# Liszt sonata in B minor



## DavidA

This is certainly one of my favourite pieces of romantic music and one I came on to as a lad with Brendel's old Vox recording. It captivated me as Liszt still does today and I've gradually added versions to my library and have the work now played by (among others)

Argerich, 
Richter, 
Ogden, 
Brendel, 
Rubinstein, 
Graffmann, 
Bolet, 
Gilels, 
Van Cliburn, 
Horowitz, 
Cherkassky, 
Cziffra, 
Andre Watts, 
Fleisher, 
Anda
Arrau
Yuja Wang

I can honestly say I have really enjoyed every one of these performances. But which ones do those at TC rate?


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## Triplets

I don’t know the earlier Brendel, but his Phillips recording and Richter have been my two.


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## Pugg

My most favourite is Ivo Pogorelich, little wile nothing..... then lots of others from your list David.


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## merlinus

Tops for me are Arrau, Bolet, Demidenko, Pogorelich, Telizyn, Zimerman, and Lazaridis. Also excellent are Argerich and Leschenko.


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## DavidA

merlinus said:


> Tops for me are Arrau, Bolet, Demidenko, Pogorelich, Telizyn, Zimerman, and Lazaridis. Also excellent are Argerich and Leschenko.


Yes I forgot but I have Demidenko too. And Pizarro. How they multiply!


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## merlinus

And let's not forget Buniatishvili!


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## Dirge

:: Ernst Levy [Unicorn/Marston '56]
:: Emil Gilels [Melodiya, live 10 OCT '61]

Gilels gives as focused and resolute and tightly wound a performance of the Sonata as I've heard, summoning all of his Mr. Spock-like discipline and concentration to contain a great reserve of pent-up energy. But can he possibly maintain that level of focus and concentration for the duration? The ever-present underlying threat/danger that he could erupt at any given moment generates a level of tension and suspense that even Alfred Hitchcock would be proud of. Gilels is very much a man on a mission, and he's not going to let anything distract him or get in his way en route to his final destination. In that respect, he strikes me as the polar opposite of Levy, who's very much a man on an exploration, a man for whom the journey's the thing. The question for him, then, is can he somehow hold everything together and make sense of it? In the end, I get the sense that Gilels has conquered the Sonata, whereas Levy has communed with it-both approaches work for me; they're just very very different.

In his steadfastness of purpose, Gilels tends to tautly power through the work's grander moments without allowing them to quite fully bloom and resound, leaving the last measure of the music's rhetorical grandeur unexploited. On the other hand, it's this very refusal to indulge in anything that doesn't further his cause/interpretation that is key to his reading's great coherence and integrity. Also key is his uncanny ability to logically relate and adroitly transition between the work's many and varied sections, providing a degree of congruity and continuity that thwarts all things episodic and allows him to present the music in one unflaggingly focused and concentrated effort. Consistent with that, his handling of the work's more lyrical and poetic music is sensitive but decidedly unsentimental … and all the more affecting for that. What's more, he maintains a sense of tension and uneasy quiet even in the most "relaxed" and soft passages-"relaxed" is definitely a relative term in Gilels's vocabulary. This is no casual stroll down Sonata in B minor Lane; this is a mano a mano confrontation with Liszt in the belly of the B-minor beast that requires a certain amount of intestinal fortitude to endure. For me, it's one of the most compelling performances of the Sonata that I've heard, but it's far from being a catholic performance, and its uncompromising, single-minded nature won't appeal to all. The recorded sound is a bit lean, hard, and over-filtered, but it's not bad by Melodiya's standards of the period; I haven't heard any other transfers.

Levy, on the other hand, gives an all-encompassing performance that's more catholic than the Pope. Levy is the family man who, when vacation time rolls around, packs up the wife, kids, dog, cat, and anything else that will fit into the station wagon and drives from Chicago to LA on Route 66, eagerly stopping at and exploring each and every attraction along the way-Wally World may be the ultimate destination, but for Levy, it's more about the trip. In his hands, the music seems to develop and expand spontaneously on the go, the work's structure flexing to near the breaking point (some would say past the breaking point) trying to conform to whatever comes of it. While that may sound like a recipe for musical chaos, a sort of National Lampoon's Sonata in B minor, there's a strong sense of organic unity if not structural rigor to be found in Levy's account and everything works out somehow. Playing of such freedom and spontaneity is often much less tense and dramatic than it ought to be, but Levy confounds expectations and generates and exploits tension and drama with the savvy of a grizzled old thespian. Levy goes too far for many listeners, but a lot of hardcore Liszt Sonata in B minor fans (enough to constitute a cult, I should think) cite this obscure recording as their favorite of the work. The recorded sound is better than you'd expect from a small label in 1956, and Marston Records has done its usual first-class job in restoring it. Marston also deserves full credit for raising Levy and his recordings from near-total obscurity to the only slightly obscure cult status that they now enjoy.


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## DavidA

Richter heads my list but there are some tremendously distinguished readings out there.


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## joen_cph

DavidA said:


> This is certainly one of my favourite pieces of romantic music and one I came on to as a lad with Brendel's old Vox recording. It captivated me as Liszt still does today and I've gradually added versions to my library and have the work now played by (among others)
> 
> Argerich,
> Richter,
> Ogden,
> Brendel,
> Rubinstein,
> Graffmann,
> Bolet,
> Gilels,
> Van Cliburn,
> Horowitz,
> Cherkassky,
> Cziffra,
> Andre Watts,
> Fleisher,
> Anda
> Arrau
> Yuja Wang
> 
> I can honestly say I have really enjoyed every one of these performances. But which ones do those at TC rate?


I´ve accumulated a good deal of recordings too, and I agree that *Gilels* is one of the most interesting performers. I prefer the 1965 performance in the Briliant Gilels Box (timing 27:30); that box also contains a 1949 performance, with the timing 29:06.

I do have the 1965 performances as well, on the Istituto Discografico CD label, timing roughly 30 minutes (it´s divided in 3 sections, 10:00, 8:57, 9:5). I´ll give it an extra spin one of these days.

I´ve only kept performances I like or find interesting, and they are

Cortot/1929
Horowitz/1932
Horowitz/1977 rca
Alexeev/1977
Pizarro/
Richter/brill 12/10-1965 Brilliant 5CD box
Richter, old melodiya LP
Brendel/old Vox
Brendel/1981 
Barrere/remington mono LP
Bolet/everest st LP
Argerich/dg LP
Anda/angel mono LP
Cliburn/1976 LP 
Wild/quintessence LP
Ogdon/emi CD
Devoyon/1982 erato LP

Brendel/philips and Devoyon/erato have particularly excellent programmes with the _Dante Sonata_ and _La Lugubre Gondola I-II_ in some rather magic performances.

Rosenbaum on a Danish LP wasn´t interesting, and it´s among those I skipped, together with at least Rubinstein/rca and Ousset/emi LP, probably more as well ...


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## staxomega

joen_cph said:


> I´ve accumulated a good deal of recordings too, and I agree that *Gilels* is one of the most interesting performers. I prefer the 1965 performance in the Briliant Gilels Box (timing 27:30); that box also contains a 1949 performance, with the timing 29:06.
> 
> I do have the 1965 performances as well, on the Istituto Discografico CD label, timing roughly 30 minutes (it´s divided in 3 sections, 10:00, 8:57, 9:5). I´ll give it an extra spin one of these days.
> 
> I´ve only kept performances I like or find interesting, and they are
> 
> Cortot/1929
> Horowitz/1932
> Horowitz/1977 rca
> Alexeev/1977
> Pizarro/
> Richter/brill 12/10-1965 Brilliant 5CD box
> Richter, old melodiya LP
> Brendel/old Vox
> Brendel/1981
> Barrere/remington mono LP
> Bolet/everest st LP
> Argerich/dg LP
> Anda/angel mono LP
> Cliburn/1976 LP
> Wild/quintessence LP
> Ogdon/emi CD
> Devoyon/1982 erato LP
> 
> Brendel/philips and Devoyon/erato have particularly excellent programmes with the _Dante Sonata_ and _La Lugubre Gondola I-II_ in some rather magic performances.
> 
> Rosenbaum on a Danish LP wasn´t interesting, and it´s among those I skipped, together with at least Rubinstein/rca and Ousset/emi LP, probably more as well ...


Very nice to include Gilels, there is a superb 1961 live recording of his that is up there with my favorites for this sonata.


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## joen_cph

Sorry, yes, I meant that the instituto discografico in my collections is indeed the 1961-performance, now mentioned several times in this thread, too late to edit my original post


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## BiscuityBoyle

Maria Grinberg's is another classic Soviet recording. The romanticism is unbridled with the one...


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## Grunfeld

You must listen to Katsaris'. Simply astounding.


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## Vahe Sahakian

No mention of Lazar Berman?


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## Pugg

Vahe Sahakian said:


> No mention of Lazar Berman?


Until now: No, but thanks for the tip. :tiphat:


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## helenora

Vahe Sahakian said:


> No mention of Lazar Berman?


yes, for me taste he is the best as an interpreter of this sonata.


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## Vahe Sahakian

I do have the Lazar Berman on a Columbia LP, I have been looking for that recording but my LP collection is a mess, at any rate Berman for me is the finest performance of the sonata, the next best is Arrau, Richter is just too bombastic for my taste.
One pianist that has not recorded the sonata but has the capability to produce a great performance is Arcadi Volodos, I hope to see him record the sonata one of these days.


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## Dan Ante

It is one of my favourites and Peter Donohoe is pretty on to it.


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## Guest

The Liszt B Minor Sonata is a work I've grown tired of, pretty quickly. It's over-the-top in a directly virtuosic way and there's only so much of that you can take. Ergo, a showpiece for a virtuoso but as an enduring work of art - not so much.


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## merlinus

No matter how many times I play through the entire sonata, or even parts of it, I am once again impressed by its greatness. Of course I am far, far from being able to play all of it in the marked tempi, but it is thrilling nonetheless.


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## Vahe Sahakian

The B-minor Sonata has a little brother, it is the No 11 from Liszt Transcendental Etudes, Harmonies du soar, there is something about this piece that always reminds me of the Sonata.


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## merlinus

Vahe Sahakian said:


> The B-minor Sonata has a little brother, it is the No 11 from Liszt Transcendental Etudes, Harmonies du soar, there is something about this piece that always reminds me of the Sonata.


Funerailles as well!


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## Larkenfield

Vahe Sahakian said:


> I do have the Lazar Berman on a Columbia LP, I have been looking for that recording.....


There are a number of live Berman recordings online. This one happens to be his outstanding 1958 studio recording that I very much enjoyed hearing for the first time with its tremendous musicality. The Liszt Sonata is far more than an empty virtuoso piece and Berman never seems to lose sight of that.


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## jdec

Christabel said:


> The Liszt B Minor Sonata is a work I've grown tired of, pretty quickly. It's over-the-top in a directly virtuosic way and there's only so much of that you can take. Ergo, a showpiece for a virtuoso but as an enduring work of art - not so much.


It certainly has endured more than 150 years already as a work of art, and will continue to do so more than our lifetimes. I think one has to possess at the same time a tender and a demonic element inside in order to appreciate a work like this Sonata (I think I have both :angel: :devil. It really is one of the greatest piano compositions ever.


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## eternum1968

My favourites are the ones by Pollini, Zimerman and Martha Argerich


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## San Antone

eternum1968 said:


> My favourites are the ones by Pollini, Zimerman and Martha Argerich


I spent most of 2015 and 2016 tracking down and listening to every recording of the B Minor Sonata I could find, including many OOP that turned up on YouTube, 285 recordings in all.

Zimerman and Agerich topped my list of Top Ten

Krystian ZIMERMAN
Martha ARGERICH
Marc-André HAMELIN
Louis LORTIE
Jorge BOLET [1]
Dezsö RÁNKI [1]
Jorge BOLET [3]
Nikolai DEMIDENKO
Sviatislav RICHTER [1] (Carnegie Hall)


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## aussiebushman

Yes, Lazar Berman, but also Bolet (the Everest recording) and Richter the Melodiya recording.

Just as an interesting aside, I was in Perth Western Australia many years ago, dining at a friend's suggestion at a restaurant where David Helfgott played regularly. He called for suggestions and without reference to sheet music, played a superb B Minor from memory. There are few recording around but for a stylised but highly entertaining record of his life, watch the DVD "Shine" with the excellent Geoffrey Rush. And if you have any doubts abut Helfgott, try his Rach 3

http://no-ads-youtube.com/video/ala...h-stuttgart-symphonic-orchestra?v=0vxf5TbfNyc


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## GeorgeMcW

Christabel said:


> The Liszt B Minor Sonata is a work I've grown tired of, pretty quickly. It's over-the-top in a directly virtuosic way and there's only so much of that you can take. Ergo, a showpiece for a virtuoso but as an enduring work of art - not so much.


Judging by the number of all-time great pianists who have played and recorded this piece, I think we can see it's a masterpiece of the canon - up there with the Hammerklavier, Op. 109, 110, 111, etc etc. It's a single-movement Sonata form and you can tell where it came from and what it led to. It's part autobiographical and part programmatic (Goethe's Faust). It's an unbelievable work.


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## chill782002

I like Vlado Perlemuter's 1974 recording on Nimbus.


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## aussiebushman

Christabel said:


> The Liszt B Minor Sonata is a work I've grown tired of, pretty quickly. It's over-the-top in a directly virtuosic way and there's only so much of that you can take. Ergo, a showpiece for a virtuoso but as an enduring work of art - not so much.


To each his own - but I could not disagree more strongly about the B Minor. I admit that some of Liszt's music can become a little tedious over time but that is not the case with the B Minor sonata or the Transcendental Etudes OR the Years of Pilgrimage. For me, these belong with the very best of piano masterpieces


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## DeepR

I like parts of it but overall I prefer some other Liszt pieces such as the Bénédiction.


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## les24preludes

My current list of faves:

Fialkowska
Argerich
De Larrocha
Bolet
Kissin live
Buniatishvili live
Cherkassky
Gilels

Half of these are female. I think female pianists do well in Schumann and Liszt - they can be more flexible and inventive. 

I'm really disappointed that Egon Petri didn't record the Liszt Sonata, even though he played it. He had all the qualities to make a stand-out recording of this.


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## lextune

http://lextune.blogspot.com/2006/03/liszt-sonata.html


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## Larkenfield

. . . . . .


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## Larkenfield

lextune said:


> http://lextune.blogspot.com/2006/03/liszt-sonata.html


Excellent blog on the Liszt. (Except "Zimerman" is spelled with only one 'm'  .)


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## juliante

So I have the Pollini ... only one mention here - so not the one to use to get to know this piece...?


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## eternum1968

My favorites are Bolet, Argerich, Horowitz, and Gilels.


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## joen_cph

juliante said:


> So I have the Pollini ... only one mention here - so not the one to use to get to know this piece...?


The piece usually stands for itself, in the hands of most competent pianists. It´s the variation and nuances in the various recordings, that can afterwards result in a revised taste.


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## Varick

- Horowitz 1932
- Gilels 1964
- Richter 1966



Vahe Sahakian said:


> I do have the Lazar Berman on a Columbia LP, I have been looking for that recording but my LP collection is a mess, at any rate Berman for me is the finest performance of the sonata, the next best is Arrau, *Richter is just too bombastic for my taste.*
> One pianist that has not recorded the sonata but has the capability to produce a great performance is Arcadi Volodos, I hope to see him record the sonata one of these days.


Wow, I have never heard Richter described as "bombastic" let alone "too bombastic." The man plays with an unsentimental perfection, yet moving musical purity, unmatched by almost any pianist I have ever heard. Bombastic is probably the last adjective I would ever think of when it comes to Richter.

V


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## gardibolt

I went through a binge of recordings of this a while ago. I was puzzled as to which one I really liked best, so I put them all in a playlist on my iPod, hit shuffle and didn't look at who was playing.

The one that I ended up liking best, oddly enough was Jeno Jando on Naxos. He really provides a performance that showed understanding of the piece and making it an evocative listening experience, while still making the structure clear. Lots of pianists get parts of it right, but he was one of the few that actually nails it start to finish.


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## Over the Rainbow

1/ Sofronitsky 1960
2/ Richter Aldeburgh 1964
3/ Arrau 1970


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## DGH

I've spent the last week or so revisiting my various recordings of this sonata and one name that I notice isn't mentioned is Angela Hewitt. Her account on the Hyperion label (which is coupled with a beautiful version of the 'Dante sonata') is unusually long (34:23) but it's such a poetic reading. She's primarily known as a Bach interpretator but I feel this sets her apart in bringing out some of the lesser-accentuated lines in this piece. I love it, it has such a beautiful dreamy quality to it in among all the demonic fireworks, and I recommend it to anyone who loves this sonata.


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