Franz Liszt - Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (Steven Osborne)

Information

Composer: Franz Liszt

CD1:

1. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: I. Invocation
2. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: II. Ave Maria
3. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: III. Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude
4. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: IV. Pensée des morts
5. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: V. Pater noster

CD2:

1. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: VI. Hymne de l’Enfant à son réveil
2. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: VII. Funérailles
3. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: VIII. Miserere d’après Palestrina
4. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: IX. [Andante lagrimoso]
5. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S 173: X. Cantique d’amour

Steven Osborne, piano
Date: 2004
Label: Hyperion
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67445

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Poetic, radiant playing that makes this one of the finest Liszt records ever made

Following his superlative Hyperion recording of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (10/02), Steven Osborne continues with Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, music which, whether desolating or conciliatory, is surely a true precursor of Messiaen’s masterpiece. Attuned to the mystic heart at the centre of Liszt’s Catholicism, Osborne once more shows himself blessed with the sort of stylistic ease and tonal magic that come to very few young pianists. Here, sacred and profane love blend with a wholly Lisztian alchemy and a fruitful and enriching ambiguity, the one inextricably bound up with the other.

In ‘Invocation’, that magnificent gateway to the cycle, Osborne offers up its quasi-orchestral rhetoric with immense power yet without a hint of bombast. How daringly understated is his ‘Bénédiction’, where he casts a light of rare grace and refinement on pages which in less distinguished hands can all too easily topple into lavish, tear-laden emotionalism (even the critic who recently wrote that the ‘Benédiction’, surely among Liszt’s greatest utterances, amounts to little more than an elaborate version of Rustle of Spring, might think differently if he heard a performance of such calibre).

‘Pensées des morts’ is another triumph of alternating anguish and exultance, and if all conventional pomp and circumstance are erased by Osborne’s brisk tempo in the opening of ‘Funérailles’, his performance is still a marvel of concentrated musicianship and individuality. In the Andante lagrimoso he conjures an uncanny stillness in music whose painful climbing looks ahead to the dark, attenuated utterances of Fauré’s final years (the Seventh Barcarolle and Third Prelude) while the final ‘Cantique d’Amour’ resolves all past torment in a paean of praise for the union of two traditionally opposed ideas of love. Few more radiant or deeply considered Liszt recordings have ever been made. The more ‘interior’ Liszt (the Legends, the Christmas Tree Suite and so on) cry out for such a pianist, particularly when presented in Hyperion’s immaculate sound.

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=2316
https://www.allmusic.com/album/liszt-harmonies-po%C3%A9tiques-et-religieuses-mw0001847669
https://www.amazon.com/Liszt-Harmonies-religieuses-Steven-Osborne/dp/B0000Y37D8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liszt-Harmonies-religieuses-Steven-Osborne/dp/B0000Y37D8

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, and music teacher. Liszt gained renown in Europe for his virtuosic skill as a pianist and in the 1840s he was considered to be the greatest pianist of all time. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent composers of the "New German School". Some of his most notable musical contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form, and making radical departures in harmony.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Liszt

***

Steven Osborne (born 1971) is a Scottish pianist. He was taught by Richard Beauchamp at St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh before going to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester to study under Renna Kellaway. His recording career began when he was signed to Hyperion Records in 1998, and this on-going contract has brought him two Gramophone Awards. Concerto performances take Steven Osborne to orchestras all over the world. He has returned almost annually to the BBC Prom and has also appeared both as a soloist and chamber musician at the Edinburgh Festival.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Osborne_(pianist)

http://www.stevenosborne.co.uk/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!