P21 033-N • (2 CD)
This CD features a number of world première recordings
This double CD features works both famous and lesser-known by five composers who had direct or indirect links in Vienna: Beethoven, Schubert, Hüttenbrenner, Diabelli and Liszt. Beethoven completed his Sonata Pathétique shortly after the birth of Schubert, who was 20 years old when he composed his 13 Variations on a surprising theme by Hüttenbrenner which in turn echoes the famous second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, here presented in Liszt’s transcription. All five musicians composed various dances during this period in Vienna, including Waltz S. 208a composed by Liszt in 1823 during his studies in Vienna and Beethoven’s Second Contradance which features the first appearance of the famous theme of the finale of the Eroica Symphony. Here also are the first-ever versions recorded anywhere of three works: Reinecke’s piano transcription of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, the manuscript of which Schubert had given to Hüttenbrenner; then, from Hüttenbrenner himself – a composer lapsed into undeserved obscurity – two funeral tributes to his friends Beethoven and Schubert, the magnificent Variations Op. 2 and the waltzes based on Schubert’s Erlkönig. The omnipresent Liszt offers us his own astonishing transcriptions of the Erlkönig and the Young Nun. Then we have the Viennese composer and publisher Anton Diabelli, best known for his Sonatinas, who requested fifty composers to write variations on his own Waltz: those of Hüttenbrenner, Schubert, Liszt (who was 11 years old) and four of Beethoven’s 33 Variations Op. 120 feature in this recording
Cyprien Katsaris
CD 1
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata “Pathétique” No. 8, op. 13 • c-Moll • C minor • do mineur
1 I Grave - Allegro molto e con brio
2 II Adagio cantabile
3 III Rondo (Allegro)
4-9 6 Ecossaisen, WoO 83 • Es-Dur • E flat major • mi bémol majeur
Ecossaise No. 1
Ecossaise No. 2
Ecossaise No. 3
Ecossaise No. 4
10 Ecossaise, WoO 86 • Es-Dur • E flat major • mi bémol majeur
11- 16 6 Kontretänze für Orchester, WoO 14
Transcription: Ludwig van Beethoven
Kontretanz No. 1
Kontretanz No. 2
17 Second Movement (Allegretto) from Symphony No. 7, op. 92
Transcription: Franz Liszt • S. 463/7 (2)
Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794-1868)
18 Nachruf an Beethoven in Akkorden • Funeral Tribute to Beethoven in chords
Hommage funèbre à Beethoven en accords *
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Variations on a theme by Anselm Hüttenbrenner, D 576
19-32 Thema (Andantino) and 13 Variations
Thema (Andantino)
Variation No. 1
Variation No. 9
Variation No. 10
33-50 16 Ländler und 2 Ecossaisen, op. 67, D 734 • genannt “Wiener Damen-Ländler”
“Hommage aux belles Viennoises”
Ländler No. 1
Ländler No. 3
Ländler No. 4
Ländler No. 12
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
51 Soirées de Vienne No. 2. (Valses-Caprices d’après Schubert), S. 427
52 Walzer, S. 208a • A-dur • A major • la majeur
53 Valse (Poco Allegro), S. 210b
54 Ländler (Allegretto), S. 211
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
55 Die junge Nonne • The young nun • La jeune religieuse, D 828
Transcription: Franz Liszt • S. 558/6
CD 2
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
1 Erlkönig • The Erlking • Le Roi des Aulnes, D 328
Transcription: Franz Liszt • S. 558/4
Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794-1868)
2-7 Erlkönig Walzer *
Walzer No. 1
Walzer No. 2
6 Variations, op. 2
8-14 Thema (Andantino) and 6 Variations *
Thema (Andantino)
Variation No. 5
Variation No. 6
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Unvollendete Sinfonie • Unfinished Symphony • Symphonie inachevée No. 7, D 759 • h-Moll • B minor • si mineur *
15 I Allegro moderato
16 II Andante con moto
Transcription: Carl Reinecke / Cyprien Katsaris
Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794-1868)
17 Nachruf an Schubert in Trauertönen • Funeral Tribute to Schubert • Hommage funèbre à Schubert *
Anton Diabelli (1781-1858)
Sonatine op. 151, No. 1 • G-Dur • G major • sol majeur
18 I Andantino cantabile
19 II Scherzo (Allegro)
20 III Rondo (Allegretto)
Sonatine op. 168, No. 6 • G-Dur • G major • sol majeur
21 I Allegro moderato
22 II Andante cantabile
23 III Rondo (Allegro)
Sonatine op. 168, No. 7 • a-Moll • A minor • la mineur
24 I Allegro moderato
25 II Andante cantabile
26 III Rondo (Allegretto)
27 Walzer • Waltz • Valse
Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli of:
28 Anselm Hüttenbrenner
29 Franz Schubert
30 Franz Liszt
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
From 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, op. 120
31 Var. 1: Alla Marcia maestoso
32 Var. 13: Vivace
33 Var. 20: Andante
34 Var. 22: Molto Allegro (alla “Notte e giorno faticar” di Mozart)
Streichquintettsatz in C-Dur • String quintet movement in C major • Mouvement de quintette à cordes en do majeur
35 Andante maestoso
Transcription: Anton Diabelli
* 
Reviews
Il serait impossible de détailler tout le programme de cet album qui jette des ponts entre des hommes et des œuvres symboliques de l’époque, depuis la « Pathétique » de Beethoven jusqu’aux lieder de Schubert transcrits par Liszt. Disons pour résumer qu’en s’y consacrant pleinement, livret en mains, cette leçon d’histoire est passionnante, pleine d’esprit et de surprises grâce à de nombreux inédits. Et puis on se délectera des transcriptions, particulièrement de celle de l’« Inachevée » de Schubert par Reinecke, sommet d’un disque pensé et réalisé avec un soin méticuleux.
Diapason (France)
Werke grosser Wiener Meister – interpretiert mit versierter Technik und spielerischer Brillanz von einem grossen Tastenzauberer.
Rondo (Germany)
Cyprien Katsaris plays a fascinating programme called “Viennese Connections”. […]. If this sort of imaginative and unusual repertoire appeals, there’s no reason to hesitate. The rarest items here (several of them described as first recordings) are worthwhile and the whole programme has been put together extremely thoughtfully. Katsaris plays very well throughout – rising effortlessly to the challenges thrown down by Liszt, for example, but also poetic and sensitive in the more delicate pieces, never giving them too much weight but getting the scale just right. The recorded sound is excellent and Otto Biba’s extensive notes make for absorbing reading.
International Record Review (United Kingdom)
Alone among world-renowned pianists, Cyprien Katsaris has managed to carve out his own niche market for transcriptions and paraphrases, with such brilliant results as Liszt’s solo transcriptions of all nine Beethoven symphonies. No less impressive is his latest CD Viennese Connections, in which Katsaris again treats the listener to his sharply resonant, dynamic crescendos, percussive rhythms and crystalline clarity of play. Katsaris regales us with the pure pleasure of listening, whether it be Beethoven’s famous Allegretto from the Seventh Symphony, (Liszt’s arrangement), Schubert’s melancholically dreamy “Hüttenbrenner Variations”, the Diabelli Sonatinas or Beethoven’s “Pathétique”, all of which are here gathered into a pretty Viennese bouquet.
Piano News (Germany), www.pianonews.de
[…] in the last movement of the “Pathétique” Sonata: [Katsaris’] elegant rather than overaggressive rendition pays huge dividends; the piece sounds anew. His performance of the Beethoven Kontretänze is equally well done, straightforward in the best sense of the word here. His easy way with the lighter Diabelli pieces is also highly attractive in its simplicity, while the Schubert-Reinecke-Katsaris transcription of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony is at once a curiosity […] but also an interesting document of 19th-century transcription practice.
Fanfare (USA)
Both collections [“Viennese Connections” & “Album d’un Voyageur”] interleave “serious” art with more “popular” works, original works with transcriptions and adaptations, canonical items with pieces you’re liable never to have heard before. […]. And both collections are performed with the refreshing intelligence, wit, legerdemain, and variety of utterance that mark Katsaris’s maturity.
High points? The “Unfinished” Symphony, where Katsaris brings out the splinters in Reinecke’s rough-hewn transcription to excellent effect […]; Albert Harris’s deliciously tacky paean to Warsaw, played with just the right self-consciousness to keep it from turning tasteless; Liszt’s transcription of Erlkönig, a torrential onslaught that reminds us that Katsaris, for all his mellowing, has not lost the virtuoso smash of his earlier days: Finlandia, which starts which such a growl and continues with such monumental assurance that you hardly miss the orchestra: Jaëll’s Traviata paraphrase, decked with such finely wrought glitter that the music’s gestural banality registers. […] the playing is so committed and so consistently inspired, and the music is so varied […].
Fanfare (USA)
C’est […] un délicieux rébus musical, les différentes œuvres, par un savant jeu de correspondances, se répondant les unes les autres. […]. Parmi les moments remarquables, le deuxième mouvement de la 7e Symphonie de Beethoven transcrit par Liszt qui, sous les doigts du pianiste franco-chypriote, ne perd rien de sa puissance émotionnelle. Lui répond l’Hommage funèbre à Beethoven d’Hüttenbrenner, concentré et d’une grande douceur. Suivent en toute logique de très belles variations de Schubert sur ce dernier thème. Notons aussi la passion frémissante qu’insuffle le pianiste dans Die Junge Nonne (Schubert/Liszt). […]. Un disque passionnant.
Pianiste (France)