Description
Hungaroton - Liszt: Transcendental Etudes - Jozsef Balog - CD
Vadonatúj! Gyári csomagolásban! Fóliázott! Mint a képen! Vásároljon bizalommal! Foliaban!
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Product Details:
- Product Type: CD
- Label: Hungaroton
- Artist: József Balog
- Composer: Franz Liszt
- Genre: Classical / Solo Piano
- Catalog Number: HCD 32736
- Barcode: 5991813273628
- Release Year: 2014
- Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed
Product Features
- Format: 1 x CD, Compact Disc Digital Audio
- Number of Discs: 1
- Total Playing Time: 67:50
- Packaging: Standard jewel case, factory sealed with shrink wrap
- Booklet: Included (bilingual Hungarian/English liner notes)
- Label: Hungaroton / Fidelio
- Distributor: Fotexnet Kft., Budapest
Overview
The twelve Transcendental Etudes are among the most demanding pieces in the solo piano repertoire - and among the most revealing. Liszt spent nearly thirty years returning to them, revising, refining, stripping away excess until what remained was both technically ferocious and musically inevitable. The final 1851 version, the one on this recording, is the version that matters.
József Balog is one of Hungary's most respected pianists, and his approach here earns the difficulty. Each étude has its own character - "Mazeppa" thunders, "Feux follets" flickers and vanishes before you can catch it, "Harmonies du soir" settles into something close to stillness - and Balog commits to those differences rather than flattening them into a display of technique. The nearly eleven-minute "Ricordanza" is the centerpiece: slow, searching, personal.
Recorded for Hungaroton in 2014 and co-released under the Fidelio imprint, this is a serious document of a serious pianist taking on one of Liszt's most personal works. Total playing time runs to 67:50 - the full cycle, uncut.
Interesting Facts
- Liszt composed the first version of the Transcendental Etudes at age fifteen, in 1826; by the final 1851 revision, some pieces had changed almost beyond recognition.
- "Mazeppa" (No. 4) is based on the same wild-horse legend that inspired Victor Hugo's poem and later Tchaikovsky - Liszt added the programmatic title to the 1851 edition.
- "Feux follets" (No. 5, Will-o'-the-Wisps) is widely regarded by pianists as one of the most technically treacherous pieces ever written for the instrument, requiring extreme independence and control in both hands simultaneously.
- József Balog won the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest and has recorded extensively for Hungaroton, with a particular focus on Hungarian composers and Liszt's solo works.
- The Fidelio imprint, visible on the back cover, is a Hungarian classical music label associated with premium domestic recordings and named after Beethoven's only opera.
- Liszt's own performances of the complete cycle were reportedly rare even during his lifetime - the technical demands and combined length made consecutive live performance an exceptional event.
Track Listing
- Preludio. Presto - 0:51
- Molto vivace. A capriccio - 2:26
- Paysage. Poco Adagio - 5:05
- Mazeppa. Allegro - 7:47
- Feux follets. Allegretto - 4:09
- Vision. Lento - 6:08
- Eroica. Allegro - 4:47
- Wilde Jagd. Presto furioso - 5:18
- Ricordanza. Andantino - 11:06
- Allegro agitato molto - 4:38
- Harmonies du soir. Andantino - 9:55
- Chasse-neige. Andante con moto - 5:33
Publishers
Produced by Hungaroton, Budapest. Co-released under the Fidelio imprint. Distributed by Fotexnet Kft., 1126 Budapest, Nagy Jenő u. 12. © 2014 Fotexnet Kft.
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