Track Listing

1. Sonata In B Minor
2. Un sospiro
3. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
4. Consolation No.3
5. Consolation No.5
6. Liebestraum No.3
7. Mephisto Waltz

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46676 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-16
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Simply breathtaking
Van Cliburn, who in 1958 became as much of a celebrity as Elvis, is one of the world's greatest ever pianists. I have never heard anyone play Liszt with so much gravity and understanding. Part of this may be because Van Cliburn's hands are so enormous, nearly as large as Liszt's.

This recording of the Sonata is a must-have. The first eerie notes are played with spine-tingling anticipation, then comes the climatic theme, with technical stunts to make your head swim. Mr. Cliburn comes through it all without an error and with an astonishing amount of passion and fire. The songs fades away eerily, just as it began.

Un Sospiro is one of my favorite pieces ever, and Van Cliburn plays it marvelously. The melody is split between the two hands, which causes the left to have to cross over the right often and very quickly, but the melody remains very even and so lyrical it brings tears to the eyes. Van Cliburn is the only pianist to date who has been able to make me cry with the sheer beauty of his sound, and it is undoubtedly his legendary, singing approach to the keys.

All of the other pieces on the CD are simply marvelous, and the wild, swirling Mephisto Waltz provides a fitting end to this stunning CD. Encore!

Van Cliburn's Liszt
I was never a fan of Van Cliburn's playing. I have always been interested in the by-ways of piano literature, e.g., Alkan, Scriabin, Mednter, and Sorabji. Hence, pianists such as Horowitz, Hamelin, and Powell I find appealing not only in their technique but also in their choice of overlooked but really good repertoire that has suffered neglect due to the 'standards' of piano performance, i.e., that which is most easily accessible to the public (unfortunately, public consumption [and attention spans] have largely determined what piano music will be recorded). Van Cliburn was one such pianist; chopin, brahms, beethoven, rachmaninoff, debussy, etc., much of it good music, but recorded to death to the neglect of equally good, but different music. At any rate, I was hesitant to purchase Van Cliburn's Liszt CD. I played it and was surprised. His Chopic CD had sounded mechanical to me, but this Liszt CD is actually very very good. I imagined his performance of the Liszt B minor sonata to be dry, dull, and boring. It was anything but. It is definitely a unique recording of the Bm sonata, one that can be listened to over and over again along with Pollini, Zimerman, Nojima, and Demidenko. He shapes the dimensions of the sonata very well and has a very good control of its sonorities. His performance of Un Sospiro cannot equal Hamelin but it is, nonetheless, an excellent performance that stands on its own. The Mephisto Waltz was another surprise: Van Cliburn plays it to the hilt. I have heard more breath-taking versions, e.g., Horowitz, Sgouros, and Wild. But Cliburn's measures up. He adds flourishes at the end that are effective and in no way take away from the piece but rather add to the spirit of the waltz. I would recommend this CD highly.

Outstanding Liszt Sonata
When I was a serious student of the piano back in the 1970's and 80's I was discouraged from admitting that I liked Cliburn's playing. Cliburn was viewed by the cogniscenti as a pianist unjustly thrust into the limelight through his spectacular achievement of having won the Tchaikovsky competition. Our celebration of his accomplishment, they argued, was more political than it was musical. I remember my piano teacher telling me that Cliburn was far behind many of his peers because he only had a limited repertoire. He achieved major success while knowing just a few concertos. Moreover, he apparently had some personal struggles after his success that affected his ability to perform.

I reviewed elsewhere on this website Cliburn's recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 recorded shortly after that victory in Moscow. I maintain that the seriously discerning Russian audience knew greatness when they heard it and that Cliburn deserved the accolades that he received. Apparently, no less a luminary than Sviatoslav Richter agreed. Richter was one of the jurists for that competition and he very quickly identified Cliburn as the only acceptable prizewinner, eliminating every other contestant.

Some have argued, however, that the period from which this Liszt recording was taken found Cliburn less consistently great. I cannot disagree, but this Liszt recording deserves to be placed alongside the best of Cliburn's output, which for me includes that famous Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto recording, his Rach 3 -- also recorded shortly after the competition -- and his recording of Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata and Prokofiev's Sixth Piano Sonata. I might also include his recording of Rach 2 and his recording of Chopin's Piano Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3 though I'm sure some would disagree.

I will focus my attention on the Liszt Sonata which is the first track on this CD and the primary work. This is a "must hear" recording, especially if you are familiar with the Liszt Sonata through from such well known performances as the early one by Horowitz or Argerich. Cliburn is completely dedicated to lyricism at every point. He consistently directs the ear to the major themes, motifs and melodies. This performance sings like no other. He does not allow the listener to get lost in complicated passage work, as tempting as it might be to demonstrate how much else is going on. Every aspect is harnessed to musical ends and, for Cliburn, cantabile is the goal. He achieves it beautifully. This recording is absolutely memorable and you will come back to it again, and again.

I am in complete agreement with another reviewer who listed Gilels' performance, along with Cliburn's, as the one to reach for. I would now add Stephen Hough's recent offering. These performances are such a welcome counterweight to the more common tendency to use the Liszt Sonata as a vehicle for technical showmanship. Cliburn (as well as Gilels and Hough) plays flawlessly but they have so much more to say than what you hear in the more typical performance. Even the celebrated performance by Zimerman, for example, becomes much less interesting after comparing it to this Cliburn recording, in my opinion.

If you do not have this recording of the Liszt Sonata, and if the Liszt Sonata is important enough to you to have more than one recording, then I strongly urge you to add this performance to your collection. Please let me know if you end up disagreeing with me.