# Favorite Performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

If you know me from before, than you can well guess that my favorite pianist for this piece is Sofronitsky, given that he's known for this piece.

My favorite recording was a live one from 1960.

Here is the performance and the smallest sized download of the sheets from imslp:
















http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usi...iszt_-_S178_Sonata_in_B_minor__Breitkopf_.pdf


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Well I haven't heard that many performances of this seminal work, but *Horowitz's *classic interpretation from the 1930's does the job for me. Quite dark, brooding & epic. I haven't checked whether it's on youtube. Here's the EMI disc, which also has him playing _Funerailles_, as well as works by Chopin, Schumann & Debussy...


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I've only heard Argerich, Pogorelich, and Zimerman, and I love them all. I think you can't go wrong.

The Zimerman disk includes Nuages gris.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Leslie Howard.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Argerich is quite good (lulling a bit in some places... her's is the only recording I've heard, though), but I saw a remarkable performance at a student graduate recital at IU. It was astonishing.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)




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## Rasa (Apr 23, 2009)

Helene Grimaud, live at BoZar in Brussels last year.


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## Orange Soda King (Sep 14, 2010)

World Violist said:


> Argerich is quite good (lulling a bit in some places... her's is the only recording I've heard, though), but I saw a remarkable performance at a student graduate recital at IU. It was astonishing.


That student gave me a recording of her playing it if you'd like it sometime, along with Ravel Ondine and Beethoven Sonata Op. 109. 

I do like Argerich's recording a whole lot. Hamelin has a live performance on YouTube that surprised me with how good it was (don't know if I can call it my favorite), and John Ogdon also has a live performance that I enjoyed a whole lot.

This year, Hamelin has a studio recording of the Liszt B Minor Sonata, along with the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S173, Venezia e Napoli (which there are other live performances on YT of Hamelin playing, which I think is one of his best pieces that he plays).

Ogdon also has a CD of the two popular Liszt concerti and the B Minor Sonata, but I have not heard these yet. Has anyone heard Ogdon's studio recording of the Sonata?


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