Comparison Recordings
S178:
Sir Clifford Curzon, [ADD] Decca 452
306-2
Vladimir Horowitz, [1932 mono ADD] Naxos
Historical 8.110606
Vladimir Horowitz, [1977 ADD] RCA 5935-2-RC
Alicia de Larrocha, [ADD] (7) Decca
0 28947 38132 7
Paul Barnes, Liszt Digital LD 101
S529:
Michael Ponti, Naxos 8.550408
Lilya Zilbersteyn, DG Eloquence 476
2463
S525:
Gotthardt Kladetzky, FSM FONO 97718
Byron Janis, Reiner, CSO {S126} [ADD]
BMG RCA 09026-61250-2
Markus Groh phrases
his notes for this recording in the
form of a polite letter to Liszt wherein
he offers a mock apology for "yet
another" recording of the Sonata
in b. In 1983 the Schwann catalogue
listed a total of 13 recordings, while
in 1997 it listed 54. Today it is all
but impossible to determine just how
many recordings are available as almost
every recording ever made moves in and
out of stock unpredictably. This remarkable
recording is hardly merely "another"
anything but something unique unto itself.
This sonata has from
the beginning been known as a difficult
work; most of the early recordings after
Horowitz being unremarkable. Obviously,
the work is hard to play, and even harder
to appreciate. Brahms fell asleep while
listening to Liszt play it. In addition
to the venerable Horowitz - the 1932,
not the 1977 recording which is considered
by some commentators to be below Horowitz’s
standard, although it still towers above
much of the competition - an ephemeral
live broadcast performance by Mark Zeltzer
and the Decca LP and later CD by Sir
Clifford Curzon were for many years
the best available. Alicia de Larrocha’s
version is unique and surprisingly strong
and should be heard by anyone who loves
this music.
Lately the Sonata,
along with all of Liszt’s oeuvre, has
been subject to thoughtful re-examination
and the result has been two quite extraordinary
performances. Paul Barnes was a student
of Menahem Pressler and who teaches
piano at the University of Nebraska,
the Bösendorfer Institute in Vienna,
and Indiana University. Barnes considered
the work a construction based upon a
"cross motive," three notes
forming the succession of the scale
intervals of a second followed by a
third, which forms the backbone of most
of the various themes of the sonata
as well as other works by Liszt, and
also the "Grail" theme from
Wagner’s Parsifal. Barnes views
the work as the arduous progress from
primal evil to blessedness, a sequence
related to the fourteen stations of
the cross, with various episodes representing
the Crucifixion, struggle, repose, and
prayer. Like Liszt, Barnes is a committed
mystical Catholic, and feels that by
achieving understanding of Liszt’s state
of mind the work can be made more comprehensible
as a work of art. Barnes, like Liszt,
believes that a work of art is God’s
grace made physically manifest. He is
a fine pianist, perhaps not in the league
with Horowitz or Groh; nevertheless
he presents an eloquent, dramatic, and
very successful performance. review
Markus Groh finds links
between the music and the Faust Legend
— Mephistophelian laughter, and invocations
of the Eternal Feminine — but also sees
in the work various Biblical images
beginning in Genesis, continuing on
to the hammer-blows of the Crucifixion.
He backs up his observations with a
virtuoso performance of overwhelming
power and drama, all the more compelling
in SACD surround sound, a perspective
which places the piano very precisely
three meters in front of you in a relatively
dry room. Groh projects an astonishing
variety of textures, at times playing
three voices clearly, each in a different
mood. The work builds through many episodes
to an astonishing climax where fresh
resources of volume and beauty of sound
are revealed, yet at times he achieves
a heartbreaking delicacy and fragile
beauty. He exceeds Curzon in the clarity
of his rendering of the fugue, keeping
the voices clearer than I’ve ever heard
them. I have never heard the rhetorical
power and logic of each and every note
in this sprawling structure so clearly
manifested.
I don’t mean to suggest
that only religious mystics or Catholics
can play and enjoy Liszt. While any
effort put into understanding the composer’s
state of mind at the time of composition
can only facilitate the expression of
the music, most of the music is, or
should be, in the notes themselves.
Like Bach’s, Liszt’s religious impulse
was ultimately a universal one, so Catholics
can enjoy Bach, Protestants can enjoy
Liszt, and persons, such as myself who
are neither can enjoy it all. Liszt
himself was a true humanitarian and
he and his music were as much at home
in Rome as in Constantinople, in Leipzig,
and in London. Liszt is even popular
in Mexico City even though he expressed
grief at the death of Emperor Maximilian;
but Liszt had known the man and it was
a purely personal, not a political,
sentiment.
The Fantasia and
Fugue on B.A.C.H., a curious homage
to Bach, more notable as the obvious
model* for Vaughan Williams’ Fourth
Symphony, is an impossible work
for a single pianist who most of the
time is frantically grabbing for notes.
It would have made a nice work for two
pianos and is ultimately most successful
in its original version on the organ.
The drama of the piano version is partly
in the listener’s and performer’s panic
that the whole edifice will fly off
into pieces at any moment. Zilbersteyn
comes closest to Groh in the task of
keeping all the cats in the bag. Groh
has the best control almost making it
sound easy. Delivering richest drama,
and best sound his piano sounds twice
as big as anybody else’s although as
with many of the Eloquence releases,
the CD is not far behind an SACD in
quality.
During an epidemic
in Paris, Liszt managed his panic by
improvising at the keyboard on the Dies
Irae theme uninterruptedly more
than twice around the clock. Apparently
God was enjoying the concert and spared
his life. Later the various versions
of Totentanz were the result
- and, many years further on, most of
the works of Rachmaninov. The orchestral
Totentanz sounds quite different
from the solo piano version, although
there are many points of congruence;
if you are a Liszt collector you will
want several versions of each.
The comparison recordings
represent good examples of what has
been accomplished by others, but Markus
Groh is a truly exceptional artist and
you may feel that these recordings of
his are the best of these works ever
made.
* I am aware of Vaughan
Williams’ famous comment about "just
wanting to write a piece of music",
but besides having almost the same theme
and mood, both works make important
use of f minor. While Vaughan Williams
did not want to be cast as a poet of
war and strife, he may have avoided
the title "A Liszt Symphony"
and used for the first time a number
because if war with Germany were about
to erupt, a work entitled "Fantasia
on a Fantasia by Liszt on a Theme by
Bach" might hurt the work’s prospects
for performance in England.
Paul Shoemaker
Truly exceptional performances
and recordings, perhaps the best of
these works ever made. ... see Full
Review
Markus Groh (piano) 
AVIE
AV 2097 [59.00] 
