Hamelin: Liszt – Paganini Studies, Schubert March Transcriptions (FLAC)

Performer: Marc-André Hamelin
Composer: Franz Liszt
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 1
Format: FLAC (image+cue)
Label: Hyperion
Size: 179 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

# Paganini Etudes, for piano (Grandes Études de Paganini), S. 141 (LW A173)
Composed by Franz Liszt
with Marc-Andre Hamelin

# Schuberts Märsche, transcription for piano (after Schubert, D. 819 & 968b), S. 426 (LW A123)
Composed by Franz Liszt
with Marc-Andre Hamelin

superb recording of rare repertory

after enduring the disappointingly arid experience of hamelin’s medtner compilation, it is refreshing and revealing to hear him in more mainstream keyboard pieces.
good recorded versions of the paganini etudes have been hard to come by, as they tend to get overshadowed by the transcendental etudes. hamelin is entirely up to the technical challenges, though i found an imbalance in his approach: the delicate works or passages, in particular the “campanella” etude (adapted from a paganini violin concerto) are utterly ravishing, with a delicacy and fluency of touch that is like nothing i’ve heard in these works before. but the beefier and more dramatic passages, for example the opening of the first etude, seem relatively restrained and even lackluster. odd, as similar passages in the medtner works are enunciated with plenty of spit.
i found the schubert marches less appealing musically, though if you don’t like what you’re hearing just wait for a minute or two and the themes will change. i hear in these works a schubert vacillating between the poetic sonata composer and the more virtuosic “wandererfantasie” composer, and not coming down on either side.
until hamelin gets around to recording the transcendental etudes, i can strongly recommend the boris berezovsky version on emi, or the old ashkenazy recording — if you can find it.