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Format: FLAC (image+cue)
Label: Helios
Catalogue: CDH55184
Release: 2004
Size: 202 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Sonata in B minor, S178
01. I. Lento assai
02. II. Allegro energico
03. III. Grandioso
04. IV. Cantando espressivo
05. V. Pesante / Recitativo
06. VI. Andante sostenuto
07. VII. Quasi Adagio
08. VIII. Allegro energico
09. IX. Allegro energico
10. X. Più mosso
11. XI. Cantando espressivo
12. XII. Stretta quasi Presto / Presto
13. XIII. Prestissimo
14. XIV. Andante sostenuto
15. XV. Allegro moderato
16. XVI. Lento assai
Legendes for piano, S. 175
17. Ia. St François d’Assise – La prédication aux oiseaux: Allegretto
18. Ib. St François d’Assise – La prédication aux oiseaux: Recitativo
19. No 1c. St François d’Assise – La prédication aux oiseaux: Solennemente
20. No 1d. St François d’Assise – La prédication aux oiseaux: Dolcissimo
21. No 1e. St François d’Assise – La prédication aux oiseaux: Dolce
22. IIa. St François de Paule marchant sur les flots: Andante maestoso
23. IIb. St François de Paule marchant sur les flots: Allegro maestoso ed animato
24. No 2c. St François de Paule marchant sur les flots: Lento
Scherzo and March, S. 177
25. I. Allegro vivace, spiritoso
26. II. Allegro moderato, marziale
27. III. Allegro vivace, spiritoso
28. IV. Stretta
29. V. Molto più animato, quasi Presto
Even in an impossibly competitive field Demidenko’s Liszt Sonata stands out among the most imperious and articulate. His opening is precisely judged and once the Sonata is under its inflammatory way his virtuosity is of a kind to which few other pianists could pretend. The combination of punishing weight and a skittering, light-fingered agility makes for a compulsive vividness yet his economy in the first cantando espressivo, sung without a trace of luxuriance or indulgence, is no less typical. There are admittedly times when he holds affection at arm’s length, but just as you’re wondering why he commences the central Andante so loudly he at once withdraws into a wholly apposite remoteness or reticence. The final climax, too, is snapped off not only with a stunning sense of Lisztian drama but also with an even truer sense and understanding of Liszt’s score and instructions.
Demidenko’s couplings are no less autocratic, with a capacity to make seemingly arbitrary ideas sound unarguable. His Légendes are far from benign, yet his tautness and graphic sense of their poetic power carry their own authority. He’s in his element in the Scherzo and March’s diablerie, music which, coming after the two Légendes, affects one like an upside-down crucifix, or some dark necromancy. The recording is outstanding.