in thunder and lightning. Every collector has his favorite pianist in this fireball moment of bravura, and this by Katsaris will raise hackles and goose bumps. […].
The eminently romantic No. 5 in E Minor (“Heroide-elegiaque”) gains much from Katsaris’ plastic and legato molding, though few instantiations of the score can equal what Karajan achieved with his Berlin Philharmonic.
[Concerning the Elegie no. 1:] Liszt wrote that the often “liquid” piece was “more to be dreamed than played,” but Katsaris does both. […].
Disc I ends with a ferocious collaboration in the A Major Concerto, worthy of those holy and diabolical, inflamed gestures taken from Weber’s Konzertstueck and realized by the likes of Richter, Siki, Cziffra, Petri, and Casadesus. […].
[Concerning the B minor Sonata:] Katsaris brings a religious devotion to this monumental “liberation of the spirit” as he calls it, while others refer to the B Minor as “Beethoven’s 33rd Sonata.” Granted, we can virtually dismiss any considerations of mere technique in Katsaris’ Herculean rendition, since his imagination now has earned the right to explore its labyrinths on his own poetic terms. The sense of magisterial breadth, the long-held caesuras, the nobility of line and exaltation of the trills, and the inevitability of affect contribute to a towering experience, certainly a fulfillment of Wagner’s response, that the piece removes the miseries humanity shackles to itself, a pure echo of Beethoven’s sentiments about his own music. Colossal and overpowering, intimate and heart-breaking at every turn, the ultimate aesthetic paradox, this performance.
Audiophile Audition (USA)
All of this simply to say that the longevity of the recording career of Cyprien Katsaris can be attributed to the fact that he is not only a “pianist”, he is also a musician. (No they are not the same thing, there is a big difference between the two). His playing evokes, it tells a story, it speaks the composer’s language. Take for example his approach to the ever popular Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. He doesn’t beat the *$#! out of the keyboard like most have a tendency to do, but instead brings an uncanny level of delicacy to the music. Do you know how difficult it is to play something very fast delicately? It demands a level of control that only tenacious work will master. He toys with the music, has fun with it, and brings out its “gypsy”, its “improvised” nature, better than most. At the other emotional extreme reside Nuages Gris and La Lugubre Gondola, written during Liszt’s final years. Dark, sinister, wisely profound. Pointing a bony finger towards music’s harmonic future. Again Katsaris doesn’t merely see them as notes on paper. He shares within them the composer’s drive to explore music’s metaphysical properties, along with a deep regret at the loss of a great musical tradition drifting away at the death of Richard Wagner in 1883. A great tradition completely encapsulated within a single piano piece, Liszt’s own Piano Sonata in B minor. Philosophical, hyper-romantic, music expressing beliefs and ideals well beyond its realm. And again Katsaris, even back in his early 20s when this performance was recorded, sees it as something bigger than life, as a visionary statement on human existence, all of which expressed by two human hands. A piece of music that transcends the instrument it was written for and soars aloft, held there by its own power.
The recordings found on this 2-disc set cover almost 40 years, and originate from various sources including live, studio and private takes. Therefore an adaptive ear is required when listening to everything from start to finish, but even the 1973 private mono recording of the Sonata can’t detract from the fact that this is music making at its best.
www.classicalmusicsentinel.com (Canada)
[…] French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris, who issued a splendid two-disc set titled Katsaris Plays Liszt on his own label, Piano 21. […].
This set – recorded over a 39 year period – is bound to appeal to any Liszt aficionado. The first disc, titled Gypsy and Romantic, is mainly devoted to his earlier works, including four of the Hungarian Rhapsodies, the well-known Liebestraum, and the Piano Concerto No.2 with the German Radio Symphony of Berlin, Arid Remmereit conducting. Here, Katsaris handles the technical demands of the repertoire with ease and panache, easily upholding his reputation as a fleet-fingered virtuoso.
Yet the set is not all tinsel and glitter. The second disc, titled Avant Garde, Hommage à Wagner, The Philosopher, is considerably more introspective and features music from Liszt’s late period. This was a time when the composer was very much “pushing the boundaries.” Indeed, Grey Clouds, The Lugubrious Gondola 1 and 2 and At Richard Wagner’s Grave stylistically look to the future, with Katsaris perfectly conveying the dark, almost sinister quality of the music.
The Wholenote Magazine (Canada)
Notre avis : 
(4/5)
[Concernant les Rhapsodies hongroises nos. 2, 3, 7 & 5, les Élégies nos. 1 & 2, le « Rêve d’Amour » et les Klavierstücke nos. 2 & 5 (« Sospiri ! ») :] Pour tous ces morceaux, Cyprien Katsaris donne une impression d’aisance et de maturité, de liberté et de sûreté impressionnante.
Tout aussi impressionnants sont les morceaux qui suivent, les Klavierstücke 1 à 5 qui avaient pourtant été enregistrés live, le 20 juin 1975, soit trente-six ans plus tôt aux Fêtes romantiques de Nohant, ce qui est assez stupéfiant, car on dirait que le temps est passé sur eux comme l’eau sur les plumes d’un canard. Cyprien Katsaris est pareil à lui-même, aussi gourmand de belle musique.
[Concernant le Concerto pour piano et orchestre n° 2 en la majeur :] C’est joué brillamment, sans pour ça que le jeu soit échevelé. Lyrique comme il sied à Franz Liszt.
[Concernant la Sonate en si mineur :] La qualité technique moindre du mono (c’était un enregistrement privé) n’affecte en rien la qualité artistique de l’interprétation de Katsaris, toujours magnifique, particulièrement avec Franz Liszt.
www.on-mag.fr (France)
Katsaris überzeugt mit seinen eindringlichen Interpretationen […].
Piano News (Germany), www.pianonews.de
[…] des interprétations totalement hors pair, entre poésie vécue et pyrotechnique débridée, le tout pensivement mariné dans le creuset caractériel de Katsaris et cuit à la sauce hautement individuelle du chef-pianiste. Ce qui, chez d’autres, deviendrait probablement maniériste (et je ne pense pas uniquement à mon « chouchou » chinois duracellisé), cela s’impose avec le geste katsarien. Chez Katsaris, Liszt renaît au moment où il le joue. Sur le premier disque, mais également dans la Sonate, Katsaris semble ne pas seulement jouer Liszt, mais il joue avec lui, exalté par sa propre fantaisie, en établissant une relation très particulière, mais combien sympathique avec le compositeur. Il y a dans ce jeu des étincelles et des éclairs, dont on ne sait jamais quand ils vont jaillir et qui, donc, nous surprennent considérablement, en rehaussant l’expérience musicale et en la transformant en aventure.
Les sujets du 2e disque sont plus graves, mais Katsaris ne se réfugie point dans un sérieux académique, loin de là ; il cherche la signification de la musique avec un maximum de volonté et la formule dans une expression maximale. C’est une rhétorique qui donne à la musique un surplus de sens (sans pour autant la surcharger). Je pense qu’il n’existe pas beaucoup d’interprètes capables d’une telle immersion libératrice dans le répertoire lisztien.
Pizzicato (Luxembourg)
Cyprien Katsaris est plus spécialement à son aise dans le Liszt tardif, où le bouillonnement de son imagination rencontre un terrain d’expressivité idéal, donnant à l’aridité des notes une touche de génie: saisissante Etoile du malheur, captivants Prélude et marche funèbres – où le piano se transforme en une terrifiante vallée des morts, un abîme de désespoir et de cris angoissés.
www.concertonet.com (France)