# 100 Favorites: # 45



## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

*Liszt: Années de pèlerinage - Troisième année 
Lazar Berman (DG)*










This music disproves those who assert that all of Liszt's music is bombastic and gaudy. In these works, most of the music is as gentle and diaphanous as Debussy, whose music it seems to anticipate.

Written over the course of his life, Liszt's entire _Années de pèlerinage_ ("Years of Pilgrimage") requires three discs for a complete recording. Since I was limiting myself to one- and two-disc sets, I chose the _Troisième année_ ("Third Year") in the cycle. It's a single disc in Berman's complete _Deutsche Grammophon Recordings_ set. (Berman's _Années de pèlerinage_ is also available as a separate 3-CD set.)

As far as I'm concerned, no one beats Lazar Berman when it comes to interpreting Liszt. He can storm the heavens when the music calls for it, but he can also easily summon Liszt's intense, hushed poetry. Furthermore, Berman finds the inner line of these works, giving form and structure to pieces that can, in other interpreters' hands, seem meandering and formless. I think this is another instance of a perfect match between composer and artist.


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