Busoni \u2013 <\/strong>Elegien<\/em>, BV 249: \u2018Nach der Wendung\u2019; Sonatina seconda<\/em>, BV 259; Berceuse<\/em>, BV 252; Sonatina no.6 tremendous Carmen<\/em>, BV 284; Toccata<\/em>, BV 287<\/p>\n Liszt \u2013 <\/strong>\u00c9tudes d\u2019ex\u00e9cution transcendante<\/em>, S 139<\/p>\n This was an interesting first instalment to Kirill Gerstein\u2019s three-artist \u2018Busoni and his World\u2019 Wigmore Hall residence. Gerstein greater than earned his price, with a full first half of works by Busoni, gently and intelligently launched from the platform, adopted by all twelve of Liszt\u2019s Transcendental Studies<\/em>. He supplied us a lot to ponder, a lot to be thrilled by, and far to stay up for later within the season.<\/p>\n \u2018Nach der Wendung\u2019, first of the Elegies<\/em>, takes its depart, as you may count on, from late Liszt. A questing \u2014 it’s nearly unattainable to not say \u2018Faustian\u2019 \u2014 piece, it acquired a duly questing efficiency. Some writing is extra tonal than different; Gerstein clearly communicated concord and its implications. The quiet radicalism of its passage was conveyed with acute intelligence, whether or not it wandered into the clouds or down into the rumbling bass. Its introverted imaginative and prescient paved the best way properly for the Sonatina seconda<\/em>. \u2018Tonal oder Atonal?\u2019 as Schoenberg would ask within the first of his Three Satires<\/em>. Yes, no, or perhaps, ought to in all probability have been the reply. Its opening bass line right here strongly took a cue from Liszt, dissolving into the performing air, floating, resolidifying, and so forth. Hearing materials that might later discover its approach into Doktor Faust<\/em> with out the opera\u2019s formal classicism is an interesting expertise. One senses a logic, even when one can’t outline it.<\/p>\n The Berceuse<\/em>, revealed individually, is the ultimate Elegie<\/em>. Gerstein took it slightly quicker than typically one hears it: fairly, I feel, to its benefit. Built and moulded to appreciable emotional impact, it emerged extra richly ambiguous than ever. The Carmen<\/em>\u2013Fantasy<\/em>, one other so-called sonatina, introduced virtuosity, even hyper-virtuosity, extra strongly to the fore. Layers of music, maybe of meta-music too, have been revealed and corroded, all inside the Lisztian mannequin of the paraphrase. Gerstein captured extraordinarily properly the piece\u2019s ruminative high quality: the composer, post-opera, extemporising on its themes. It was a turbulent, even violent necromancy we heard within the Toccata<\/em>, its \u2018advanced\u2019 language no bar to excessive Lisztian grandiloquence. One gained an impression of a number of prisms, by way of music one may by no means fairly pin down. The music from \u2014 or \u2018to\u2019? \u2014 Doktor Faust<\/em> (associated to the unusual character, if one could name her that, of the Duchess of Parma) sounded as darkly elegiac and as dangerously sulphuric as I can recall.<\/p>\n Brighter major colors have been to be heard from the off in Liszt himself. The opening Prelude appeared to strip away a gauze curtain we had not realised was there. Its virtuosic thrills offered fairly the curtain-raiser. \u2018Paysage\u2019 supplied seductive distinction, phrases fantastically leaned into. A Chopinesque \u2014 particularly within the cadenzas \u2014 \u2018Mazeppa\u2019 properly illustrated Gerstein\u2019s high quality command of Lisztian rhetoric: international to our extra cynical age in some ways, and but relished for what it’s. That high quality of big-heartedness took us by way of items such because the \u2018Vision\u2019 and \u2018Eroica\u2019, vividly dropped at life in themselves, but additionally a part of a higher trajectory. So keen can we generally be to defend Liszt towards his cultivated despisers, we will neglect how high quality a factor it’s merely, and even not so merely, to like his music. Not that there was something sentimental to this efficiency; we cherished the music by way of Gerstein\u2019s mental in addition to technical command. His turning of corners, as if revealing new vistas, sometimes introduced Mahler to thoughts. Gerstein may attraction too, as in \u2018Ricordanza\u2019. A bravura tenth examine introduced us to the flower-like harmonic blooming of \u2018Harmonies du soir\u2019, whose darker currents and sheer strangeness \u2014 certainly enticing to Busoni \u2014 have been actually not undersold. The remaining examine, \u2018Chasse-neige\u2019 was finely etched, seemingly in response to a palette created earlier than our ears.<\/p>\n The encore was Bach-Busoni: \u2018Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein\u2019. Busoni marks it Molto scorrevole, ma distintamente<\/em>. That is certainly what we heard.<\/p>\n Mark Berry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n [ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] United Kingdom Busoni and Liszt: Kirill Gerstein (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 23.11.2022. (MB) Kirill Gerstein on the Wigmore Hall Busoni \u2013 Elegien, BV 249: \u2018Nach der Wendung\u2019; Sonatina seconda, BV 259; Berceuse, BV 252; Sonatina no.6 tremendous Carmen, BV 284; Toccata, BV 287 Liszt \u2013 \u00c9tudes d\u2019ex\u00e9cution transcendante, S 139 This was an interesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-theatre"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"United](\"https:\/\/seenandheard-international.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/world-flags\/images\/flags\/24\/gb.png\" "\\"United")
United Kingdom<\/span><\/span><\/span> Busoni and Liszt: <\/span><\/strong>Kirill Gerstein (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 23.11.2022. (MB)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seenandheard-international.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2021-10-05-2-e1669330593681-380x214.png\")